A Learning a Day

Michael Gambon’s performance as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series was one of those that made every fan miss the late Richard Harris more with each passing scene.

It is unclear why Gambon’s portrayal of Dumbledore veered so far away from the spirit of the character. My guess is that it was largely an attempt at differentiation. So, instead of getting to see Dumbledore’s characteristic wisdom and calm, we were left with a weird combination of grumpiness and impatience.

A great example of unhelpful differentiation.

It is like the various brands of security scanners at airports. Some require you to take off electronics and shoes, others don’t. A recent experience involved seeing a new brand pilot “cutting edge” technology that seemed to flag one in every two bags.

Again, unhelpful differentiation.

Differentiation is only useful when it results in a positive outcome.

No point differentiating for the sake of doing so – in our products, in our work, and in our life.

“It’s not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it’s a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you.” | The Boys in the Boat

As in the boat, so in life…

I was born in Southern India and a constant theme in the past years has been the impact of changing climate. The last decade, in particular, has been horrible in the state of Kerala. The rains and floods have gotten increasingly more devastating – with death tolls getting worse each time.

The latest such event was a devastating set of floods and landslides in a region called “Wayanad.” 300 people are already reported dead with a few hundred more missing. The circumstances are heartbreaking.

Amidst all this, there have been some incredible stories shared about people who’ve come face to face with wild animals as humans have sought refuge in nearby forests in their attempts to escape the landslide. This story was one such example –

When we finally stopped, we found ourselves on top of a hill, face-to-face with an elephant. We were so scared, it was dark. We told the elephant, ‘We’ve come after a disaster. We’re afraid, Please, don’t show us anything more.’ When we looked closer, we saw tears flowing from its eyes as though it understood our plight. We laid down near its leg and stayed there until it was almost 6 a.m.” Sujatha said.

I felt so many emotions as I read this – sadness at their plight, awe at this elephant’s behavior, and frustration at the thought of elected officials who still walk around denying anthropogenic climate change and its impacts for personal benefit.

Nothing constructive to share beyond this story. Just a moment of awareness of these emotions… and acceptance.

It is Olympics season. We’ve been tuning into the highlights every couple of days now. Yesterday, we saw Simon Biles’ incredible performance as team USA won the Gold.

Simon Biles is clearly competent. In what might be the understatement of the year, it is clear she has the skills to do her job.

Her medal tally is proof of her excellence. Her skills translate to results – incredible ones at that.

Greatness, however, is a whole different ball game. It goes beyond innovating in the sport (her signature move is now officially named after her) and her excellence over a long period.

Yesterday, she stepped onto the mat with an incredible amount of pressure. She had the gymnast version of vertigo in 2020 and the team left with a silver medal. She was called all sorts of names after she took a subsequent mental health break. The team were expected to win this time around. Some of her awesome teammates had a couple of small slip ups – the pressure was high.

She took all this in her stride and delivered a mindblowing performance – seemingly with ease.

I can’t fathom the amount of practice and work – both physical and mental – that went into delivering that performance. But that ability to deliver when the stakes are highest is the hallmark of greatness.

That’s what I love about the Olympics – it is a celebration of so many humans who’ve committed to habits that are out of the ordinary to deliver extra-ordinary results. Every one of them is competent. Excellence will land them a place in the podium. And, in the case of a few like a Simone Biles and a Katie Ledecky, these games are where they show up to perform and cement their position as all time greats.

In that process, they inspire many, me included, to ask – “If they can do amazing things, why can’t I?”

We can’t always do great things. But we can certainly do small things consistently with extraordinary care.

Here’s to doing more of that.

One of the interesting side-effects of writing a blog on the internet for over 16 years now is the responses and follow up questions after these posts go out. The vast majority of these stay as email exchanges. Today, however, I thought I’d write about two responses to the post from day before yesterday on what I loved about HP’s Instant Ink subscription.

One shared that it felt like an ad. Another asked if I was becoming a product shill.

The answer is no.

