Hello, I'm Kyle Quinn Dreger.

You might know me as KQD.

Briefly:

• Ohio born and raised, homeschooled.
• Studied CS and (because I liked a girl) English.
• Dad x3 (because same girl liked me).
• Writer, programmer, runner in my free time.
• Building Patriot Software since 2014; CEO since 2024.

Some things I believe:

• My faith.
• Discipline > motivation.
• Develop natural skills > follow your passion.
• Develop (and keep) a sense of urgency.
• Most of the time, you can just outwork the other guy.
• Learn from others, but compete with yourself.
• Playtime with your kids is a form of magic.
• Always tell your teachers and coaches thank you.
• Routinely save time to be alone.
• Attitude and effort matter more than you think.
• Take 100% ownership over your situation and problems.
• People vastly underestimate the value of being kind.
• Often you'll need to imitate before you can innovate.
• Actively ask others what they think about things.
• Writing helps you think, so write a lot.
• All first drafts are terrible.
• Simple and concise storytelling is an S-tier skill.
• If you're stuck on a problem, run three miles.
• To be seen as a leader, raise up new leaders.
• When you borrow a car, return it with a full tank.
• Don't complain: less than 100 years ago, 24-year-olds stormed the beaches of Normandy.

Specifically on tech and business:

• Moving fast is the most important thing in business.
  • Moving fast, in general, is more fun.
  • To move fast, you need small teams, and small teams, in general, have more fun.
  • You never have enough information; learn to take good bets anyway.
  • You do not have to compromise quality for speed.
  • Moving fast increases the likelihood you increase your learning velocity, which is every company's most important and hardest-to-measure metric.
• Most tech companies are ~1-4x overstaffed.
  • Hire only when it hurts and you can't engineer your way out.
  • A company's real culture is who they hire, fire, and promote.
  • Performance reviews should be one yes/no question: "Would you enthusiastically hire this person again, right now?"
• Most tech companies get deadlines wrong.
  • Have deadlines.
  • Almost all "here's how to measure engineering" metrics are dumb.
  • Deadlines force decision-making.
  • Work fills the time allotted, so allot less and bet on iterations.
• None of this really matters!
  • Business is a sport; play it with everything you've got.
  • Make time to appreciate and enjoy your life, family (especially kids), and the teammates playing the game with you.

General advice: Work incredibly hard, spend as much time with those you love as possible, and, if ever in doubt, simply treat others how you would want to be treated.

Oh, and the BIC Cristal Xtra Smooth Blue Medium Point pen is the best pen out there. Terrible name, though.