Category: Everything else

Think about the best decision you’ve made in the past 5 years.

Now, say it aloud.

Great.

Did the outcome from the decision work out well?

If the answer to this was yes, it is likely you, like most people, are conflating decisions and outcomes.

A wise friend asked me this question recently. And, my instinct was to pick a decision that worked out well, too. I missed a couple of great decisions that didn’t have good outcomes in the short run.

Good decisions aren’t the same as good outcomes. Good decisions may not have good outcomes in the short run. But, in the long run, things tend to work out.

This is a powerful lesson in decision making. I’ve also found it to be a powerful lesson in how to be happier. A focus on process, in this case decision making, helps us keep our outcomes in perspectives. Regardless of the outcome, if it was a bad process, we learn how to run a better process. And, if we ran a good process, we learn to ignore the short term outcome and focus on the long term. We win either way.

The New Yorker has a wonderful article about the message of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Every year, the Nobel prize committee deliberates about the message they send when they pick one scientist over another. This year’s winners were not on any of the betting lists as most predictions bet on “applied research” that targets a specific, ongoing scientific problems – e.g., curing cancer. In picking this year’s winner, the Nobel committee sent a powerful message about the importance of basic scientific research.

This year’s prize, in other words, is a kind of rebuke. Basic science is under siege, particularly in the United States. Congressional Luddites love to highlight federally funded projects that, according to their own stunted definitions, pursue meaningless questions that don’t readily translate into talking points for a public that is intent on curing cancer or preventing Alzheimer’s disease. It is possible that, in today’s political environment, Hall, Rosbash, and Young would never have received money for their research. After all, do we really need to know what makes a fruit fly tick?

But, as the Nobel committee made clear this morning, the science that informs and occasionally upends our understanding of human health and disease often comes from unexpected places. Ohsumi used yeast cells to explore autophagy, but a similar garbage-disposal system exists in you and me. Similarly, studies of the circadian rhythm in flies have shed light on the genes and proteins that synchronize our own bodies with the day; they may lead to treatments for a wide range of maladies, from jet lag to obesity to heart disease. The joy of science is to learn for learning’s sake; whatever wondrous insights emerge may then be used to address the problems that we confront in our daily lives. The message embedded in today’s Nobel Prize announcement couldn’t come at a better moment—or a more fraught one.

In creative endeavors, we don’t solve always problems by taking the obvious route. Studying fruit flies and yeast cells don’t seem like meaningful questions. Until, of course, they do.

I am thankful to all these incredible researchers who’ve dedicated their lives to helping us understand how the world works. We’ve made more progress in this regard in the last 150 years than we made in all of the past millennia combined. And, the Nobel prizes are a celebration of that.

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone in the scientific community.

Let’s take a collection of habits that could be part of your work day today.

• Starting the day by writing and committing to 3 priorities
• Having a quick map of the meetings for the day
• Batch scheduling your appointments
• Doing the pre-read
• Sending the pre-read
• Showing up on time
• Scheduling time to think without interruption
• Checking your notifications less
• Carrying yourself with positive energy
• Seeking to understand
• Responding to communication in a timely manner
• Being present in meetings
• Eating healthy
• Prioritizing relationship building by making time for walks, catch ups and coffee
• Writing clearly – in emails and documents
• Taking a step back and looking at the big picture
• Switching off

Many of these are small and simple habits. And, yet, every one of these, individually, can make a marked difference to our productivity.

Our effectiveness is simply a combination of our habits at work. The trick lies in the fact that these habits don’t simply add up. Their effect compounds as we add more of these to our fold. Suddenly, days become consistently productive and people begin to understand that your presence signals momentum and effectiveness.

The beauty about the journey toward effectiveness is that we don’t suddenly become effective with one drastic change. We get there one small habit at a time. And, of course, we can start doing that today.

We first make our habits and, then, our habits make us.

What are the first things you do when you wake up in the morning? What are the first things you do when you show up to work?

In both cases, we have choices. For example, as soon as we wake up, we can –

• Roll over and check email
• Give our partner a hug
• Think about what we’re grateful for
• Roll over and check our Facebook feeds
• Write down our plans for the day
• Open up our work email or laptop
• Take a deep breath and take in the fresh air
• Do some stretches

We all have some action we default to. This default action, in turn, has far reaching consequences through the day. For starters, it determines the mindset and energy we start the day with. And, that combination of mindset and energy determines the quality of our thoughts and actions through the day.

Like most defaults, our default first actions are powerful.

Choose them intentionally, we must.

This was day 4 of a trek in the Himalayas. We had 21 kilometers to cover and after 13 or so mostly uphill kilometers, we finally stopped for lunch. Lunch was boiled potatoes and boiled eggs. I think I had 2 or 3 of each.

It remains one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever eaten. I can still remember how eating those boiled potatoes felt. We were so grateful for them that day.

I remembered that meal yesterday with a friend who was with me during that trek. We had a late dinner and, this, ate when we were really hungry. And, of course, the very ordinary food tasted wonderful.

The now legendary boiled potato experience taught me how much our feelings are driven by circumstance. When you are hungry, edible food is delicious. When you have little, most things are great.

