A Learning a Day

I was reflecting on the idea of energy moving from commodity to technology.

The key difference is that technology just keeps getting better over time.

This, in a simple sentence, is what electrification has done to cars. Cars have become technology. Their software keeps getting better – every year. And, with every iteration, the battery technology becomes better, safer, and more performant. All those marginal gains add up.

It is interesting to apply this analogy to our mindset. When we have a fixed mindset, we behave like commodities. We are who we are – extracted and fixed.

However, when we have a growth mindset, we behave like technology. We just keep getting better and keep bending that learning curve – constantly aggregating marginal gain after marginal gain and letting them compound to make a game-changing difference over time.

Matt Ridley’s “How Innovation Works” was rich with insight. Here are 7 that I took away –

(1) “The main ingredient in the secret sauce that leads to innovation is freedom. Freedom to exchange, experiment, imagine, invest and fail; freedom from the expropriation or restriction by chiefs, priests and thieves. Freedom on the part of consumers to reward the innovations they like and reject what they don’t.”

This note from the final chapter is a point Ridley makes again and again. History has repeatedly shown free societies to be more innovative.

(2) Innovation works better bottoms up vs. tops down and when there is less burden of regulation. Example after example demonstrates how empires resist innovation (and even outright ban it). And, for a simple example of how burden of regulation kills innovation, we can look at how Europe’s regulatory changes over the past decade have only resulted in incumbents getting more entrenched and in the citizens of Europe getting access to sub-par technology.

(3) Regulation hobbles innovations because it increases the cost of learning. When learning costs go up, it is hard for us to iterate. Nuclear energy is a stand out example of this.

Also, regulation changes incentives. Instead of people spending energy to invent new things, they spend their energy in making friends with the government to bend the rules.

Iteration is key – it is what has saved millions of lives from diseases like whooping cough and malaria.

(4) “Innovation happens not within but between brains.” The “great man” theory is one we’ve created out of convenience and due (more recently) to intellectual property law.

Innovation has consistently arrived because of humans who chose to build on the work of their rivals and predecessors and combine existing ideas in interesting ways.

Crucial innovations are often thought to have been accelerated by war. However, most innovation has happened incrementally and has been driven forward by many people.

Innovations come when their time comes – regardless of the people involved.

(5) Growth never needs to stop. The nature of growth is such that we first figure out how to produce more. Then we learn how to produce more with less. Until our efficiencies far outweigh our appetite.

Light is a great example. Once the cost of light goes down, more people leave their lights on. However, the efficiency of LEDs mean we’re more efficient than ever before.

(6) Every innovation has been resisted. Politicians in India and Pakistan resisted the Green revolution. Europe was prejudiced against the humble potato.

These are examples of innovations that made their way through (most good ones make it over time). However, there are examples of innovations that haven’t – in multiple places because of successful smear campaigns.

Then again, there are others that were delayed. For example, Dyson fought a decade long battle to get its innovative bag-less vacuum cleaner approved in the EU (crazy, I know).

In effect, there is no such thing as a no brainer. As long as incentives to resist something exists, resistance will exist.

(7) “The main theme of human history is that we become steadily more specialized in what we produce, and steadily more diversified in what we consume: we move away from precarious self-sufficiency to safer mutual interdependence.”

Beautifully put.

“Where the rats get in is not where they chew.” | Anonymous

When something happens, it is natural to look in the vicinity of the event.

But it is highly likely that we’re missing the learning that matters. We all know we need to avoid the careless mistake. We know we need to pay more attention or react a bit better under stress.

It is far more interesting to dig into the conditions that led to the mistake.

Or put differently, we must understand the conditions that would help us switch to a better habit.

To find gold, we must look upstream.

Where the rats chew isn’t where they got in.

Many love the idea of learning. They love the positive associations – growth, great teachers, and the like.

A small percentage of the many appreciate it once they realize learning is just a nice descriptor for signing up for uncomfortable experiences that stretch us, reflecting deeply on all the moments of pain, and synthesizing those reflections into changes in how we’ll operate.

No surprise – after that realization, fewer still make it a point to habitually seek it.

Learning is always easier said than done.

The British Cycling team were a mediocre cycling team for over a century coming into the early 2000s. Then they hired Dave Brailsford as their Performance Director.

Dave Brailsford had learnt about “The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” during his time in business school and believed in the idea that small gains would compound to create large impact.

So, Brailsford and his team began looking for small 1% improvements that included-

• Redesigned bike seats that were more comfortable
• Alcohol rubbed tires for a better grip.
• Electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding
• Biofeedback sensors to monitor how each athlete responded to a particular workout.
• Lighter/more aerodynamic fabrics
• Better massage gels for faster recovery
• Took their own pillows and mattresses to events to ensure the best night’s sleep
• Painted the inside of the team truck white – helping them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes.
• Hiring a surgeon who taught riders how to wash their hands and avoid illness

Each of these changes were small. But the compound impact of all of this led to the British team dominating the Tour de France and Olympic cycling events for a decade.

