Implicit value of our time

When we spend 20 minutes of our time trying to save $5 by availing a painfully hard to avail deal, we implicitly value our time at $15 per hour.

We also neglect the opportunity cost of that time – time we could have spent relaxing, exercising, conversing with family, and so on. As the saying goes, penny wise, pound foolish.

For those of us who grew up in circumstances where money was relatively tight or for whom the desire to optimize everything to the best possible outcome takes over when dealing with money, it becomes particularly important to set an explicit value of our time.

It makes it easier to stop ourselves from spending one more hour to save a few bucks off the price of that table.

And, most importantly, it forces us to focus our energy on the areas that will actually move the needle on our happiness and productivity.

Nyquil

In the 1960s, the team of researchers at Vicks Corp. were tasked with finding medication for cold and the flu. They came back with a solution that worked well except for one major drawback – it caused drowsiness.

Just as they were about to go back to the drawing board, someone (presumably a smart marketer) suggested that they change nothing about the product and, instead, advertise it as a medicine to be taken at night.

Now, it would deal with your sickness while giving you a good night of sleep.

Thus, Nyquil was born. And, the rest as they say, is history.

Shifting the narrative can be very powerful.

(H/T: Alchemy by Rory Sutherland)

Time to do it twice

A friend recently shared a quote – “How come we don’t have the time to do it right but always have the time to do it twice?”

It has my vote to be framed and put on the wall of any room where folks get together to plan their product roadmaps.

In these rooms, we often find ourselves in positions where we need to make trade-offs that benefit the short term over the long term.

But, these decisions almost always result in rework in the medium term. And, when it arrives, rework doesn’t allow for any other option.

So, for the next time we find ourselves in such a discussion, here’s to remembering that they’re better off being the exception rather than the rule.

Giving good driving directions

I was attempting to give someone directions over the phone recently. We had three attempts at it but weren’t making progress.

By now, we realized that we didn’t have a shared understanding of their starting point.

As I was on the verge of giving up, my wife decided it was time for a different strategy – she asked them to head to a place they were familiar with so we could start all over again.

And, voila! The reset worked and the directions worked great.

The first step to giving good driving directions is understanding where the recipients of our directions are. Only once we understand that can we help them with where they want/need to go.

That principle, it turns out, applies just as well to our attempts to drive/inspire change.

George Carlin on Save the planet

Every time I stumble across the term – “Save the planet” – I am reminded of George Carlin’s timeless note on the topic.

“We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!

The borrowed notebook

I was reminded of an incident today from almost two decades ago. We had just moved to Saudi Arabia and I had just started middle school. As it was the middle of the school year, I’d borrowed a notebook from a classmate to copy all the notes I’d missed onto mine in the evenings.

Everything worked fine the first evening. But, on the second, I found that his notebook was no longer in my bag (I’d taken it to school in case he needed it). After some frantic searching, I was sure it wasn’t in my bag or around the house. So, I confessed to my parents.

Another round of searching.

We were all worried now. I vividly remember that sleeping with my parents last night – reserved normally only for special occasions or, as I discovered that night, when we were all worried about something – and we stayed up for a while discussing this.

On reflection, I realized that we were all insecure as we were in a new country and were religious minorities in said country that was known for orthodox beliefs. Eventually, we realized there was nothing more that could be done and called it a night vowing to deal with whatever happened.

I don’t remember much of what followed the next morning. The only memory that followed was walking into class and walking over to this classmate trying to muster a few words about his notebook.

He, instead, gave me a nice smile and said – “Hey, I needed that notebook yesterday. You were not in class during lunch – so, I just took it out of your bag.”

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.” | Michel de Montaigne

The power of placebos

When I was growing up, we went to an expensive Homeopathic doctor when I had issues with longer term ailments. It started with a bout of bronchitis that I had as a baby. His pills helped cure it in 6 months.

We restricted visits due to a rather expensive price tag of 500 rupees per month per treatment (translated to $8-$10 in the 1990s which was unusually expensive in India). But, we ended up visiting him once a year or so for the most challenging, often chronic, problems. While the usual issue was wheezing/breathing difficulties, there were some special cases like an ulcer that refused to go away. In all of these cases, his sugary pills seemed to solve the problem.

At some point in the last decade, I dug deeper into the science behind homeopathy and was shocked to realize it was mostly just a placebo effect.

“Just” a placebo.

I thought about that today as I listened to a powerful chapter on placebos in Rory Sutherland’s excellent book, Alchemy. One of the interesting ideas he shares is that the most important role placebos play is tricking our immune system into getting to work. Since our immune system was built for much harsher conditions, most pills (think: Tylenos) and visits to the GP’s office may be most effective because of the placebo effect that enables us to hack our immune response.

Placebos are powerful.

PS: I’ve stopped linking to Alchemy on Amazon as I’ve already shared notes from the book twice. It is one of the books of the decade in my opinion. I’m making slow progress through the book and attempting to digest the insights. So, more notes to follow in the coming days.

The Friday effect

A recent observation I’ve had after a bit of experimentation is on the effect Fridays have on our memory of the working week.

As we head into the weekend, a busy Friday filled with many meetings and constant activity remind us of a work week that left more to be desired – regardless of how the other four days went (!).

On the flip side, a calm Friday with enough space to reflect, problem-find, and feel on top of what we want to get done triggers the memory of a productive week – again, regardless of how the other four days went.

If that triggers any vague memories of “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, you’re likely remembering the insight he shared on our propensity to remember only the peaks and ends of experiences. That insight has many applications – the effect of Fridays on our memory of the working week is a powerful example.

Note to self: Plan that Friday schedule very intentionally.