Often, as we go through life with good fortune by our side, we leave behind a piece of ourselves that used to enjoy those small things. It takes fancier experiences and bigger things to impress us. Thats why eating when really hungry never fails to remind me the importance of savoring all the wonderful small things around me.

The small things, almost always, are the big things.

Go to any boarding queue at the airport and you’re likely to find someone in angst.

“This boarding line seems to be too long.”

“Why are they taking forever?”

“This airline is so incompetent.”

The angst is useless, of course. Everybody in that area is going to the same place and will get there at the same time. If a delay is meant to happen, it’ll happen anyway. Complaining about it isn’t going to do anyone any favors.

But, this post could just as easily been about angst at the DMV or angst at the office.

Angst is hardly ever useful and nearly always unhelpful. If you are that unusual person for whom angst spurs constructive action, please ignore this post.

But, for the rest of us, any time we find ourselves feeling angst, let’s ask ourselves – “Is this moment going to matter in 5 years?” Assuming it isn’t (and it generally isn’t), let’s just put some music on our headphones or open up a book and let it pass. If it is going to matter, let’s just put some music on or open up a book anyway. Angst isn’t going to help with constructive action. Some calm is.

The world will be better for it. And, we will be happier too.

We’ve seen a change in sentiment in the mainstream media around the centralization of power amongst the big tech firms. In response, a lot of the discussion in the hacker communities has been about the power of the blockchain and Bitcoin to shake up the current establishment and decentralize everything.

In this week’s Notes by Ada note, I share my skepticism of the purist utopian vision for the blockchain. I think the technology is without doubt ground breaking. Here’s an example of why I’m bullish about the technology –

• Imagine you are a refugee in a new country. You have no official ID or financial history in the country — so, banks aren’t exactly queuing up to give you an account.
• But, as a refugee, the government would like to give you some aid to get you started. However, they’d also like to keep tabs on that money to make sure you are spending it responsibly.
• Without easy access to money, you could be stuck in bureaucratic hell for a long time.
• Enter Moni — a prepaid mastercard service that links your mastercard to the blockchain.
• Your prepaid card doesn’t need any bank. The government directly adds credit and knows they can track any issues in your spending via an incorruptible database on the blockchain.
• Assuming you have good intentions, you use this money to get your life started, get a job and are hopefully on your way to building a better life.

This is not fiction. The Finnish government is already testing this with asylum seekers and the United Nations is exploring using this technology for one billion people worldwide who have no legal identification. Powerful stuff.

But, we often confuse the technology breakthrough with its potential second order implications.

Technology breakthrough: A blockchain is a decentralized network with information. The breakthrough in the blockchain is in the ability to have a decentralized database that is not owned by anyone. This was not possible before and means we can now have shared incorruptible databases.

First order implication of the technology breakthrough: Databases controlled by middle people (e.g. banks) were sources of trust for various transactions in the economy. Now, you don’t need to have these middle people. Instead, you could, for example, execute a pre-agreed contract via the Ethereum blockchain. As long as certain conditions are met (e.g. money is transferred to account B), ownership can be transferred too.

Example question about its second order socio-economic implication: Blockchains could render important pillars of our financial system obsolete. Maybe this will remove the need for banks, central banks and governments?

In the many discussions about blockchains, I see people mixing the technology breakthrough and its potential second order implications. Here’s the deal — the breakthrough and its first order implications are here to stay. But, all of the implications being dreamed up right now are not necessarily going to pan out the way many of the purists imagine it.

More on Medium or LinkedIn. Medium says it is a 13 minute read – so you have fair warning. :-)

When we begin training for a new skill, we start by making large improvements for every small change. Fix your stance and swing, for example, and your strokes become much better.

But, the plateau arrives sooner rather than later. Suddenly, every small improvement takes a lot more effort. And, if you become an elite performer, these tiny improvements in your speed or accuracy can be the difference between being the best in the world and an also ran.

While this is easy to imagine this curve for an athlete, it is easy to forget that it applies just as nicely to the rest of us. Instead of producing athletic performances, our success is often measured by the value we produce, i.e., our productivity.

When we get started on the productivity curve, we make a ton of progress by just learning to focus on the right things. But, once we learn to do that, it is the tiny changes that make a difference. If we halve the amount of time we spend mindlessly surfing television or checking our notifications in a day, we give ourselves an extra few minutes every hour. And, the effect of those extra few minutes adds up and compounds over time to give us time and energy to spend on things that matter to us.

Over time, these small improvements have the same effect on our lives as they do in the legacy of elite athletes. They can make the difference between a life with regrets about time wasted and a life well lived.

Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement. The two Japanese words Kai and Zen translate to “change” and “good.” Put together, they mean – “change good” or change for better.

It’s a simple and powerful motto for two reasons. First, whether you’re frustrated or elated, you can always choose to change for the better. And, second, it underscores the need for us to change – continuously.

And, needless to say, it comes with a 100% “it will change your life” guarantee.

The question for us, then – are we going to hear the word “kaizen,” nod and walk away?

Or, are we going to adopt Kaizen and all that it entails in our lives?