Category: Everything else

Tension everywhere

For managers – between structure and ambiguity.

For CEO’s – between centralization and decentralization.

For survey creators – between question rich surveys that will yield many an insight and shorter surveys that will actually be completed.

For teachers and coaches – between the stretch zone and panic zone.

For us – between life, work and everything else we want to prioritize.

… and so on.

Tension is a key part of what makes anything great. It is impossible to get something “just right” without the right amount of tension. And, getting it “just right” requires us to accept the fact that it’ll exist, embrace the idea that we won’t always get it right and keep plugging away.
tensionTension accompanies us at every step and in every decision we make. Great strategy is making decisions with a clear understanding of the tension/trade-offs involved. As with most challenging life lessons, awareness is the first step.

Perfection worship

Perfection worship – there’s something about it that just feels right. The issue, as with any choice, is that there is a serious trade-off – the moment you choose to engage in perfection worship, you become an excellent critic, an accomplished talker.

The moment you see a problem or opportunity and roll your sleeves to take action, you learn that the first required step is to shun perfection. That’s because perfection doesn’t really exist. Every initiative that we lead is littered with our biases and reflects our values, character and personality. Perfect work doesn’t move people. Humane work does. Humane work, by definition, is full of heart and imperfection. It won’t work for everyone. But, it’ll move some and that will make it worth it.

Critics are fantastic problem spotters as they can always pick out the pieces that are imperfect. As a doer, you’re going to run into critics every single day of your life. Put yourself out there and there’ll be people who’ll tell you why they hate your work. Pay no attention.

If they care, they will attempt to fix it. And, when they do, they’ll realize your work was perfect all along – in ways they weren’t able to comprehend.

perfection, worship, imperfection, talker, doer

To Think List

First draft of my “to think” list for the next 2 weeks.

  1. A think-week tradition dedicated to my craft. Bill Gates used to take a week off to think about work. I’d love to do some version of the same. I had taken a few days last year to summarize my thinking on tech in 2014 in preparation for internship interviews. Perhaps I do another round of that?
  2. Re-evaluate my social media use and strategy. There’s a lot to think about here. Key questions are – how do I use the various tools?, how should I be using them?
  3. Re-evaluate my phone + laptop use and strategy. As above.
  4. Annual review – focused on getting prepared for re-entry into work. While the preparation for work has been in progress since August, 2015 was my full year as a graduate student. Looking forward to thinking about the next step.

Here’s to making headway down this list.

to think, list,

Boyan Slat

I expected to find a few cool ideas in The Economist’s World in 2016 video and it didn’t disappoint. The piece I enjoyed the most was about 21 year old Boyan Slat’s ambitious plan to clean up plastics in the ocean. Oceanic waters between continents are not governed by any nation and, as a result, have become a dumping ground for plastics. No organization has taken initiative to fix this. So, Boyan Slat stepped forward.

After a couple of feasibility studies, they’re ready for their first big test outside Japan’s waters in 2016. I, for one, will be keeping my fingers crossed that the project works out. Do check out the website for more.

boyan slat, ocean clean up,

I think the story hit home simply because Boyan just took responsibility for a massive problem and is working toward fixing it. I’m sure he has hundreds of critics who’re bent on finding all sorts of problems with his approach. I’m sure many of these problems are real. But, then again, no solution is ever perfect (or even close to perfect for that matter) and I’m sure he understands the difference between talkers and doers.

The rigors of day-to-day living often blind us to the impact we can have on the world. Boyan’s story was a great reminder that there is a lot of great work to be done.

PS: The Economist video is 31 minutes long and is a fascinating watch – it covers China’s $1B Olympic training program, a legion of “super forecasters,” among others. I’m not much of a video watcher. So, I’m not sure what the opportunity costs of watching this 31 minute video are. But, as with most content from The Economist, it is likely to be worth it.

Let chaos reign, then rein in chaos

I’ve never met or interacted with Ben Horowitz but I have deep respect for his thoughts and work. His book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” was fantastic. In his book, he frequently spoke about the influence Andy Grove’s “High Output Management” had on his management style. A few weeks back, he shared the foreword he’d written for the latest edition of Andy’s book on his blog. As is the case with Ben, there’s a lot of value in reading that foreword alone and I shared with a group of friends while also buying the book.

Half way through it, there have been a lot of interesting nuggets. My favorite one so far has been – “Let chaos reign, then rein in chaos.” As leaders, chaos is a given and being anything other than accepting of it is foolish. However, it is our prerogative to build systems that help us rein in chaos.

I thought of this as I was learning to ski today. A big part of learning to ski is being comfortable with losing a bit of control (especially as a beginner) as you pick up the speed required to make frequent turns. But, it is vital you then do what it takes to get back in control. As time passes, I’ve come to observe that deep lessons tend to be basic principles that, in turn, tend to transcend context.

