Category: Everything else

One of my favorite, oft-repeated, refrains is “I think we’re making progress.”

“I think” because we never know if a good day is a good day.

“we’re making” because progress is made possible when we move together.

“progress” because the goal is progress, not perfection. Becoming, not being.

A story I’ve shared a few times over the years is the one about the trouble tree. It goes like this.

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David’s plumber had just had a rough day. He had a flat tyre on his way to work, his drill quit and his truck refused to start. David drove the distraught man home.

Just before they entered home, the plumber paused briefly at a tree, touching its tips. He then opened the door and underwent an amazing transformation. He hugged his kids, kissed his wife and was all smiles!

Afterwards, when David was walking out, he asked his plumber about his behavior. The plumber he said – ‘Every day, I leave all my work troubles at the tree before walking in. The funny thing is when I come in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t as many as I left.’

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I shared this story a year ago as I was reflecting on a period where this routine completely broke down.

I realized that my version of the routine was my drive home from work pre-pandemic. When that routine fell apart, so did any sense of separation.

I’ve been working to re-create this separation over the past weeks. And I’ve come to realize that a combination of writing a quick reflection for the day before shutting down my laptop, keeping my gadgets away, and taking a shower works well. All three are ideal – but any two do a good job creating separation.

That separation in turn helps us be present.

We’ve recently had a few near and dear ones go through various kinds of health scares. All of these scares have done three things at once.

First, they’ve provided instant doses of perspective. Being reminded of our mortality has that effect on us.

Second, they’ve reminded us of the importance of investing in community and support systems – especially as immigrants. Everyone goes through this sort of experience at some point. And, we all could do with support when that happens.

And, finally, they’ve reminded us to not take our own health for granted. As we work through the day to day, it is easy to relegate self-care to the bottom of the list. Something else always seems to be more important.

Until it isn’t.

A simple habit that helps us better understand the data we’re presented – whenever we’re presented with averages, ask to see the median as well.

Imagine we had the following data on the amount of time 5 users spent on our product to get something done- 1 min, 1 min, 1 min, 1 min, 100 mins.

The median time spent would be 1 min. The average time spent would be 20.8 minutes.

While it might still be useful to understand what is driving the outlier, extreme datapoints sway the average. Medians, on the other hand, give a true picture of the distribution.

3 questions to ask ourselves when we find ourselves seeking or pondering the absence of external validation:

(1) What kind of validation are we seeking?

(2) To what end? (Why does it matter?/what are we looking to accomplish?)

(3) How much of it do we require?

In the past years, I’ve found seeking external validation to be a guaranteed driver of unhappiness (the other such guaranteed driver that doesn’t fail to disappoint is comparing ourselves to others).

But, every once a while, external validation becomes necessary in our careers. In those moments, it is helpful to take a step back, ask these questions, and proceed with caution.

One of the more impactful lessons I learnt from “The Power of Moments” by the Heath brothers was that we often look at NPS scores/user feedback all wrong.

Most folks spend disproportionate time dealing with those who grade us 1/10 or 2/10 when our efforts would be best spent on those who give us 5/10 or 6/10. The former hate us. For the same amount of effort we’d expend to convert them, we’d have significantly more success with the latter who are on the cusp.

It is an approach that is applicable well beyond customer service.

There is often little to be gained from the 1/10 review.

One of my themes for the new year was to invest in better self-care systems. I’ve been paying attention to a few systems – sleep, diet, reading and exercise. And, as I head into the 4th week of the new year, I’m grateful to the folks at Apple Fitness plus for crafting an excellent product experience.

For ~$6.75/month (i.e., 2x cheaper than a Netflix subscription), you have access to a fantastic array of workouts with excellent trainers.

And, as with most things Apple, the integration across hardware and software – in this case with the Watch – is fantastic.

As a result, I’ve gotten a 15 minute workout in most mornings thanks to the ease of doing so.

A product that I’ve loved using, that I hope to use more, and that is good for me.

Thank you, Fitness plus team.

“The average person should write 5x more things than they do. The average written thing should be 5x shorter than it is.” | Mike Crittenden’s blog

It resonated.

Seth shares a great story about an author called Robert Caro in “The Practice.” Caro had quit his job as a reporter and begun writing his first major biography – “The Power Broker.”

He took a modest advance and moved his family to a tiny apartment. But, years later, the end didn’t seem in sight. In 1975, he wrote a poignant story for The New York Times describing his despair.

Then, he was given a key to a back room at the New York Public Library. Only eleven writers had keys, and each was given a desk to write.

One day, he looked up and found James Flexner – one of his idols – ask a question he’d come to dread – “How long have you been working on it?”

“Five years”

“Oh, that’s not so long. I’ve been working on my Washington for nine years.”

The next day, another of his idols said quietly – “Eleanor and Franklin took me seven.”

He could have jumped up and kissed them. In a couple of sentences, both men – his idols – had wiped away five years of doubt.

The lesson “Find your cohort. The generous ones.” resonated deeply.

It is amazing how often a technology problem is solved by turning off the device and turning it on.

I think it works similarly in our lives. When we aren’t feeling our best or behaving as we’d expect, the best thing we can do is to turn off. Take a break and get some rest.

We’ll work better on the other side.