A Learning a Day

This blog turned 14 years old on Wednesday. On one hand, 5115 days and 5960 posts does feel like a lot.

On the other, it still feels early – I’m excited about all the learning ahead in the next 14.

What is undeniable however is that the act of writing every day has completely transformed me – by infusing a focus on learning in how I think, act, and live.

I’m grateful to this practice and to all of you for the support and encouragement over the years.

Muchas gracias. :-)

We often find ourselves thinking through important decisions with a “this or that” frame.

Rent or buy?

Manager track or individual contributor track?

Sell or hold?

Start-up or big company?

And so on.

“This or that” feels simple. But it’s rarely as useful as recognizing that such questions don’t have simple answers. We make more progress when we take into account the nuance by shifting the frame and adding – “for me at this time in my life.”

So instead of asking “Is a start-up or a big company better?”, we ask “Is a start-up or a big company better for me at this time in my life?”

When the context changes, the answer changes.

I found myself reflecting on Kevin Kelly’s note – “When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers.”

It is so powerful that it is poignant.

I got a renewal email from WordPress recently.

Except it didn’t feel like a renewal email. Below is the first paragaph.

“Hi Rohan,

You’re getting closer to your WordPress.com anniversary — congrats! I wanted to thank you for being a valuable member of our community and remind you that your WordPress.com Personal plan for rohanrajiv.blog will renew in 30 days. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything; your renewals happen automatically.“

It felt like a celebration of our relationship. It also reminded me that a renewal was coming up – but there’s nothing to worry, they’re on it.

I’ve seen so many renewal emails over the years. Many of them make me wonder if there is autorenewal and if it will, in fact, work as planned. Others just remind me it is going to be time to pay.

Very few make me feel good about renewing.

Good copy goes a long way in improving user experience.

PS: I did find myself thinking of other small touches. One easy improvement that would have been even nice would have been to say – “You’re getting closer to your 8th WordPress anniversary.” A nicer touch still would have been to add an asterisk and compare 8 years with some meaningful milestone or cool stat.

In his excellent Exponential View newsletter, Azeem shared a few powerful pieces of data about changes we’re seeing in global climate.

The latest data from NASA shows that the planet is heating up at record speeds.

This chart shows a trebling of the energy imbalance just since 2000 alone. That’s a lot of additional energy in the Earth’s system, available to heat oceans, land and atmosphere, melt ice and increase sea levels.

Our parents have been talking about the incredibly intense heat in India already. This is happening across the subcontinent. The forecast for Dadu in Pakistan over the next ten days is 48-49°C (120 degrees Fahrenheit).

Such heat is deadly and challenges a person’s ability to survive without the support of air conditioning. Three years ago, over 350 Magellanic Penguins living in the southern tip of Argentina died when the temperature hit 44ºC in the shade. We aren’t any different.

It is ominous.

Our transition away from Carbon can’t come fast enough. To that end, here are a few optimistic notes.

(1) California, which would be the 5th largest economy in the world if it was its own nation state, fulfilled 99.87% of its electricity demand with renewables for a period last weekend – two thirds from solar.

This is building off a recent milestone when clean energy powered 80% of energy in the UK.

Electricity is responsible for 25% of global greenhouse emissions.

(2) This week, NJR Clean Energy Ventures started construction on an 8.9-MW floating solar installation in Millburn, New Jersey. It will be the largest floating array in the United States. While floating solar is usually built on reservoirs, what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm was also begun this week, 125 KMs off the east coast of Yorkshire, England in the North Sea. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm will have an installed capacity of 3.6 GW.

While this is both great, large scale solar installations are way cheaper that wind.

(3) Australian and Chinese researchers have published about the development of an organic polymer-based rechargeable battery with double the energy capacity of previous models. This is pointing to a possible future with far less dependence on lithium and cobalt mining.

(4) 2 weeks ago, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) shared plans to approve the construction of 39 utility-scale solar projects, totaling more than 29 GW of capacity on federal lands by the end of 2025. That’s more than twice France’s total installed solar capacity and will increase overall solar capacity in the US by 20%.

(5) This data from 2019 shows the scale of the problem – 84% of global energy comes from fossil fuels.

This is changing quickly – for example, in 2021, 10% of all electricity came from wind and solar. But the change can’t come fast enough.

(6) Nuclear is among the bigger non-fossil fuel sources. It is also among the safest and cleanest sources of energy.

We need a lot more innovation on nuclear energy. Seaborg technologies, for example, is working on providing nuclear energy on barges in industrial areas.

(7) The top 10% richest humans in any country (e.g., over $170K household income in the US) contribute a disproportionate amount of Carbon emissions. Even the middle 40% (I’d guess household income >$50,000) make a massive contribution to emissions.

The differences between the rich and poor within a country contributes to more emissions than between rich and poor nations.

Every one of us can and needs to act. There’s a lot riding on it.

Our ability to stay fit and healthy as we grow older depends on our ability to unlearn our instinct to minimize effort.

That means – for starters – taking the scenic route to the bathroom, willingly running the same errand multiple times, peeling the banana instead of reaching for a processed snack, walking or biking instead of taking the car, carrying weight, squatting instead of sitting, and fasting instead of eating.

Effort is a feature, not a bug.

Our entire cross-functional team met in person this week. Folks from multiple locations came together for an action packed three days. It was filled with conversations, laughs, tears, and many special moments as we spent time sharing our appreciation for each other.

After months of meeting each other on video, it all felt very special.

Toward the end, a couple of us were reflecting on the week that went by. We were all looking forward to catching up on sleep. But, as one of them nicely put it, “my cup is full.”

That’s what quality in-person interaction does – it fills our cups by recharging our emotional batteries.

Leverage flows from understanding the system well enough to understand what actions lead to significant long-term impact.

In relationships, trust drives long term impact. So, any act that builds trust drives leverage.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” | Mother Teresa

When I share this quote, I replace the word “great” with “extraordinary.”

It is an idea that has stayed with me over the years. It has shaped how I think about building product, leading teams, and, well, every attempt at being a better human.

I came across this chart looking at mortality data for children and adolescents between ages 1-19. (Source: NEJM)

While the thought of losing a child is both morbid and heartbreaking, I’m not one to avoid the thought. I had 3 reflections as I looked at this data –

(1) The sudden spike in drug overdose and poisoning between 2018-2020 is noteworthy. It captures the effect COVID-19 had on adolescents – a ~80% increase in drug overdoses likely made possible by the easy availability of opioids.

(2) Similarly, the other effect of COVID-19 lockdowns was firearm related injuries – which took the #1 spot over motor vehicle crashes. I’m not sure what caused this – was it just the availability of firearms at home? Also, I’m not sure why they were trending up starting 2014 either.

(3) I think there’s the obvious question – will the above trends hold as the pandemic? We’ll know when we get newer data in a year or two. But if you’re working in public health or are parenting teenage children, the areas to focus on are very clear – drugs and guns.

While drugs might be a global problem, guns are a US-only circumstance that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

That this is the status quo is tragic.