You are exactly where you need to be at this moment.You are exactly who you need to be at this moment.You get to choose if you’ll do what we need you to do.You get to choose when.You get to choose how.Put this way, most things are up to you.
I spoke with two people in the last month that felt speaking up against management may create more hassle than benefit. The marginal cost far outweigh the anticipated marginal rewards. I have a working theory — change doesn’t happen if nobody knows what to change. And, if an organization lets go of someone because they tried to make change happen, that organization is likely not for change maker.Change makers are not cogs in a machine. Change makers may be the wrench that brings down the system and makes it better.Complaining about one’s boss won’t make the boss better. Saying, “hey, I think we can make our customers’ lives better by this things better. Here’s my recommendation…” may yield marginal benefits that far outweigh the marginal cost.You won’t know until you try.
A reader, like you, commented on this post. Their thoughts are potent.“And never, ever try to make up for a lack of compensation or a broken promise with praise - just respect me enough to tell me the truth. People respect honest leaders even when their honesty brings bad news. Nice liars are still lying."
I love a super busy week. I lie. I love a super productive week.I love my mind engaged.I love that I’m shipping my work.I love that I’m doing.Sometimes it’s not what you do, it is that you do that matters.
When you encounter the person that acts virtuous but at the same time might be pure evil, remember that your intuition may be just as right as it is wrong. Better to give that person the benefit of the doubt — they are, and are not, both virtuous and evil. Better still, let that person go. They are not the ones you need to serve. Be kind. Take a step back.Their story is not yours. Vice versa.
Always leave a little left undone.It gives you something to look forward to.
This is a good time to remind each other of a few things.Every news outlet has an incentive. To get you to consume more news.News is not science. it’s original meaning described novel or noteworthy events or happenings. A collection of “new” things. News outlets have owners, and owners are people, and people have agendas. It’s okay.We are naturally biased to seek out negative news. Most news is negative — it sells.Surrounding ourselves with negative news may stress us out. Ever wondered why Zebras don’t get ulcers? Newsflash: they’re not exposed to a 24/7 negative news cycle. If you want to know what’s going on in the world, look to old books. The older the better. Look for primary sources — people telling first hand accounts. Nassim Taleb suggests reading last week’s newspapers. In order to understand the Covid19 I read “The Great Influenza” — that book might as well have been written today, it was astonishingly (or perhaps not) accurate. HT to Shane Parrish at Farnam Street for the reminder (click here).
My new favorite app, and I don’t enjoy apps, is “Universe Splitter” (iOS only). The “Universe Splitter” costs $1.99 and it splits the universe for you. No, I haven’t lost my mind. Here’s why I like it.In 1957 physicist Hugh Everett III introduced the idea of “Many-Worlds Interpretation” of quantum physics as part of his Princeton thesis. Imagine a person walking down the street — let’s call that person a particle. The person gets to a Y-intersection where they can go right or left. We observe the person going left. Everett’s thesis is that the person went both left AND right. Since we saw the person go left, we are therefore in the universe where the person goes left; however, there is a parallel universe where we see the person go right… we’ll just never be able to see it. Assuming you haven’t unsubscribed and you’re still with me… this is a powerful mental model, and why the “Universe Splitter” app is my favorite investment.Imagine yourself stressing about a decision — “Should I do A or B?” You can ask the “Universe Splitter” to split the universe for you and tell you which decision you should take. Whatever you decide, rest assured that quantum physics thinks there’s a version of you that’s doing the opposite and they may or may not be quite happy about it.All of that to say — at the end of the day — it doesn’t really matter.Stop stressing the small things. Enjoy your coffee.Bugger on.
The world, as I see it, is a place for realists. Nature doesn’t care for our hopes and dreams, it deals with what’s here and now - the present. In the present, there seems to be only a few states: entropy and decay. If that’s true, then nature’s nature is to be insensitive. If that’s true, how do those who are most sensitive thrive? It’s difficult. I’m a sensitive human, and I find that my way to thrive is to acknowledge a few things:What I feel about a thing is only truly important to me.What I feel is not the same as what I perceive.What I perceive is not necessarily what I know. Therefore, when I feel especially sensitive about a topic or situation, I do the following to process and move on:I make every attempt to label the emotion. I acknowledge that it’s my emotion, and it’s important to me. I seek to understand the situation. What did I see or notice just before I felt what I felt? I determine what I I can do to prevent or improve the situation for myself and others. I thank my feeling for me being the indicator I needed to make change happen.I’m getting better at it. The goal is incremental progress. I’m less stuck and paralyzed by my thoughts. Instead, I’m moving forward and making change happen. I’m improving my situation, and hopefully, the situation of others. In an insensitive world, I’m leveraging my sensitive nature to improve what I can.Give it a try.
Playing and winning the long game may be all about positioning — being in the best position possible to take advantage of fate and fortune. That might be challenging for you because positioning for the long terms runs afoul with short term goals. Short term wins that are not tied to a long term goal rarely yield long term benefits. I find these ideas especially true when developing customer-facing products and services.