Archives for 2020

Imagine you’re driving down a small one-way lane, and you realise you’ve taken a wrong turn. The usual thing would be to turn the car around with a 3-point turn and exit the street.

Now, imagine you’re in a self-driving car imagined by Zoox (a company that was recently purchased by Amazon).

Their dream is a self-driving car that is able to drive equally well in both forward and reverse directions. In other words, it doesn’t need to perform a 3-point turn. If it did, it’d only do so because it make us—the passengers—feel more comfortable.

It got me thinking about how tech advances will remove the need for certain actions (e.g., the 3-point turn), but how many of these actions will we keep just because they are comfortable and familiar?

When you’re writing that short story, making that gift, recording that song, or formulating that presentation, leave it all on the field.

In other words, don’t be afraid to put your best ideas in.

Don’t save the best melody for another song. Don’t save that electric character for another story. Don’t suggest the second best business idea.

Many people worry that if they use their best ideas now, they’ll have nothing left for the future. But that worldview sees ideas and inspiration as a finite currency.

As Patricia Ryan Harris says, “There is always something in the box.”

There will be more ideas tomorrow.

“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” – W. Somerset Maugham

I love this quote.

It’s a beautiful tongue-in-cheek depiction of 1) the need for inspiration, and 2) the decision to turn up each day and do the work.

I watched Parasite this weekend; the Korean thriller that won Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.

The characters had me within minutes in this scathing critique of capitalism and class division. It’s truly a masterclass in storytelling.

It’s satirical, it’s dark, it’s surprising, it’s funny, and it’s profound social commentary, all wrapped up in one tightly packed bundle.

If you seen it, drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it!

My dear friend, Logan, recommended I read Steven Pressfield’s ‘The War of Art’ back in 2015, and it changed my life. Heck, if it wasn’t for that book, I wouldn’t have traveled down the Mississippi River or started this blog.

The book centres around every artists’ nemesis: Resistance (the capital R is important).

Every writer, musician, business person, or creative battles with Resistance. It’s a malicious force that says you’re not ready, that you’re not good enough, and that you shouldn’t risk failure.

Fighting Resistance is a daily fight, and the our challenge each day is to deal with it; to sit down and do the work, regardless of how we feel.

I knew this book meant something to me, but when I saw Ryan Holiday’s post about how almost every writer and artist he knows swears by it, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

So if you feel like you’ve got something to say or share with the world, I hope you pick up a copy. Then send me a note about how you found it!

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” —Steven Pressfield

Microsoft announced this week that it will close all its retail stores.

I used to assume its stores were just an attempt to copy Apple’s success in the space, but when I experienced one for myself in Miami last June, I changed my mind.

When I walked in, it wasn’t like a normal store. No one tried to press a sale, I was simply encouraged to play and have fun with the different products. I looked over and saw a row of 10 gaming computers, all connected to the online game, Fortnite, and all with small crowds of young adults milling around waiting for their turn. It felt like an 80s arcade thrown 35 years into the future. And despite not having purchased a Microsoft product for personal use for many years, I felt connected to their goal: making technology fun and accessible to all.

Although the closure of the stores makes sense—as COVID has decimated retail around the world, and Microsoft don’t need a retail presence to survive—I’m a little sad to think that the vibe and energy in those stores will no longer exist.

There was a gas leak in our block of flats a few weeks ago. Soon after, many of the pipes across the building were identified as old and requiring replacement.

It took a couple weeks, but today I managed to get the gas safe engineers to come and perform the replacement.

The experience was surreal.

Pre-COVID, the engineer would arrive and simply walk into the home with few precautions.

Now, they’re wearing masks, gloves, and foot coverings. They ran through extensive safety and symptom questionnaires. They took turns coming inside my property to make sure they kept distance from each other. I was asked to open all my windows and ventilate the property beforehand.

It was the first time I let the new norm into our home. And despite all the changes and new protocols, I’m grateful to be in a country with companies taking it so seriously.

