Facetime on Jetsons

We watched an episode of the cartoon “The Jetsons” with our kids the other day. It was one of the cartoons that used to show up on “Cartoon Network” growing up. And while I wasn’t a fan then, I’ve definitely watched a few episodes.

Even growing up in the 90s in India, the idea that we might travel in flying cars, have robots to clean our home, machines to cook, have flat-screen televisions, walk on conveyer belts, and talk to people over video (or “Facetime”) felt pretty far into the future. I can only imagine what it felt like when the cartoon first aired in 1962.

Our kids, on the other hand, have grown up with most of this technology. It didn’t blow their minds when they saw Jane Jetson just call her mom over video. They do it nearly every day.

Those 20 minutes were such a great reminder of the gifts we have in our lives. Even a hundred years ago, the technology we have today would have been beyond the realm of science fiction. Touch screen phones with cameras, the ability to talk to humans all around the world via the internet, machines that can play complex games and solve problems, vaccines that can be created by uploading a sequence into a computer – it’s all incredible.

And yet so easy to take for granted.

The 13.8 km run

A neat story emerged recently about Manchester United coach Erik Ten Hag. After a defeat in the first game, the team lost their second game in embarrassing fashion to Brentford (a relatively small team).

Brentford outfought United every step of the way. It also emerged that they collectively ran 13.8 kilometers more.

Ten Hag canceled the next day off for the team. Their punishment on the day? A 13.8 kilometer run on what turned out to be a hot day. The symbolism is beautiful.

But that’s not all. It turned out Ten Hag ran the entire 13.8 kms with the players himself.

And why wouldn’t he? He was in it with them after all.

A great leadership story.

The stick-on number plate holder

I was attempting to put one of those stick-on number plate holders in front of our car a while back.

After spending a few seconds optimizing the alignment, I stuck it on. However, just as I did so, my hands tilted left. The number plate holder wasn’t perfectly horizontal as a result – there was a slight angle.

I stared at it realizing I had a choice to make. I could spend an hour or some money attempting to straighten it. Or I could let it go and just move on.

I chose the latter.

A few months later, I can confirm that I don’t notice the number plate holder or think about its imperfect angle since*.

Pick what you want to optimize. Let the rest go.

Works with number plate holders.

And life.

*When I did notice it today, I found myself appreciating the lesson the process of choosing not to fix the imperfection taught me. :-)

The delivery window discount

I was setting up delivery on some furniture recently and saw something neat. As I scrolled through possible delivery windows, I saw discounts and extra charges based on the choice.

For example, choosing Saturday morning would cost $40 while choosing Wednesday morning would result in -$40 (i.e., a discount of $40).

If you are the furniture delivery company, you are likely looking at a default state demand curve that spikes on weekends. That means frenetic weekends at higher labor costs. And, worse, this is after trucks you own sit idle on other days.

This simple optimization enables them to smoothen that curve and better utilize their assets while making customers willing to choose non-peak hour delivery times much happier.

Win-win-win.

Careful the wish you make

“Careful the wish you make. For wishes come true.” | Into the Woods (movie)

“Into the Woods” is a movie dedicated to a simple idea – be careful what you wish for. It reminded me of the story I shared a few days back about the blind woman who got her sight back.

Dr. Dan Goodman once performed surgery on a middle-aged woman whose cataract had left her blind since childhood. The cataract was removed, leaving the woman with near-perfect vision. A miraculous success.

The patient returned for a checkup a few weeks later. The book Crashing Through writes:

Her reaction startled Goodman. She had been happy and content as a blind person. Now sighted, she became anxious and depressed. She told him that she had spent her adult life on welfare and had never worked, married, or ventured far from home – a small existence to which she had become comfortably accustomed. Now, however, government officials told her that she no longer qualified for disability, and they expected her to get a job. Society wanted her to function normally. It was, she told Goldman, too much to handle.

Every goal you dream about has a downside that’s easy to overlook.

Indeed.

Nail in the tire

I realized one of the tires on our car was running out of pressure quickly. After some testing, it became clear there was a problem. And it turned out today that the problem was a nail.

All of this involved some hassle in the past few days – realizing there was a problem, testing, getting it sorted, etc.

Not a lot of hassle. But definitely some inconvenience.

And yet there was nothing I could do about it. I have no idea where it happened. It just did. Random chance. No retrospective required or needed.

I think this is analogous to other situations we face in our work and in our lives. From time to time, we find ourselves facing the equivalent of a nail in the tire. There isn’t much we could have to prevent it. Sometimes, the solution to such a situation is straightforward. Sometimes, it isn’t. Sometimes, it is a cheap fix. And in other times, it is expensive.

All we can do is build some spare capacity to deal with problems like this as they arise.

Because they will.