But, in the spirit of “write what you repeat,” I thought I’d take the opportunity to lay out how I approach writing here.

(1) This blog has a simple “no ads” policy. I don’t monetize anything or plan to. It is pure cost – an investment if you will. The primary “cost” of this investment is time. The secondary costs are those that go to WordPress (domain/hosting) and Feedblitz (emails).

And the return on that investment is simply the joy of getting to keep this blog going.

The best part about this “bright line” rule is that there are no *asterisks or conditions that apply. No sponsored anything.

(2) I also don’t do guest posts. I share posts I love from the internet from time to time – typically with full credit to the author. But I’ve never done a guest post where I work with an author to post something here. Again, never have and don’t plan to.

(3) The reason I’m able to enforce (1) and (2) is because of an idea I describe as “writing for yourself” vs. “writing for others.” When you do the former, you can simply focus on the upside that matters to you. In my case, it is teaching myself to pause everyday to write about something about I’ve observed, learnt, or been inspired by.

I don’t write every day to grow subscriptions – I barely know what my numbers are and don’t promote these posts elsewhere either. I did this for a while in the early years but soon realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. It is also why you don’t see any reminders to forward or subscribe.

I spend enough time optimizing metrics at work. This is a pure joy and learning zone. I show up every day, write, and go back to living my life. I’ve come to appreciate that meaningful outcomes in life are best when they ensue vs. when they’re pursued. As a result, I’m left with gratitude for you/ the community of folks who’ve been on this journey – many for over a decade.

(4) I do write about all kinds of products and businesses I love. This happens from time to time. If I had to guess my frequency, it would perhaps be one every month on average. In the past couple months, I wrote about Instant Ink, Schwab, Perplexity, and Designer Discount Club. These are the ones that come to mind at this moment at least… and there have been many more over the years.

Sometimes, I write because I’ve learnt something from how they operate. Sometimes, it is just because it has given me joy. But perhaps most of all, it is because I build technology products for a living. And I’m fascinated by great product/service experiences.

All that said, I’ll close with a thank you as always for your feedback and notes on these posts – especially those that inspire follow ups like this.

“If you don’t schedule time for maintenance, your equipment will do it for you.” | Deb Chachra in How Infrastructure Works

This is a beautiful reminder that is true for all kinds of systems, tools, and things we own. Things degrade.

Either we maintain them on our schedule or they’ll demand it on theirs.

We purchased an HP Officejet printer a couple years ago. The combination of the pandemic and young kids who needed stuff printed from time to time made it a necessary purchase.

It was definitely liberating to know we didn’t have to go to a store nearby for a quick print. However, the thought of all those ink cartridge refills made the whole business of owning a printer feel unsavory.

That was until I learnt about HP’s Instant Ink program. It is a simple idea – you pay a monthly fee between $1.5 and $7 depending on your usage. I’ve been on the $1.5 plan most months with occasional shifts up if I expect significant amounts of printing.

In return, HP mails you cartridges when they detect low ink levels.

It is a subscription that just takes away the hassle of owning a printer. The best kind of subscription.

Well played, HP team.

(1) The market and business model matter much more than our work. It is the equivalent of running uphill vs. downhill.

(2) Our ability to deliver results in our product/area/market matter lesser than timing. Being at the right place at the right time is the ultimate accelerant. Some part of this is building the right skills and some part of it is dumb luck.

(3) Facts don’t matter as much if you have the ability to distort them to tell the story you want. This is true in any large enough organization and is especially important if you want to pursue a career in political office.

(4) Complaining about recurring behavior is a lot like complaining about the weather. Either switch locations… or make peace with it.

(5) Who you know often matters a lot more than what you know and how well you know it.

(6) Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the behavior and the outcome.

(7) Karma often plays out on a timescale longer than we hope.

Belief is expressed in actions.

Words that are used to express belief, as George R R Martin would say, are wind.

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” | Haruki Murakami

This is a beautiful and truthful note about the storms – personal and professional – we face.

The person who walks in isn’t the person who walks out.

(H/T: James Clear’s newsletter)