This is definitely one of those. Thank you, Andy. And, thank you, Ben.

chaos, andy grove

Living with a list

I wasn’t a big list person growing up. I believed it got in the way of relaxation and spontaneity. David Allen’s books – “Getting Things Done” and “Ready for Anything” changed that point of view. I’ve learnt to both use and appreciate lists over the past few years.

As I think about the coming weeks, the list I’ve put together is fairly ambitious considering there’s time off and a fair bit of travel planned. However, the order of tasks make it very clear as to which ones are the “must dos” vs. “nice to haves.” A few lesser priority “nice-to-haves” (including a lot of little improvements to this blog) have gotten pushed back again. But, that’s just part of the prioritization process. I’ve learnt to enjoy it rather than have it stress me out. Thanks to this, I learn to scope work and improve my estimates on how much I can actually get done, to stretch myself a bit (if I want to), to evaluate what actually matters and get better at re-prioritizing and making decisions.

Most importantly, putting these ideas down on a list means being able to take time off without a worry in the world. It means being very well prepared for unexpected obstacles and it means being alive, present and mindful when I’m not working on the list.

What’s not to like?

list, priorities

 

Reading books and studying books

When you read books, you read them primarily to pass time. Sure, a non-fiction book is a more constructive way of passing time. However, the primary motive is still one of leisure. There is a good chance you’ll glean some insight out of reading an interesting book. But, you can glean insight out of a soccer game, too, if you put your mind to it.

When you study books, you read them to learn. And, reading them to learn is a process that generally looks something like this – read, take notes, think about it, synthesize and share.

Too many people pick up awesome non-fiction books, read them and find themselves disappointed as they didn’t walk away with the insight they expected. Study them, however, and you’ll find a new world opening up in front of you.

Someone once said – “Somewhere out there is a book that will completely change your life. Who knows? It might be your next one.”

My only addition to that quote would be – for it to have a shot at changing your life, don’t just read it… study it.

study books,Source

What they will tell you

Be focused and they’ll tell you to chill out.
Be structured and they’ll tell you to go with the flow.
Be happy and they’ll find ways to convince you that you aren’t worrying enough.

And, vice versa of course.

At any given time, there’s going to be someone or the other that looks at what you’re doing and says – “Stop. You’re overdoing it.”

no right balance, they won't tell you that(Source)

Maybe you are. It is hard to say. There is no globally right balance between structure and going with the flow, for example. It is what works for you in a given situation. So, instead of worrying about what “they” will tell you, focus on listening to a few people that get you. This is similar to a CEO working with his/her Board of Directors instead of listening to every person on the street with an opinion.

Then, use your board’s feedback to train your gut and self awareness. Just because they are your board doesn’t mean they’re always right. Even they will, on occasion, completely miss the boat. The end objective is to be able to improve your process and approach your life in a way that works for you.

After all, in the final analysis, what they might have told you will matter much less than what you will tell yourself.

Doing it wrong, relentlessly

Every once a while, I am reminded of  a post from Seth Godin in 2012 – “Doing it wrong, relentlessly.”

Doing it wrong, relentlessly

According to this post by Neil Patel, I blog incorrectly–missing on at least 7 of his twelve rules.

On purpose.

I’m not writing to maximize my SEO or conversion or even my readership. I’m writing to do justice to the things I notice, to the ideas in my head and to the people who choose to read my work.

The interesting lesson: One way to work the system is to work the system. The other way is to refuse to work it.

I remember wading into the comments of the original post and had many thanking Neil for the great advice. After all, as a couple of the comments pointed out – “that’s easy for Seth to say. He has a blog with a few hundred thousand followers after all.”

I’ve reflected on this post a few times. Among the things it has taught me, two stand out.

First, we need to understand what we’re optimizing for. A few years back, I experimented spending a bit more effort publicizing these posts and carefully looking at my page views and analytics. These efforts barely lasted a week. Every aspect of my being seemed to reject it. I learned quickly that I wasn’t interested in optimizing those things. Now, of course, the results would be great to have. :-) I would, of course, love it if these notes resonated with many more people. But, I wasn’t ready to try and maximize it by investing time into self promotion. It just wasn’t/isn’t me. Besides, time is scarce and I’d rather spend the extra time making sure my post for the day is clear and concise.

Second, there is a huge market for easy-to-implement advice. Easy-to-implement advice often assumes certain things about what you are trying to do. Seth’s blog is not remarkable because he writes a certain way or keeps his posts to a certain length. It is remarkable because he’s written, and shared, every single day for more than two decades. That isn’t easy advice as a receiver. It is much easier to be happy with advice that says there are just 12 things you need to do every time you post.

But, as I’ve come to realize, good things are always hidden among the hard things.

what comes easy won't last long and what lasts long won't come easy, blogging, doing it wrong