I think the move from Blogger to WordPress is nearly done. One downside to the move is that the feeds must have stopped working for all of you subscribed via Feedly and other such feed reading services. I realized this belatedly this morning and I see that my Feedburner subscriptions count has dropped rather drastically.
I have updated the feed settings and I’m hoping that would get a few of you back. For everyone reading this via feed/email, I would like to request your help – has your feed/email subscription transition been seamless or did you actively need to re-subscribe? Your answers would help me understand if there is anything else I should do to make this work.
Sorry I didn’t provide enough of a warning. That’s down to my inexperience. I’ve been working through these issues since the weekend when I had my friend help me with the set up and hosting side of the transfer (Thanks for saving 20 hours I’d have spent making this work, EB!). and while I think we have covered most of the bases (e.g. Disqus comments migration which were not easy), I think there might still be a few hanging threads.
While I am thrilled about the move, I’m kicking myself for not having switched feeds earlier. It’s always a bummer when you realize you’ve lost so many readers. I expected a bit of slippage thanks to the move but as this is a permanent move for the greater good, I hope it works out well in the long run. I feel bad that I didn’t didn’t take swift corrective action. I hope most of you will find your way back. I am very grateful for your readership, encouragement, and support.
If ever a generation is in danger of it’s legacy being dictated by FOMO or the “Fear Of Missing Out,” it’s us. Drawing from personal example (so I don’t get on the “this post is not for me” high horse), FOMO is why I checked my email first thing this morning and also why I was tempted to look at my phone as I was staring into space while waiting for a haircut yesterday.
The haircut incident was illuminating – I had just read my feeds, locked my phone, and was staring into space. A minute into the space staring, I felt this itch to check my phone again – just to make sure there were no new feeds. I shut this impulse down and my mind whirred into why the impulse came through in the first place. “FOMO” – a voice shouted.
FOMO indeed. There’s always a new piece of news, a new interesting article, a new email, or a new something else. The only way I’ve found to effectively deal with FOMO is to have a thesis (big word, I know) or strong studied opinion on how you approach information consumption. In my case, my consumption thesis involves consuming headlines from a couple of news feeds (The NY Times, The Financial Times) with the occasional click through to the full article, interesting articles from Lifehacker, and a bunch of personal blogs of people I follow across different fields. Should I be subscribing to Techcrunch? Perhaps. But, it isn’t part of the current thesis.
The benefit of having this thesis is that you aren’t constantly trawling the web for new information. One good example of it’s application is that, one year ago, I decided that checking my Facebook feed would not be a part of my consumption habit (thanks to a combination of aversion to endless gossip and the lure of infinite scroll). So, I use Facebook for many things but I don’t get near the news feed. Similarly, I treat Twitter as a serendipitous source and feel no need to catch every tweet.
The thinking behind this approach is that the information we have available to us with relative ease is endless. What we need to know is not how to get the right information because Google has solved that problem. What we need to learn is how to turn off the information pipe and make the most of the water in the bucket and make sure we only get the kind of water we want Unlike past generations, we DO have the option of an information pipe that is turned on for 24 hours. But, as you can understand, we only need so much water in a day and the wasted, uncontrolled water flooding where we live can be infuriating.
Form a consumption thesis. Stick to it. You’ll fail a lot in the process. But, that’s just part of the process of learning how to avoid FOMO. And no, you’ll never conquer FOMO. It’s a bit like illness and evil – our job is just to keep it at bay and recover quickly when we succumb.
Cal Newport, whose writing I enjoy and respect, has been going on a tirade against email of late. He’s been making some very good arguments against answering email.
I just thought I’d provide the counterpoint. I think Cal’s advice probably works well for researchers – I can understand that there’s enough going on with having to teach students while pursuing research and email must be a distraction. Also, Cal must receive multiple speaking and interview requests that must be a drain on his time and just distraction in his attempts to be a superstar computer scientist. But, if you are working in the connection economy where working with other human beings is a critical part of building something meaningful, then email is an important part of making and building those connections.
Yes, people overdo it by spending all their time responding to emails. That doesn’t make the essence bad. I’ve met so many wonderful people and had access to some really cool opportunities thanks to email that I would not have otherwise had. I also know many busy and productive folk who are attentive and responsive. If done well, I think the discipline and responsiveness can serve us very well. Additionally, just as many tout phone calls to be a big time saver (and they are in the case of long discussions), emails can be a useful time saver for short interactions, follow up, and status checks.
