Category: Everything else

Myths we believe in

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is a remarkable book. As I work my way through it, I was struck by his chapter on myths. Yuval explains that one of our most powerful capabilities as humans is to imagine myths that enable us to cooperate with each other.

Our hunter gatherer ancestors only needed to cooperate in small groups. However, once plants domesticated us (you read that right), we needed to cooperate with much larger groups. So, we invented myths like tribes, races, rules of law, religions, and, in time, nations. Over time, we added more complexity including a national identity, tiers of law, human rights, and so on.

Our imagination is a powerful thing. I write about the effects of this imagination nearly every day on a personal level. Our ability to focus on what we control (control can be an elusive myth) is one such example.

Yuval notes that various characteristics of these myths and their pervasiveness in our lives. Folk tales and stories ensure they’re part of our belief system when we grow up. Then, they help shape our aspirations. And, finally, they are inter subjective, i.e., they work because millions of us believe in them. The Limited Liability Corporation, for example, is a myth we’ve created to enable better cooperation. A corporation exists in the rule of law – also a myth. And, a law exists in a nation, and so on.

I had to stop listening to the book for a few days after this chapter to reflect.

I shuddered as I thought about how much mass genocide has occurred over these invented myths.

But, focusing on something closer to home, I was left looking at a lot of things happening around me very differently. We all create a lot of drama in our lives around events like raises, promotions, awards and achievements. But, a lot of them are just a result of these inter subjective myths we’ve chosen to believe in. I don’t mean to call them futile. But, I do intend to question the importance we give them. Their purpose is for us to cooperate and love each other. And, if they only lead to us seeing imagined divisions, then we’ve lost the plot.

I’m still thinking about this idea and its implication in my life. But, for now, it’s given me a very different perspective. And, for that, I’m grateful.

Sure thing

In 2005, after his second season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James gifted Nike co-founder Phil Knight a Rolex watch. The engraving said – “With thanks for taking a chance on me.” Knight reflected on that moment in his book and said – “It wasn’t much of a chance. He was pretty close to a sure thing.”

That is a powerful example of the nature of risk.

In the popular imagination, risk is this mystical quality that daredevils have. They gamble all of their life’s savings in a bet that would make no sense to others. That is far from the truth.

When you become really good at something, things that seem risky to other people aren’t as risky to you. An expert soccer player wouldn’t describe a complicated trick in a massive game as a big risk. He has probably practiced it a million times. Similarly, Adele may have created music that was very different from the norm at the time. But, when you’ve become as competent as Adele, you know you’ve probably got something that is close to a sure thing.

That, then, brings us to three things we can learn about risk.

First, risk and reward go together. Learning to take risks well can be very rewarding.

Second, our perception of risk changes with expertise. To an expert talent scout like Phil Knight, LeBron was an obvious pick. Similarly, the Pixar founding team would have told you that computer graphics were obviously the future of animated movies. Obvious in retrospect to the rest of us.

Finally, Phil Knight’s wording is important. he said “he was pretty close to a sure thing.” Notice that he doesn’t say “he was a sure thing.” That’s important because there isn’t such an interesting endeavor without risk. Your expertise may minimize the risk in your eyes, but it doesn’t eliminates it.

Today matters

Today matters. It may seem like a simple, unglamorous day. And, yes, it likely doesn’t seem to matter the way we normally think of days that matter. It isn’t a “big day” – there’s no award ceremony or big launch or massive promotion.

But, today still presents an opportunity. An opportunity to build a better self, to improve how we operate, to be more conscious, to invest in others and to be a better citizen of this planet.  And, if we were busy fighting for essentials, we wouldn’t have that opportunity. It is a blessing.

It is hard to predict if these small daily opportunities will lead to big opportunities in time. And, if so, in exactly how much time.

However, there are two things we know for sure.  First, diamonds, like nearly all valuable things, are built thanks to consistent pressure over thousands of years. It takes time to build great people and things. And, yes, we build ourselves – one good act at a time.

Second, a good thing is worth doing for its own sake.

Today matters – just in a different way than we might think.

Unhappiness is a privilege

Unhappiness is our dissatisfaction at a particular situation. On the other hand, an advantage granted to a few is what we call privilege. And, unhappiness is an incredible privilege even if it isn’t obvious to us at first.

If we spend time being unhappy, it can feel as if we have no choice. But, of course, that would only happen if we did have a choice.

Being conscious of this privilege is important because small bouts of dissatisfaction are necessary for progress. It is dissatisfied human beings who’ve made progress possible. But, that assumes this dissatisfaction is temporary and directed at things we control. The moment it isn’t, we inevitably spiral into unhappiness territory. And, that’s largely useless.

So, there are two things to remember the next time you find yourself unhappy. First, it is an opportunity to make things better – to improve the situation or to improve yourself.

Second, it is a privilege. So, it calls for gratitude, not unhappiness.

Deeper information consumption

Engagement is my theme for 2017. And, one of my sub themes is being conscious about how I engage with information. My goal has been to move from shallow consumption to deeper information consumption. And, I’ve learnt a few lessons over the past 3 weeks.

