As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind— as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you’re destined for. But don’t hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you’re old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
One of the longest running themes on this blog is focusing on the process/journey and not the outcome/destination.
I thought the ending was both beautiful and poignant. You won’t be fooled by Ithaka or the illusion of getting what you want at some arbitrary destination because “you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.”
They are but an excuse to pursue and to engage wholeheartedly with life.
An experienced CEO was asked about leadership in a Q&A. And their response was – “A leader’s job is to define success and define constraints. And put the right people in the right place.”
I appreciated the simple definition. And it got me thinking about how this’d fit with the way I think about defining the role of a leader.
Producer Norman Lear titled his memoir – “Even this I get to experience.”
A friend shared that the fascinating thing about this framing was that Norman used this line even when he was going through difficult experience.
It is a simple and powerful idea – one of those that reminds us of the many privileges and gifts – this life included – that we regularly take for granted.
A key part of building our muscles as system thinkers is resisting the temptation to solve problems immediately to then create the space to figure out the right system solution.
Ginni Romnetty, IBM’s former CEO, shared this simple idea in an interview – “Paint reality, give hope.” In her words –
“‘Paint reality, give hope’ means, this is not about ‘Rah. Rah. Yes, we can do it. We can do it.’ I was integrating two big companies during a downturn and it was this time I had moved off of engineering and into consulting. And you know, when it’s time to get a little tough out there, some of the first things that go are discretionary spending in consulting, right? And so it got hard to make targets and do an integration at the same time.
And I always remember, ‘No, come on, we can do it. Work harder.’ It’s about paint reality of where it’s at. Be honest with people about, ‘Okay guys, this is what the environment looks like. Here’s where we’re doing well. Here’s where we’re not.’ But then you always have to flip to this, ‘Okay, but now let me tell you why you’re gonna come out the other end of this. Okay. And you will be able to do this.’ And that idea is another way, I guess, of saying appeal to your head and your heart at the same time.“
A simple and powerful idea that speaks to the balance between being plainspoken while helping a group move forward constructively.
Easier said than done. But so important nevertheless.
At some point 4 years or so ago, someone replied to a post about nutrition/wellness and strongly recommended “The Diet Myth” by Prof Tim Spector. I took 3 things away from that book –
(1) There is no such thing as the “perfect diet” for the “average person.” Our response to food is unique as a function of the gut bacteria that we have in our bodies. And we’re going to be better off eating food that helps us diversify the gut bacteria in our system by eating natural food and avoiding processed food which destroys our gut bacteria. (Prof Spector’s leadership on understanding the gut microbiome and its massive impact on our health has been game changing!)
(2) Fasting is a routine part of ancient cultures because it is good for our system. The idea that snacking has good health benefits is a result of heavy marketing by food companies that have made billions selling snacks.
This inspired me to try 16:8 intermittent fasting (eat during an 8 hour window and fast for 16 hours) – a practice I’ve stuck to since.
(3) Extreme views are rarely helpful as food diversity is helpful (again, gut bacteria!). And food research is really hard given ethical considerations. So, stay curious, keep experimenting, and do your best to make better choices.
So, it was helpful to read Spoon Fed – his next book. It was a reminder of the many lessons from “The Diet Myth” along with a few new ones.
Here’s a summary –
(a) Beware simple fixes to diet and health. Health and nutrition are complex and highly personal. The most important thing we can do is to remain curious about ourselves, our food, the science, and do our best to not be fooled by great marketing.
(b) Eat a diverse diet – with mostly plants and no added chemicals. Sustainably grown/caught meat and fish once a week, for example, work fine. However, the benefits of fish have recently been over-marketed relative to the growing number of health risks associated with the increase in microplastics.
(c) Food companies make billions of dollars marketing food that is either ultra-processed or unnecessary. Examples are processed cereals, health supplements, and multi-vitamin tablets – all of which have questionable health benefits.
The biggest of these head fakes is bottled water. The highest amounts of bottled water are sold in countries with the highest quality tap water. It is a lose-lose-lose.
(d) Understand you’re not average. Experiment with yourself – with meal timing, with different kinds of food, etc., to better understand what works for you. In time, you’ll have the support of apps and tools that help you do so.
(e) It isn’t easy to understand the sustainability of food. Tomatoes grown in season in another continent may be more sustainable than those grown in a greenhouse in the local grower. This is why absolutes don’t work.
(f) Fermented food – e.g., yogurt, cheese – and red wine help us diversify the gut bacteria in our system. Again, as natural as possible.