“When in 1913 people said that there was peace between France and Germany, they meant that ‘there is no war going on at present between France and Germany, but who knows what next year will bring.’ When today we say there is peace between France and Germany, we mean that it is inconceivable under any foreseeable circumstances that war might break out between them.” – Yuval Noah Harari in Homo Deus.

Peace has always been a stable concept in my mental model of the world. It has felt like the default, the obvious, and the norm.

But as little 100 years ago, peace looked very different; it was fragile and temperamental.

It got me pondering: what other concepts feel normal today, but were wildly different as little as 100 years ago?

If you’re like me, you expect big things from your first draft—whether it’s a document, blog post, or any creative project.

My issues is that I forget that it’s just a first draft, and not a finished product.

I’d love to be clear, logical, creative, inspired, and inspiring the moment the pen hits the paper, but reality rarely works this way.

So here’s to the first draft, the second, the third, and however many more, in order to bring our unique voices into the world.

“It’s not possible for us to deliver this project before August.”

“We haven’t seen a decrease in participation.”

“We haven’t got a plan yet.”

The problem with these sentences is they are framed in the negative, which results in vague, muddled conclusions.

Framing things in the positive, however, provides clarity.

“It’s possible for us to deliver this project by the 15th of August.”

“We have seen stable participation rates averaging 25 people per session.”

“We’re committing to having a finished plan by the end of the week.”

Whenever you find yourself framing in the negative, see if you can flip it on its head and frame in the positive instead.

In a world that produces more information than we can possibly consume, who do we listen to when the stakes are high?

During COVID, governments have tried—with varying degrees of success—to define what we can and can’t do, but what’s missing are voices that guide us in the little things. For example, who answers when is it safe to go on public transport? Or do I still have to wear a mask even though cases have been falling in my area?

I’ve found I gravitate to a few “high signal” sources, rather than reading all the articles with catchy titles.

I’ve previously mentioned Donald G. McNeil, a journalist who has been covering epidemics for more than 30 years. Every so often he speaks on The Daily Podcast and shares what precautions he takes. I generally use McNeil as a heuristic and copy what he does. I figure if it’s good enough for an epidemic expert, it has a good chance of working for me, too.

Nothing he shares is ground breaking, but his advice is a strong motivator to stay the course. For example, I’m staying away from all indoor gatherings outside my household, and I’m always cycling rather than using public transport.

When it’s easy to be overwhelmed with information, finding a high-signal, trusted voice to follow can make challenging situations simpler and easier to manage.

“Those who panicked early don’t have to panic today,” was a thought shared by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in early March as lockdowns around the world were intensifying.

At the time, I simply used it as a justification of my decision to stock up on pasta and frozen vegetables.

However, I’ve come back to this thought many times throughout the lockdown, as its lesson are applicable well outside the global pandemic.

A little thinking, a little prudence, and a little caution, can have positive ripple effects into the dreary days down the line.

Here’s a little blogging experiment.

Have you been reading anything recently that you think I’d find interesting? Or that you think I could write and share about?

I’d love to hear it!

Yesterday was Juneteenth, a day celebrating the end of slavery, and a celebration of Black Americans.

On this day, Facebook asked all employees to take it as a day of learning to better understand the history and systems of racial injustice, so that we may help contribute to their dismantling.

During my reading, I came across The 1619 Project by the New York Times Magazine. It’s an on-going long-form journalism project with the goal of re-examining the legacy of slavery in the United States. It started last year, 2019, on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.

The essays not only tell the history of slavery in the United States, but they also detail how systemic racial injustices can be seen across a wide range of topics, such as interstate highway traffic jams, sugar, healthcare, the prison system, the vast wealth gap, and capitalism.

These essays are simply an entry point into understanding how racial injustice has permeated throughout our society—how it has become systemic.

I highly recommend taking an hour and reading through these articles.

Earlier this year, I read about how one of the most senior traders at US Investment Bank, Citigroup, was let go after supposedly stealing food from the company’s canteen.

The employee was reportedly on a 7-figure salary, and so it baffled me that he would be tempted to steal food in the first place.

This story serves as a simple reminder that no matter how high you climb, being faithful with the small things remains an important virtue that one should never forget.