So, set some boundaries if you will but answer your email. Set aside 30 minutes in the morning to clear your email and respond to anything that can be answered within 2 minutes during the day. At the very least, give this arrangement a shot for 3 months and see how you feel about it. Inbox zero is a wonderful thing.
Self development does not happen by locking ourselves in a room, reading great self help books, and walking out transformed. Of course, you knew that. Apologies for repeating the obvious. So, what is a great process for self development?
My hypothesis would be that it would involve 3 steps –
1. Observing and reading. Keeping an eye out for learning all around us and reading a lot
2. Synthesizing and sharing. Synthesizing what we’re observing/reading and sharing it with others. Setting aside time to teach/train others works best as there’s no better way of internalizing what we learn.
3. Monitoring ourselves to ensure we are indeed getting better. Having trusted friends and family help us with the monitoring is definitely a great help.
When we understand this, it comes as no surprise that data from MyFitnessPal shows that people who shared their food diaries with friends ended up losing twice as much weight or that the peer pressure from a book club or church helps us lead better lives. Developing ourselves requires us to fight the resistance and it is much easier to do so with like-valued friends.
I’ve found time and again that self development happens best when we remove the self focus in the equation. So, if you’re working on a self improvement project, consider taking others along. Not only is there enough learning and happiness out there for all of us, it’s a lot more fun too.
If “top priority” tasks are the “big rocks” and small admin tasks are the “sand” – always focus on the big rocks first. That’s good common sense advice.
In practice, I think almost always works better than always.
I think a bit of flexibility in our getting-things-done process does a lot of good. For example, on days when I feel my attention is fragmented, I find it a lot more helpful to tackle the sand first. I’d never be able to focus on the big rocks till I get a bit of the sand out of the way as the sheer volume of sand stresses me out.
So, if that’s happening to you, don’t feel guilty. Just set aside a couple of days as admin days and plug away on clearing the sand. “Big rock” thinking is not allowed on these days – we don’t care about the big picture. Just focus on managing the sand in your life.
Sometimes, you have to wade through the sand to get to the big rocks. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
I read about Angela Kapp on Seth Godin’s book ‘The Icarus Deception’ and mentioned her on our Real Leaders project team meeting. Dhanya reached out to Angela and Angela agreed to interview with us and I enjoyed reading and listening to her. Thank you, Seth, and thank you, Angela.
About Angela: Angela Kapp is an entrepreneur, digital pioneer, multi-channel retail expert, and serial traveler. Angela is president of Kappcorp, an advisory and investment company for her interests. She currently works with select fashion and beauty brands in the U.S. and China on consumer marketing and global expansion. She is also the executive vice chairman of The Luxury Club (Hui She Shang), the first brand-authorized luxury e-tailer in China, and a strategic advisor to Baozun, the leading digital and e-commerce service provider in China.
For 17 years, Angela was a senior executive at Estee Lauder Companies. At ELC, Angela created and was the general manager of three different multi-million dollar businesses in three retail arenas: freestanding stores, online, and on university campuses. Internet World hailed her as one of the “Top 25 Shapers of the Net.” Shhe was a member of ELC’s Executive Management Group. Prior to ELC, Angela was founder and president of New York Wise, a fundraising and special events firm.
Angela is a sought-after commentator on multi-channel retailing and global luxury consumers. She is frequently called upon by press, including CNN, The New York Times, China Business Daily, Wired, and Women’s Wear Daily. She is a co-founder of the elite industry group DIG (Digital Influencers Group).
My favorite bits –
“If I look back, my dreams were always changing. Most of the things that I’m doing I might have bet you 5 years ago that I’d never be doing. That’s part of the interest of life.”
“One of the things that’s true in fashion, or luxury, or beauty (but particularly in fashion and luxury) is that you typically have a creative force. You have Tom Ford at Gucci; you have Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. But then you have the business side. That duo is really important, and when understanding how to deal with someone who is a creative force, the business person is actually someone who can serve you a lot.”
(On Wharton) “They used to say that you’re going to make a finite amount of mistakes in your life.The point of business school is to let you get some of those mistakes out of the way where it’s not going to cost you anything.”
