Archives for September 2019

I recently came across this profound and pithy idea: whatever you’re not changing, you’re choosing.

It’s a challenging reminder to think just as hard about inaction as we do action.

The power of this idea is in its broad applicability.

For example, it’s applicable to our diet and exercise habits, to tough decisions in the work place, and even through to how we respond to large-scale social justice issues, like the Climate Crisis.

Even if we convince ourselves we’re not choosing, we still are.

H/T Laurie Buchanan

As London drizzled during my walk home last night, I saw a drenched food-delivery driver race by on his moped.

On rainy evenings, the demand for food-delivery increases.

At the same time, food-delivery riders choose not to work due to dangerous conditions and the high probability of being cold and wet for hours on end.

It’s the gig economy version of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

High demand for food delivery and a low supply of delivery riders creates tension.

To ease this tension, food-delivery companies react in three ways, 1) they charge an additional fee (surge pricing) for each delivery to artificially lower demand, 2) they offer wet-weather bonuses to drivers to keep up delivery productivity, and 3) they make consumers wait longer for their food.

But no matter how hard these companies try, when it rains, no one wins. Not the customers, riders, or the food-delivery companies.

With our own products and services, we may not be able to avoid some lose-lose situations either. But it’s better to know they exist, attempt to anticipate them, and have avoidance strategies in place for when they hit.

“Never ask the barber if you need a haircut” is a popular saying from legendary investor, Warren Buffett.

When making decisions, it’s natural to look to the advice, experience, and expertise of others to help us form our judgements.

But we should remember to scrutinise both 1) the advice itself, and 2) the credibility of the advice giver.

We often forget number 2 and treat all advice equally.

In the case of the barber, it’s easy to see the connection between the “you should get a hair cut” recommendation and the barber’s monthly pay check.

However, in most situations, the conflict of interest is not so clear cut. But simply being aware of it can help improve the quality of our decision making.

I arrived at work this morning to these pears.

Small. Odd. Weird.

But wonderful.

These pears are from Oddbox, a company that buys the produce that big-chain supermarkets won’t accept. They then package and deliver direct-to-consumer or to businesses, like Bulb.

I had no idea that the UK throws out over 3 million tonnes (£4 billion worth) of produce per year; just because it doesn’t conform to a specific shape or size.

That’s nuts! In fact, it’s enough food to feed 20,000 people for a year.

Oddbox refuses to accept the “this is the way it’s always been” excuse. With some common sense, good branding, and some smart logistics, they’re doing something to make things better.

Here’s to them.

In the last two months since I’ve started daily blogging, one of the questions I’ve received is, “How do you find the time to write something everyday?”

So I thought I’d share one specific change I’ve made to my daily habits to create time for writing.

When I started daily blogging, I looked at how I spent my time each day, and tried to shift moments of consumption into moments of creation.

When on the tube heading into work, instead of trying to listen to music over the screeching of London’s northern line, I ditch the headphones, reflect on the previous day, and note some ideas down on my phone.

I used to skip my lunch break, but I now take 15 minutes once I’ve finished my meal to build on what I wrote that morning.

Finally, when I get home, I’ve replace what used to be Netflix time with wrapping up the blog post for the day, and getting into bed a little earlier with a book.

I realised it was so easy to be in a constant state of consumption, and I have simply tried to balance some of that with deliberate creation time.

I’m also just happy to be putting original content out into the world again. This blog is the first time since vlogging on the Mississippi that I’ve been publicly sharing ideas, and the meaningful email conversations I’ve had with readers to date have made it all worth it.

I recently came across this great Twitter thread started by Y Combinator Chairman, Sam Altman.

It’s odd how the best advice is often so simple that it’s ignored. Maybe it’s because the advice seems boring, or that it is hard to keep up simple and good habits.

I’ve been reflecting on this phenomenon in the last few months, and have written about it before in take the stairs, and eat more veggies. No doubt it will be something I’ll continue to think and blog about in future.

I hope you enjoy reading through the ideas in Sam’s thread.

A local cafe near work had a broken card machine this morning.

Scrappily printed “Cash Only” signs were stuck to the entrance door and to the tills.

Realising I had no cash on me, I slowly began to turn around and leave when the manager asked me, “Do you work around here?”

As I nodded, and he replied with, “Well, why don’t you take what you need and come back later to pay?”

No questions asked.

When things go wrong, someone gets to allocate responsibility and risk.

Today, the manager could have passed the broken card machine burden to me. However, he chose to assume responsibility and take the risk that I wouldn’t come back to pay. The funny thing is he earned more trust from me today than if the card machine was working perfectly.

Even if it’s broken, there are still opportunities to build trust.

This links back to a previous post about taking it on the chin.

One of my blogging inspirations, Rohan Rajiv, came out with a post today curating his top 5 articles on the Climate Crisis.

I’ve been searching for a while now for a well-rounded and balanced list of articles and resources on this topic, so I’m thrilled Rohan has put this together.

Rohan summarises that 1) our understanding of our global environmental situation has matured immensely in the past 2 years, and 2) our reality is in fact so grave it is necessary to update “Climate Change” in our lexicon to “Climate Crisis”.

I realised that even though I’ve worked in renewable energy for the past 3 years, my understanding of humanity’s impact on the planet has likely become outdated.

This has inspired me to set aside time this weekend to delve into these resources.

If you’re interested, I hope you will too.

Happy reading!

Most of us don’t need a reminder on how to ride a bike. It’s natural and automatic.

It’s muscle memory.

However, unlike breathing, which is done subconsciously from birth, riding a bike is a learned skill, and that distinction is important.

It’s an activity that, at one point, we found hard and awkward. But with time and effort, it became natural and part of our subconscious.