(g) There are a collection of lopsided incentives that lead to more money and research driven into curing diseases vs. preventing them. Food and nutrition are fundamental to living high quality lives. And it is worth staying curious and investing in understanding what works for you.
(h) In sum – eat a diverse diet – mostly plants, keep it natural and avoid ultra-processed foods, experiment with yourself to understand what works for you, and stay curious.
We went to Disneyland for the first time last week. A few reflections –
(1) “Walt Disney Company” – you hear the company name in full in various shows. I found it amazing to think about the positive impact this company has had on so many people’s lives for so many decades. It is associated with happiness, stories, memories, and magic. Big corporations can become staid over time – and it is amazing to see Disney’s staying power.
(2) Life becomes better after 42 inches. We waited a few years to go to Disneyland as we wanted to have access to all the rides. Our youngest is just past 42 inches. And while this is true for the ride experience, I think it is also true for parenting. A good friend once told me that parenting becomes significantly more fun after your youngest turns 3. I’ve definitely found that to be true and it was solace during the early sleep-deprived years. :-)
(3) Disney’s imagineers are at their best when they create worlds. The “Cars world” is incredible. But the Star Wars land is something else. It isn’t just that the visual experience is spectacular. It is the complete sensory experience. Walk into a restroom and you’ll likely hear R2D2 beeping away.
Magic is a function of paying a disproportionate amount of attention to tiny details.
(4) Speaking of Star Wars, the newest ride called “The Rise of the Resistance” reimagines what a ride could be. It is effectively a 10ish minute movie experience. You travel in a spaceship, get abducted, and get summoned for interrogation. At this point, after a 70 minute wait, we were wondering if this ride was going to be worth it.
Then the finale – where we move at high speed escaping Kylo Ren and the First Order. Theme park rides will never be the same again.
(5) As “The Rise” is the best ride in Disneyland, there is no fast pass. It was hilarious to be part of the group sprinting towards the ride when the park opened. It was our second time and we knew better than to wait for queues to become shorter (they don’t). Even with the sprint, we waited 20 minutes. A perfect illustration of the refrain we went back to so many times during the experiences – “Good things happen to those who wait.” :-)
(6) One of the evening shows was called “Fantasmic” – a journey into Mickey Mouse’s creative mind as he relives many fun and nightmare-ish memories from the movies. Aside from the brilliant visual effects, the story had a wonderful lesson – dreams and nightmares are all part of our imagination. We might as well channel them positively.
(7) As we were stumbling about trying to find a good spot to watch the show and asking for help, a lovely manager got us a few spots in the reserved seating section. She explained that she gets to that every show and she’s on the lookout for nice people who could do with the help. That made our evening.
I’m not sure we did much to deserve it. But it was another great reminder of how kindness from strangers shapes our experiences.
(8) Many of the Disney shows were just light or water or firework shows. They’d be perfectly normal and similar to other such shows except for the music, visuals, and story. Events become experiences when you bring emotion to them.
(9) I thought the new version of Disney’s “Fastpass” called “Genie+” is a smart system. Most of the blockbuster rides have them, you can only book one at a time (or one every 2 hours – whichever is sooner). It lends itself to optimization opportunities and adds an extra level of gamification to the experience.
(10) We focused on the blockbuster rides – compiled from some quick research and conversations with strangers. It made for a great experience but it did involve an explicit trade-off with quantity. A good reminder that every strategy has trade-offs.
(11) Whenever you get to a new place, it takes time to get acclimatized. Sometimes, we get into a new experience and expect to hit the ground running. But we never do. I am reminded of this even when we go on vacation. It takes time to find our groove. Best to be kind to ourselves.
(12) You get a lot more done early in the morning. As in daily work, so in Disneyland. Practically, a schedule that involved going hard between 730-12pm followed by a nap and another run in the evening works particularly well.
(13) Disneyland is a completely “app native” experience. We practically lived on the app – looking for shorter wait times, Genie+ opportunities, mobile orders, and so on. The app, needless to say, brought to life so many possibilities to customize your experience. We’re 15 years into mobile apps and, even now, such experiences are few and far in between. It takes time for technology to be adopted.
(14) The “cast” (or staff) were incredibly well organized and always equipped with plan B. They also seemed… happy. A nod to the power of great systems and leadership running the show.
(15) Seeing other kids walking around with goodies from the theme shop led to the inevitable “I want that” conversation. We had set expectations around this however. Given the massive expense involved, this would be the only birthday gifts for 2023. So we were able to move past it quickly. So much of life is setting and managing expectations.
(16) It also led to that other profound question – are you sure what you want or wish for is what you need?
It was a question that worked as well for us adults as it did for the kids.
A Learning a Day 