I know this post is a weird one, but I’ve shared this foolproof method for heating up delivery pizza with 4-5 people now, and 1) no one had heard of it before, 2) they were all keen to try it, and 3) it really works!
So I thought you may find it useful too. Here it is:
The daily learning doesn’t always need to be insightful, novel, or complex. As long as it is useful, it can be worth sharing.
As part of Maru’s Masters in Service Design, she’s working on a project with Camden Council to help limit the impact of extensive construction in London’s Euston area.
One of their ideas is to fill construction hoardings—which are the large, boarded fences keeping people out of construction sites—with artwork to help the local area feel more lively, and less like a construction site.
These artworks would form meanwhile spaces—which are unused sites temporarily lent to the public sector, arts organisations, charities, or start-ups for community-oriented activities.
A big part of her programme is prototyping and experimentation. So her group decided to make their own origami art pieces and place them on construction hoardings in the Camden area to gauge the reactions from local residents.
We spent Sunday evening folding our origami, and set out early Monday morning to put up our little creation. Our fingers were frozen stiff, and we worked quickly—perhaps a little afraid of the peering eyes of the nearby construction workers.
Soon after we finished, we heard a mother and son walking past and the son asking if they could pause and take a photo of all the bright colours. Success!
When a concept alone is insufficient, or the bells-and-whistles solution isn’t possible, sometimes you just have to prototype and do it yourself.
Today is my Dad’s birthday, and it’s a big one. One of those with a zero at the end.
Milestone birthdays like this always inspire a little more reflection than normal.
When I think back over the years, it’s Dad’s consistency in the little things that stand out—particularly in the way he treats and cares for others.
He never missed a sports game, music show, or theatre performance.
Every Saturday, for as long as I can remember, he has cooked the family breakfast.
He always made sure we tidied the house before mum got home, because that helped her relax after a long day.
And to this day, whenever I call him, he always greets me with a cheesy grin and a “Hey Buddy.” And his words have only ever served to build me up; never to tear me down.
I’m beyond lucky to have him.
Happy Birthday, Dad!
The small city of Cesena in Italy is not usually on the touring radar of the world’s biggest bands. With a population of only 100,000 people, its residents usually have to travel to Milan, Rome, or nearby Bologna for a show.
However, that changed in 2015 when more than 1,000 people from Cesena gathered in a park to play the Foo Fighter’s song ‘Learn to Fly’. The huge coordination effort and well executed music video was a petition to the Foo Fighters to come and play a show in their city.
The Foo Fighters responded with a show in Cesena in that same year.
The Cesena video now has more than 55 million views on YouTube, and is an amazing example of what a group of passionate people can do with the power and scale of the internet.
When Ancient Rome established the Roman numerals, they became the standard method of numerical communication in Europe for 1,500 years.
It wasn’t until the 15th Century that Europe began to adopt and use the Hindi-Arabic numbers we all know and use today. The base-ten (decimal) system is highly logical and structured, and allows for faster and more complex calculations than the Roman kind.
I had three reflections on this:
Our plans to make things better don’t need to be complicated. We should:
It’s usually easier to overcomplicate than it is to keep things simple.
This is a lesson I remind myself of over and over again.
Encourage the dissenter.
Embrace the heretic.
Make space for the contrarian.
It’s these people that spot the gaps in the plan. It’s these people that have the courage to speak up about what’s not working. It’s these people that anticipate the storm ahead.
Don’t shun or rebuke them. Instead, create a safe space for them to speak up, and let them loose on your toughest problems.
When working on complex problems, it’s easy to hide a lack of knowledge or understanding. All you need to do is talk using vague and abstract terms, and avoid specifics.
The true test of someone’s understanding of a subject is their ability to 1) make an assertion, and 2) provide a simple and accurate example.
This applies across any area or discipline.
I’m going to use a facetious example of a lemonade stand to illustrate the point.
Customer research
Bad: Our customers love our lemonade. We’ve got a great reputation in the neighbourhood.
Good: Our customers love our lemonade. We know this because we interviewed 20 recent customers, and 15 of them said they’d recommend us to a friend.