So if we have a formula for turning hard things into automatic actions, why should we stop at cycling?

What if we worked to develop muscle memory in other parts of our lives?

What about active listening? Rather than thinking up a reply while the other person is talking, we focus with intent on what they are trying to say.

What about asking “Why?” when faced with a complicated problem? Rather than jumping straight into solution mode, we first pause and seek to understand why we’re in our current situation before we act.

What about a daily gratefulness practice? Rather than ploughing through the day like we’ve got an endless supply, we take a second to be thankful for the current moment.

For me, I’ve been experimenting with muscle memory through daily blogging. It’s been two months since I started, and perhaps the biggest impact it’s had on my life is how it has forced me to be more open, attentive, and curious. It’s forced me to notice what’s going on in the world around me, and to try and share what I see in a thoughtful and generous way.

Is there a muscle memory experiment you’d like to run? I’d love to hear about your experience if you try it!

New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup campaign kicked-off today with a scintillating match against South Africa. As the two teams tipped to meet in the final, to see them play against each other in their first Pool match was a real treat.

What stood out to me in the build-up to this match was an amazing quote given by All Black’s coach, Steve Hansen.

The most important thing for any team is you turn up with attitude and intent. When you have that you can express your talent.

It’s not always going to go your way, but if you don’t turn up with the right attitude and intent, a good team is going to give you a punch on the nose and hurt you. You can’t just turn up… you have to build it and slowly get clarity of your game.

What you want is the execution of the stuff you’ve been working on, and you’ve got to stay clear-headed, and not get over-excited or under-excited, but stay in the zone mentally.

Attitude and intent is a game played in the top two inches. A clear mind, steely determination, and grounded self-confidence are needed for the natural talent to emerge.

Upon reflection, this model of thinking isn’t reserved for elite sportspeople. In our professional and personal lives, we’re constantly faced with challenges that require us to persuade, debate, re-think, re-frame, and improve.

The attitude and intent we bring to each of these moments matters.

As taller buildings started going up in the early days of the industrial revolution, many of them began to include lifts. But instead of receiving praise for transporting people up many flights of stairs, the lifts were criticised for being too slow.

Hearing their customer complaints, the lift companies got to work trying to build a faster product. The problem was faster lifts required better pulleys and larger motors, which made the costs untenable.

It wasn’t until an engineer re-framed the problem that a solution was found.

What if the speed of the lift isn’t the problem?

What if traveling in a lift just feels like a long time because all you can do is stare at the wall and think about being suspended in mid-air?

This line of thinking led to an idea: what if we installed a mirror?

Once mirrors were installed, people became distracted during the journey and the complaints disappeared. People even commented on how fast the new lifts were, even though their speed had not changed.

Re-framing the problem saved a lot of money whilst also improving the customer experience.

It’s a nice reminder for us to look at our personal and professional challenges from multiple angles before investing in a (potentially) costly solution.

There is an old and rather fanciful story about J.P. Morgan.

It is said that a man approached Morgan with an envelope which contained a guaranteed formula for success. The man said he’d sell the formula to Morgan for $25,000.

Morgan gave his word that if he liked what he saw, he’d pay the man.

When Morgan opened the envelope, he took out a single piece of paper, spent a short moment reading its contents, and promptly paid.

Two things were written on the piece of paper:

1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them.

Regardless of whether this story is true or not, it’s a helpful reminder that it is often the simple tactics that 1) help us clarify what’s important, and 2) ensure we only focus our energy on things that bring us closer to our goal.

Back in 2011, I spent 3 weeks traveling the Gulf of Mexico with Mike Horn as part of his Pangaea expedition.

Mike is a force of nature. He’s considered one of our world’s foremost explorers, with his achievements including a 2-year unmotorised circumnavigation of the world along the equator, a 6-month swim down the Amazon River, and the first expedition to the North Pole in winter.

Just a touch over 50 years of age, Mike is halfway through his next challenge: a circumnavigation of the globe via the north and south poles.

I’ve been following his updates, and the latest one shocked me.

His boat, Pangaea, a 135ft icebreaker that will drop him off on the ice caps of the far north, is the closest a boat has ever come to the North Pole.

This is a sad record; one that Mike and his crew are lamenting.

As our earth continues to warm, scientists predict that within the next 20 years, the Arctic’s ice caps will completely melt during the summer; having untold consequences for the region’s wildlife.

Mike’s expeditions have always served to communicate, in some way, the beauty and fragility of our planet. But we shouldn’t have to see records broken in this way to make us understand the urgency required for a global climate turn around.

I’m not going to end this post with platitudes, but I hope this story serves as another example in the undeniable body of evidence that something must be done.

This is a week of reflection for me. And in doing so, my mind has found itself repeatedly returning to a theme: Breadcrumbs in the forest.

Most readers of this blog will have people in their lives who are 1) a few years further along life’s journey, and 2) role models for a good life.

These people are often parents, mentors, colleagues, and grandparents.

Although these people can’t provide an exact blueprint for how to live, because each of our circumstances and experiences are unique, they can provide a guide for how to approach each phase of life.

Their ideas on how to live a good life are like breadcrumbs in the forest. They are hints, gentle nudges, and quiet words of wit and wisdom left on the trail for the next generation to find and follow. These ideas help us avoid the pitfalls so we can experience more of the good that life has to offer.

Today, I’m remembering Grandma’s breadcrumbs. In particular, her consistency of spirit, kind-hearted care, and simplicity of living.

Are there people in your life who’ve left breadcrumbs in the forest for you to follow?

Consider letting them know, and thanking them, for the gift they’ve given you.

Early this morning, my beautiful Grandma Audrey passed away.

Today is not a day for writing, but one for reflection, remembrance, and sadness.

Today is a quiet one.