“Depending on the category that you’re in, the internet is either your lifeline or it’s an enhancement to what you do. If you’re in office supplies, it’s your lifeline because nobody’s ever going to walk in to buy office supplies again. You’re not going to walk in to retail. You better invest all of your money in that. If you’re in the beauty business, it’s enhancing and it’s convenient; it has a sense of opportunity and intimacy. Great merchandising makes you want to buy stuff. You have to understand both, and then play them to their best advantage.”
“What people forget is just how much of the luxury business is driven by the aspirational consumer. It’s not the man or woman who can afford everything, but it’s the one that wants to afford just one thing. There’s a lot of business being done by those people.”
“Don’t leave before you leave.” I’m a firm believer of that. Don’t start thinking about the next thing. Make sure this thing gets done. In fact, in everything that I’ve done, I always keep a picture of the last thing that I did to remind of where I was, but also to remind me that I’m not doing that. I’m going to go blaze a new trail. I think that part’s the most important part. Just focus on doing a great job.”
“I’m a big list person. My husband always says that my lists have lists. I make lists for me, I make lists for him. It just helps me organize my thoughts.”
“First, I’m going to tell you the one that I’ve always tried to live by. It was this stupid little thing that my mother gave me when I was in my teens. It was one of those little wall-hanger things and it says, “Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.” In my work life, that’s always what I’ve tried to do.”
“I’ve found that the more experience and the more success I’ve had, the more interested I am in mentoring people and seeing them succeed. I want people to overtake me. I want my team to be better than I am. I want to learn from them. I want to make them better, stronger, faster, happier, etc.”
“If you’re going to fail, fail fast, and fail cheap.”
Seth Godin was leading a team of forty people building a complex series of products which had to ship before Christmas. The stakes were high – if they missed by even one day, the entire company was going to fold. They approached it by doing an analysis of the “critical path” and quickly realized that it was a relay race and right now, there was one team carrying the baton.
So, Seth went out and got some buttons – green and red. The deal was simple: if you were on the critical path, you wore a green button. Everyone else wore red. When a red button met a green button, a simple question was asked, “how can I help?” The President would get coffee for the illustrator if it saved the illustrator three minutes. In other words, the red button people never (ever) get to pull rank or interrupt a green button person.
An understanding of the critical path and an early urgency ensured they made it. As Seth says – “Rush early, not late. It’s cheaper that way, and better for your peace of mind, too.”
‘Once you’re aware of who’s on the path, you understand the following: delaying the critical path by one hour at the beginning of the project is the very same thing as delaying the entire project by an hour at the very end. ‘ | Seth Godin
I’ve been curious about Bitcoin over the past few months and a couple of these videos have been on my viewing list for a while (Thanks William). I finally got to them. If you have heard of Bitcoin but don’t know how it works, I’d suggest the first video.
The second video is intended to be a crash course in Bitcoin and the notes below are based on what I’ve understood from listening to it. I’m not sure I fully understand this but I do understand Bitcoin and the need for it a lot better than I did before. That’s a start.
I do think Bitcoin can be a great candidate to solve some deep rooted problems. For example, I worked in Argentina for about a month last year on a project and I can speak for the sorts of trouble the common man is in thanks to a disastrous economic system. It’s nice to see Bitcoin being viewed as a potential solution (see below).
That said, I’ll move on to the notes. I hope it helps whet your interest and give you a background on Bitcoin. Apologies if the notes are sparse/unclear in places.
Why Bitcoin?
– Only 1 billion out 7.5 billion people can move money around largely because of politics and government policy.
– Cryptocurrencies have existed since 1980s and all previous versions fell because of one problem – while you can use cryptography to provide ownership, you can’t prevent it from being copied. So, you needed a trusted 3rd party that kept track of everything.
– Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that is on a distributed system called “blockchain.” This has enabled a network of distributed nodes/computers on a network to agree on the current state of the Bitcoin ledger.
– Bitcoin is controlled by everyone participating in the network but not controlled by anyone or any groups of participants.
– Financial services that account for 8% of the GDP show that there is something completely screwed up. There is too much inefficiency.
– Payment systems like Visa are a nightmare for merchants. It currently takes a week for a merchant to receive the money. In Bitcoin, transactions are irreversible.
– Bitcoin transactions are location agnostic and have a fixed fee of 0.5 cents irrespective of the amount.
– This is the first time we’ll have a currency driven purely by math and not by politics.
So, how does it work?
