Co-founding changed how I pick what to work on, it wasn’t a big realisation though.
The shift is small: the question above the work changed.
At someone else’s startup, the question above the work was usually “is there a ticket for it?” followed by “is it clean?”, “did I unblock the team?” Solid IC stuff, seems good.
Co-founding pushed a different one to the top: does this move the outcome?
Very similar work at the end of the day but different filter at the start of every call.
What you decide not to build is also engineering.