“This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The “true” story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. The story in my mind is nothing but a hope; the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.
The story of Ender’s Game is not this book though it has that title emblazoned on it. The story is one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you. remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.” | Orson Scott Card
This was beautifully written and is a beautiful way of thinking about storytelling.
Whenever you attempt to build something good, there’s that pivotal moment when you’re just about to ship that’s equal parts humbling and nerve wracking.
It is the moment when you hand over what you’ve built to your users for their judgment and just say – “Here, we made this. We hope you find it useful.”
It almost doesn’t matter how much user validation you’ve done prior. You just find yourself wondering if the trade-offs you made for this first version were the right ones. You hope the good outweighs the issues (for there always are issues).
How it pans out matters in the short-run. It decides the fate of teams and even whole companies, adds or removes career significant momentum, and so on.
In the long run however, it matters most that we just keep at it and keep improving our process.
Keep shipping, and keep getting better at how we ship.
In time, we’ll develop the taste and ability to make better things.
Over the long run, it matters less how often you’re the best at whatever you take on, and matters more how often you give your best to whatever you take on.
“No experience is in itself a cause of our success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences—the so-called trauma—but instead we make out of them whatever suits our purposes.” | Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi, The Courage to Be Disliked
The Courage to Be Disliked has been a fascinating exploration of Alderian psychology so far.
This was one of those lines that gave me pause. It resonated.
There was a lovely moment in the Acquired podcast episode with Howard Schultz where they discussed the Starbucks mobile app.
Howard’s reflection was that while the mobile app was undoubtedly seductive, the trade-off is that it has significantly hit the Starbucks experience. It replaced that intimate connection between barista and customer with a connection with the app.
There was a moment around then when one of the podcast hosts said – “I look at the mobile app and see which Starbucks around me is accepting mobile orders. If a store isn’t accepting mobile orders, I don’t go there.”
“That breaks my heart.” was Howard’s pithy response.
I was struck by this discussion and reflection. Every growth strategy has trade-offs. I’m sure the numbers from Starbucks’ app made the strategy feel trade-off free. Higher utilization, record usage, and so on.
But the trade-offs existed. And it would have taken a very disciplined and thoughtful team to say no to immediate explosive growth.
It’s just really hard to do.
Every decade has a few breakout hit – ChatGPT, for example, looks to be that business for this decade. Outside of a few other exceptions, you are just doing your best to eke out some respectable set of growth numbers.
And, in the face of those challenges, saying no to something that makes you money is the test of all tests.
Then again, values aren’t values unless they cost us money.
That’s why it is infinitely easier to talk about values than it is to live by them.
One of the biggest themes from Matt Ridley’s book “How Innovation Works” is about the intersection between human nature and innovation.
Throughout history, when science has taken two steps forward, humans have done everything in their power to take at least one step back.
It is why, for example, it took 200 years for the western world to accept potatoes. There were all sorts of unsubstantiated prejudices that the potato had to overcome. Potatoes were initially banned in countries like England because clergyman didn’t believe they were fit to be eaten as they were not mentioned in the Bible.
Then, there was a prevailing belief at the time that vegetables had an effect on the body based on how they looked. Potatoes looked like a finger with leprosy, and thus there was a belief they might cause leprosy.
This is a pattern that has repeated throughout the millenia.
When we understand those patterns, it is a lot easier to understand similar behavior today.
For example, the state of Utah has decided to ban fluoride in municipal water. It is one of those examples of upstream intervention that I’ve written about, and it has a long and distinguished history going back to John Leal saving lives in New Jersey with Chlorination.
Similarly, measles was considered eliminated in the US since 2000. But growing vaccine resistance have resulted in the first major outbreak in decades.
We saw Disneynature’s “Tigers on the Rise” documentary recently. It is a continuation of their excellent work on Tiger. Tigers on the Rise delves into the day-to-day complexities of a growing tiger population in a country with high population density. 4 reflections –
(1) The first requirement for conservation is to transform the economy. For example, tigers, deer, and farmers were near the Tadoba national reserve were in constant conflict when farmers took their cows to graze. The forest officials then changed the rules and offered farmers cash incentives to take their cows away from the reserve.
That meant more deer and more tigers – this, in turn, meant more revenue from tourism for the local community and for the National park system. A nice example of systems change.
(2) In areas near National reserves, tigers often prey on cows. One intervention that has worked remarkably well is painting a pair of eyes on a cow’s backside. It gives the tiger the impression it is being watched.
Small creatives changes can have meaningful impact.
(3) A lovely part of the documentary was the spotlight on the city of Bhopal. The citizens of Bhopal have shown a remarkable acceptance toward tigers in the city’s landscape. The female tiger the documentary followed did her part too – always stepping out late at night once her human neighbors were asleep.
Incredible.
(4) The documentary did a great job emphasizing themes of education, action , tolerance, and balance. For example, they go to lengths to educate villagers surrounding tiger habitat to leave the forest by evening and to avoid crouching.
Tigers avoid humans as a rule. But a crouching human can look like prey.
When an unfortunate tiger killing happens, the conservation team immediately takes action, locating the tiger, and transferring him/her to a zoo. They’ve also begun experimenting with proactive action – moving tigers from human-dense areas to forests where they can find mates.
But, most of all, it emphasizes the importance of tolerance and the work it takes to keep our ecosystems in balance.
A lovely documentary full of lessons for all of us. Exceptional work, Disneynature team – well played!
Seth reminded me of an old post of his about Sprezzatura. In his words –
This is an archaic Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort. It’s a combination of elan and grace and class, sort of the opposite of loud grunts while you play tennis or a lot of whining and fuss when you help out a customer.
Many people are unable to put their finger on it, but this is a magnetic trait for many of us.
I’ve been watching bits of Roger Federer’s parting video memoir documenting his final 12 days as a tennis player culminating in an emotional doubles game with Rafa Nadal as his partner.
It was a lovely documentary that sparked many emotions and, as expected, tears. It was particularly lovely to see his fiercest rivals burst into tears as he said goodbye.
There’s a lot to be said about Roger Federer’s impact on tennis. His title count has since been surpassed by Rafa Nadal and now Novak Djokovic.
But greatness goes beyond titles.
And Roger’s greatness arguably is best explained by… sprezzatura.
A Learning a Day 