Designing experiences
Bad: We should start a loyalty programme. Everyone loves those.
Good: We should start a loyalty programme. 80% of our customers are weekly buyers, and we could run a buy-5-get-1-free experiment to see if they end up buying more over time.
Disagreeing on ways of working
Bad: Our team is dysfunctional. Even after 2 months of trying different things, we still can’t work well together.
Good: Our team is dysfunctional. 2 months ago, the lemonade makers and lemonade sellers met to identify why we were missing orders. We agreed to implement a checklist system so no orders would be missed, but the lemonade makers haven’t been following the process for the past month.
Reporting financial results.
Bad: Our lemonade stand’s profits increased this week, and we’re doing well on costs.
Good: Our lemonade stand’s profits increased by $10 this week (a 10% improvement on last week), because we renegotiated our lemon supply contract from $0.40 per lemon to $0.30.
Of course, this lemonade stand example is silly, but keep your eyes peeled, and you’ll find examples of this lack of knowledge and understanding all around you.
To truly understand something, and to have greater impact in our work, force yourself to include an example.
There’s no one way to think, to take care of your body, to build a career, or to raise kids.
There is no one way to do most things!
I say most things because sunscreen is non-negotiable.
Many people will share with you their way. A subset will be convinced they’re right and that everyone else is wrong.
Just remember that you’re the one who decides.
Someone else’s success may just be their lottery ticket numbers. Or their failures may just be bad luck.
Bottom line: there is no blueprint, and that is liberating.
Spend all your time in travel, and you won’t have a home.
Spend all your time making acquaintances, and you’ll miss out on true friendship.
Spread your time across the widest possible range of authors, and you’ll miss the lessons of the few master thinkers.
Everywhere means nowhere.
When there is snow, I always go out for a walk.
It’s a rule.
I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand—we don’t get snow there. And it only snows about once a year in London, so it still sparks wonder and joy whenever I see it.
My snow rule also came about due to The Tail End essay by Tim Urban. It’s a mathematical and visual approach to estimating the number of experiences we’re likely to have left.
For example, if I continue to only see snow once per year, statistically speaking, I should only get 50-or-so more snow-filled walks in the park.
I don’t think these are morbid thoughts. If anything, thoughts like this can help us make the most of each day and opportunity.
I’m fascinated by The Line, a concept for a new, sustainable city to be built in Saudi Arabia.
It will be 170kms long, and will have no roads or cars. People will live in smaller communities along the belt, and will have access to everything they need within a 5 minute walk from their home. The communities will be powered by 100% clean energy, and will be connected to each other through underground transport—with the journey from end-to-end only taking 20 minutes.
With construction starting this year, who knows if we’re witnessing the future, science fiction, or a soon-to-be-failed experiment. Regardless, its amazing to see concepts like this being proposed and brought to life.
One of my goals is to work on problems that feel like play to me, but feel like work to others.
The natural energy and joy leads to outcomes that can only be achieved when you love something.
If we spend 40 years of our one life working, it shouldn’t have to be drudgery.
It may be a bit snowflake of me, but hey, it’s an aspiration, not a requirement.
When the work is messy.
When it’s complex.
When it’s confusing.
When it’s hard.
When it’s frustrating.
Don’t hide it from them.
Your team. Your spouse. Your friends.
Trust that they’re strong enough to carry the load with you.
Don’t fear they’ll think less of you or that you’ll drive them away, because when you open up and share the struggle, it has the opposite effect: it brings people together.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with Seneca’s Moral Letters.
I have a bad habit of racing through books—flitting between many, and not leaving enough time for the ideas to settle.
As Seneca himself writes, “Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner.“
Instead of racing through all 72 and moving on to the next book, I’ve chosen a handful and have been re-listening to them over and over again.
Letter 2: On Discursiveness in Reading
Letter 13: On Groundless Fears
Letter 18: On Festivals and Fasting
Given the time I’m spending with Seneca, I may end up blogging in greater depth on him and his letter. There is so much to learn and unpack in a single letter, and I’m sure if you look, you’ll find words that challenge, embolden, inspire, and educate you too.