– Think of blockchain like Sudoku – it is hard to solve but easy to verify.
– The Bitcoin network achieves consensus every 10 mins on the latest state of the network and reaches a “verified” state. As new blocks are added, it adds security to the existing blocks.
– You’d need to invest 400 million dollars worth of computing power to fool the network for 10 mins.
How did Bitcoin’s creation come about? – The creation of Bitcoin has been an evolutionary process thanks to governments attacking Peer-2-Peer networks until Bittorrent evolved so much that it became impossible to catch those who torrent.
– So, it is now very easy to create a new cryptocurrency (the cost of conversion from one to the next are very low) to solve a problem that Bitcoin might face. Basically, they are here to stay.
What is all this talk about Bitcoin being deflationary in nature? – Current rate of Bitcoin inflation is 2%. Demand is increasing much quicker. So, overall, there is a deflationary characteristic and thus, the value of each Bitcoin will grow.
– By 2140, there will be 21 million coins. So, the value has to grow.
– We’ve never had a deflationary currency because of high demand. Normal “fiat” currency (Fiat currency is money derived from government regulation or law) deflates only when demand goes down. It doesn’t mean deflation is bad – it is just challenging all our current assumptions.
– It gives rise to the “coffee dynamic” – You don’t want to use Bitcoin to buy a cup of coffee because it is a deflationary currency and it’ll be worth a lot more in a few years. So, as a merchant, you want to discount the coffee to the point where you hit the sweet spot where I can’t not buy. You can infinitely subdivide bitcoin so that’s not a problem. So, we reach a point where you give it for $1 (when you might normally have charged $2) and assume it will grow if you hold on it.
What else should I know about Bitcoin?
– Bitcoin is not the money for the internet. It is the internet of money. It is a platform on which a lot can happen.
– The process of creating Bitcoins or mining is incentivized by a small commission.
– Bitcoin is not anonymous because you can track addresses. However, one person can create multiple addresses. And that’s a privacy nightmare and needs to be fixed before it goes mainstream.
What sort of disruption will Bitcoin cause?
– Bitcoin will first take out something like western union. Remittances first, international transfer, inter-bank transfers, etc., will follow. Think least efficient to most efficient. Remittances are $115 Billion market with 10-30% percent charged – and it is more expensive the poorer you are.
– Another economy on the cusp is Argentina. There were recently two 60 year old men who did a big real estate deal via Bitcoin barcodes because all their money is outside the country and this is the simplest way to get the deal done. Argentina is in all sorts of financial nightmares due to capital controls, corrupt government, and a deflationary currency since every Argentinean is trying to swap Peso for USD – if they shut theirs doors next year, Bitcoin will be prime candidate to replace it. It also fits because it is a largely educated market with ubiquitous internet.
– The Zimbabwean dollar is less valuable than goat shit because it burns longer. So, why not Zimbabwe? That’s because the world is moving up the chain of Electricity -> Internet -> Smartphones while Bitcoin is gradually moving down the chain. For example, Bitcoin transactions can just be done via SMS in places like Kenya.
– Expect multiple cryptocurrencies in the future, e.g. Lightcoin, for example, where it is faster.
What sort of risks do we expect?
– Regulatory risk is the biggest as the governments are sure to attack it.
– There might be unforeseen bugs.
– It will be hugely volatile. So, buckle up.
We seem to constantly be in the search for like-minded people – to start families together, to make life long friends, to build companies, etc.
I’d argue that what we need is less “like-minded” folk and more “like-valued” folk. What we need are people who share similar values – who approach the world with integrity, with a long term view to make the world better, with a focus on growth and learning – and radically different ways of thinking about it.
We don’t need folks who think like us. I’d say we need to surround ourselves with folks who believe in the same ideals but are ready to push our thinking about how to pursue them.
We move from values (why) -> processes (how) -> ideas (what). Focus on the values, not the ideas.
About Angela: Angela Kapp is an entrepreneur, digital pioneer, multi-channel retail expert, and serial traveler. Angela is president of Kappcorp, an advisory and investment company for her interests. She currently works with select fashion and beauty brands in the U.S. and China on consumer marketing and global expansion. She is also the executive vice chairman of The Luxury Club (Hui She Shang), the first brand-authorized luxury e-tailer in China, and a strategic advisor to Baozun, the leading digital and e-commerce service provider in China.
A Learning a Day 