Of all the skills that are most useful to live a good life, I think the ability to consistently take the many lemons life throws at us, figure out how we can make and sell the lemonade with what we have available around us, and do so with unending enthusiasm is the most useful skill of them all.
You don’t always get good lemons and you definitely don’t have all the tools you need. But that’s also when we realize that being constructive and enthusiastic are worth at least 25 IQ points.
Happiness is a choice.
Joy is a choice.
Optimism is a choice.
Yes, some are biologically more likely to skew toward these. And yes, some have the circumstances (where they were born, who they were born to) that make it more conducive more these choices. Privilege helps.
But, and here’s that but, choosing these requires perspective.
And perspective cannot be handed from one person to the other, it is earned. It is the gift at the end of adversity and reflection.
There’s always a reason to be glum. There’s always a reason to complain. Things are never perfect. We’re constantly dancing with the suboptimal – balancing risk and uncertainty.
That is when that earned perspective that helps us take stock and consistently find reasons to be optimistic and grateful… and find the joy, peace, and equanimity that we seek.
I often think about choices we make as product designers as a series of trade-offs. One code trade-off is around how much we want to design for the power user.
I’ve often thought about that trade-off when I’ve operated microwaves. Microwaves have gotten so complicated with an ever expanding set of options. However, if I had to guess, over 90% of the usage is some version of the “add 30 seconds” or 1 minute button.
This microwave’s design brought that trade-off to light. All this microwave does is allow users to change power level and time with a simple dial. No learning curve required. It just works.
It won’t work for the person who wants to use the microwave to defrost something. But for most folks, it’ll probably do the job.
I loved this design because it beautifully illustrates the trade-offs we need to make when we make our products simpler. We’ll effectively be telling some group of people “this is not for you.”
And that’s both okay and why building simple product is hard.
Simple product is opinionated product.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in situations where we’re debating whether or not to carry something with us. Should we take a cap or that extra bottle of water when it doesn’t feel like it’ll be needed?
If you’re debating whether to take something with you and the cost of carrying it is low, the optimal decision is to simply take it with you.
If you don’t end up needing it, the cost was low anyway.
And if you do, you can now feel great about your decision making and skip cursing yourself for not acting on an impulse.
One of my favorite delight features on the iPhone is the ability to easily share wifi passwords. This could happen when a guest asks for your wifi at home or when you’re traveling to a new place. Trying to relay an alphanumeric password is a high friction experience.
But not anymore.
Once you have the wifi working on your device, all the other person has to do is to go to settings and click the network. You’re immediately asked if you want to share the password. And then you’re presented with this lovely confirmation.
Repeat as many times as needed.
I’m sure this little feature competed with many other small nits/requests on the product team’s backlog. I’m so glad they prioritized and shipped it.
The simplest way to delight a user is to reduce friction.
There’s a lot we learn about ourselves when we simply put ourselves outside our comfort zone.
It is one thing to play good football in training and in home conditions. It is quite another thing to do so in difficult away conditions, in difficult weather, and when we’re a goal down.
This is a reconstructed org chart of the Papal offices from the 1300s. It describes all the key officers and their respective organizations for a staff of 500+ people.
I smiled as I saw this because I’ve read books predicting the death of the org chart as a management tool.
But, given the Lindy effect – the longer something survives, the longer it’s life expectancy is likely to be, it looks likely the org chart will outlast said books and predictions.
“Don’t you know? The more you take, the less you have.” | Master Oogway
Master Oogway is the Kung Fu Panda series’ Master Yoda.
Today presents yet another opportunity to move one step closer to the person we want to become.
Becoming > Being.
The biggest difference between time at work and time off in my book is the rate at which I take in information.
Any work day means a high info diet – whether it is documents and slides at meetings, processing in-person or on video responses from people I speak to, and the continuous stream of emails and messages. That’s aside from news, personal email, and such.
I’m away from work for the next 2 weeks and I’m excited about embracing a slow info diet. Slower intake, slower processing, and slower everything.
We often have to go slow to go fast. Here’s to that.
A Learning a Day 