  • Checking less. I’ve begun keeping tabs at the number of times I check my phone. I’ve been averaging around 10 times during the day and 6 times during my work day. My zero notifications initiative from a couple of years ago helps a ton. But, I suspect this is because I’m aware I’m counting. So, looking forward to the results of this experiment over the next couple of weeks. I try not to overdo my Seth post recommendations (you do read his blog, right?) – but, this one on Pavlov in your pocket resonated deeply.
  • Batch process, batch process, batch process. Checking less enables us to batch process. And, batch processing helps us avoid regular task switching and the accompanying attention residue. This applies to both feeds and emails.
  • Remove the stress from reading stuff you’ve subscribed to. I did a major pruning of my Feedly list in December – prime among that was removing a couple of sources like “FiveThirtyEight” and Venture Beat. Both of these used to have a constant stream of articles that used to add stress. Additionally, I needed a break from politics (hence FiveThirtyEight). My learning from this is that feeds that don’t make you happy shouldn’t be on your list. The results have been great – my feeds are largely a collection of blogs – and I love engaging with long form blog posts.
  • More books. I’ve been thinking about ways to spend more of my time reading books. And, part of this is being flexible about formats. With a baby at home, it is important to be able to read books on a phone. :) And, yet, different books are suited to different formats. So, I’ve just tried surrounding myself with books across formats this new year. I have notes from 8 books currently on my devices (5 of them in active reading across Audible, Kindle app, and paperback) and I’ve enjoyed weaving through these. With less checking, I expect more time on these. Long may that continue.

Bad information processing can add to a lot more tiredness in our day. And, I’m enjoying the process of cutting out the noise and spending time on deeper content. The only exception I make is to football/soccer news. That is my not-guilty pleasure.

Of course, this is hardly the first post you’ll find on checking less, batch processing or reading more.

However, to learn and not to do is not to learn. And, I certainly expect to keep writing about this stuff until I really learn.

Skipping the coffee queue

A close someone had set up a meeting with someone she’d never met to discuss potential career opportunities. These kinds of meetings tend to be uncomfortable for most people. So, she got to their meeting point well ahead of time. As she was waiting, she decided to ask the person she was meeting what kind of coffee they’d like. A few minutes before their meeting time, she got on the queue and bought coffee for both of them.

Now, by the time the person came, the coffee was hot and ready. They skipped the awkward small talk while standing in the queue and ended up having a really nice discussion.

Would they have had a good discussion even if they spent those 5 odd minutes in the queue? Probably. But, did doing this help? Absolutely.

Sometimes, small amounts of thoughtfulness can make a big difference in changing the environment and showing that you care. And, these opportunities to be thoughtful are rife in every day interactions. Consider how many times you have met people for coffee. I certainly found myself reflecting at the many missed opportunities in the past where I could have done something like this.

In the long run, we don’t always have the opportunity to do big things for people. But, we almost certainly have the opportunity to do small things with extraordinary care.

Women’s March

Today is Women’s March day.

It is hard not to think about it today. And, it is hard not to write about it today.

Seth Godin had a powerful post yesterday on rights that I thought I’d share in full –

Human rights might be our species’ greatest invention.

More than phones or trains or Milky Way bars, our incremental progress toward dignity, opportunity and equality is a miracle.

Rights aren’t a decision we make when we’re in the mood or it’s easy. They’re the bedrock of our culture, our economy and our way of life.

Of course, they’re inconvenient sometimes. That’s precisely why we have to work so hard to defend them.

Deep down, I think each of us understands how much a culture based on dignity is worth. But sometimes, we need to remind each other to stay vigilant, and to keep what our mothers and grandfathers worked so hard for.

I think the most important word in that post is invention. Just as we invented human rights, we also invented nations, religions, races and creeds.

It is wonderful to see folks around the world demonstrate that we all have more in common than we often recognize.

Mistake free

The point of engagement isn’t to be mistake free and perfect. There is no such thing as being perfect as long as we’re alive and learning.

To learn, we experiment. And, as long as we experiment by trying and testing new things, mistakes are inevitable.

Instead, a consequence of engagement is that we spot our mistakes quicker – often right after we make them. That means we get the opportunity to craft a creative, constructive and corrective response. And, once we do that and understand what triggered it, we can aim to keep the benefits of that experiment and move on to different experiments and different mistakes.

Besides, it isn’t mistakes we should fear. It is the absence of a creative, constructive and corrective response that is the real problem.

An engaged life is a wonderfully human life. It is what being alive is all about.

And, making mistakes is an important part of being alive and human.

Authentic

A friend, who is a restauranteur, once joked – “If a restaurant brands itself as “authentic x cuisine,” it is probably not authentic.” Like a lot of good humor, there is some truth to it.

Most companies, regardless of size, describe themselves as entrepreneurial, transparent and all about work-life balance. Many resumes use words like “self starters” and “lifelong learners.”

This is similar to the authentic cuisine problem. It makes sense that we throw these words out in the hopes of influencing people who’re searching for folks like us. But, how long before we’re found out?

A crazy idea – stick to simple words that you know to be true. In the long run, they do better than some aspirational marketing strategy that’s just not real. As a bonus, you’ll also learn to see things as they are instead of how you’d like them to be.

We need to be able to understand reality before we’re able to influence it.

Earn your stripes

It may not be ideal work. But, we have to earn our stripes.

There are rare moments in time when we can bypass concepts like expertise and tenure. A one-of-a-kind opportunity might come your way. Or, you just might find yourself in the right place, at the right time, and create one for yourself.

But, lucky moments aside, most of us have to do things via the long route. We just have to put in the time and demonstrate our ability to do consistent good work.

But, that’s how it is done. The best investment strategy is to invest in lines, not dots or track records, not one-off achievements.

As Denzel Washington said – “Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.”

We have to earn our stripes.