Compounding small changes -> Incredible results.

Never underestimate the power of aggregating marginal gains.

3 reflections from the year that went by –

(1) Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome. I’d read versions of this quote before – but this was the year I began internalizing it. As is the case with lessons like this, they bed in after reflecting on experiences that brought intense pain. There was no dearth of that.

On the flip side, once I did understand this, it changed how I operated. Instead of focusing on fighting constraints individually, my focus turned to changing incentives. It is a significantly higher leverage strategy.

It was also the year where I saw this play out in the macro – the many elections included. There’s a great line – it is impossible for a person to understand what they’re paid not to understand. I have deeper appreciation for the wisdom of that line now.

(2) Habit momentum is real – the most important thing is to just get started. I started this year inspired by Outlive’s focus on exercise. This included near daily workouts, personal training twice a week (a gamechanger), and a weekly game of soccer.

But it snowballed into so much more. The workouts kept getting more consistent and elaborate. Then came Casey Means’ Good Energy and it is hard to overstate how these changes have continued to snowball.

Looking back 12 months, my habits and diet have changed a tremendous amount. And they will continue to evolve – now inspired by the Starretts’ Built to Move.

Habit momentum is a powerful force because habits build on each other and compound in incredible ways. The most important thing is to just get started.

(3) Design for memories. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how time blurs most things. All we’re left with are a collection of memories. Best to design those moments intentionally.

This means planning as many lovely moments as possible with people that matter. All of them won’t pan out exactly as we expect. But many will.

And those will be the ones we remember.

The sea squirt is a marine invertebrate that starts out with a primitive brain and nervous system. When young, the animal swims freely around the ocean, but eventually it finds a suitable rock, attaches itself, and stays there for the rest of its life.

Once it is settled, the sea squirt ingests its brain and nervous system. It does so because it is inefficient to maintain a brain and nervous system now that it is completely sedentary.

Columbia University neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert uses this example to drive home a simple point – directing movement is the most important function of the brain.

In other words, we are built to move.

(H/T: Built to Move by Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett – also H/T Hassan for the recommendation)

“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es” / “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” | Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

One of the biggest themes from 2024 has been a heightened focus on health. It started with a focus on exercise inspired by Peter Attia’s Outlive. It is ending with a focus on diet and metabolism inspired by Casey Means’ Good Energy.

I hope to have a better answer to Monsieur Brillat-Savarin in 2025.

#OurWorldIsAwesome – Edition 7

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I’ve heard Sir David Attenborough describe many wondrous places in documentaries over the years. But if I had to pick the place I’ve heard him describe most often, it would undoubtedly be Serengeti National Park. As I entered the park, I could almost hear his soothing voice describe “a hot day in the Serengeti” or a pride of lions waiting for the Great Migration.

Let’s first start with the awe-inspiring size of this park. At 15000 sq km or 5700 sq miles, it is 19 times the size of New York or 11 times the size of Los Angeles. It is massive. The Serengeti extends into Kenya for another 1500 sq km – this section of the park is called The Maasai Mara.

The Serengeti has a diverse set of landscapes – from savannahs to woodlands to wetlands. All of this supports an impressive array of wildlife – including over 4000 lions, over 1000 leopards, 500+ bird species. In one word – it is legendary.

These two parks play host to The Great Migration – the largest overland mammal migration in the world. Between 1.5 to 2 million wildebeest and zebras take an 800km round trip around these parks. This is often described as “the greatest show on earth” as it involves some spectacular interactions between predator and prey.

When you encounter the migration, they take over entire hills…

…and roads.

These passing herds are a special treat for all the predators.. and the incredible clean up crew.

This was a mom watching over her cubs…

.. who stayed still as a poisonous Green Mamba went on her and then slithered away.

Lion prides are formidable. Very few animals can survive an attack – here’s a hippo that did.

Tree-climbing lions are a rare sight.

Predators aren’t just big cats. Here’s a large owl.

A typical sighting of a leopard – as solitary cats, they spend a lot of time on trees.

Cheetah brothers figuring out where to go next. Cheetah tend to love the tall grasses of the savannah – they’re perfect camouflage.

To me, time spent in the Serengeti was a reminder that we were in the kingdom of the big cats. We spent many hours driving through rugged territory. But we forgot all those hours of driving when we finally caught a glimpse of a majestic cat. Time stood still.

It also reminded me of the magic of ecosystems. Every part of the ecosystem matters. The prey eat the grass and create space for new grass. The predators eat the prey. The scavengers clean up the caracasses and ensure no diseases are spread. And so on.

As Mufasa beautifully put it in the Lion King, “when we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.“

We are indeed.