Archives for May 2022

I never want to do it.

I dread it, in fact.

But once it’s done, I feel much better.

Lighter even.

Here’s to those (Maru) who have the foresight and resolve to know that spring cleaning is an investment for a clear mind, as well as clean home.

Maybe they don’t need advice, a plan, or even an opinion.

Maybe all they need is you to say, “Tell me more.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about this unsourced quote:

“Trust is earned in drops, but lost in buckets.”

There’s a tonne of value in restraint, having a cool head, and listening more than speaking.

Although I’m not great at it, surfing a longboard—any surfboard with a length of more than 9ft—is a joy.

The people who are good at it can often be found walking up and down the length of the board.

This got me thinking.

When we’re on a wave, and it’s moving faster than we are, we can take a step forward to stay on it.

Similarly, if it’s moving too slowly, we can step backward and wait for the wave to catch up.

I think our teams function in a similar way. The problems, opportunities, and challenges we face are like that waves that roll in.

As group, we decide if we need to be a bit more aggressive and move to the front of the board. Too much though, and we nose dive. Alternatively, we may think we need to slow down, and move to the back of the board. If we move too far back though, we fall off the back of the wave due to a lack of momentum.

It takes deliberate practise, care, and intuition to know where to position yourself on the longboard—in the water and in life.

Most people agree that ice cream is delicious.

Most people disagree on which flavour is best.

A recent discussion at work made me think of this.

Teams may agree on a vision, but that doesn’t mean they agree on the pathway to get there.

Picking the right flavour requires patient, deliberate, and careful attention. But the path is made easier when team member all agree that they like ice cream.

I got to live out a dream this past weekend.

For my 30th birthday last year, my family got me a driving experience at Silverstone—the racing track famous for hosting the British Formula 1 Grand Prix.

It was one of those special gifts because it isn’t something I would’ve bought for myself.

I got to drive a single seater, which looks a lot like a Formula 1 car, but is a lot slower and a lot less powerful! They accelerate from 0 to 100 kph within 4.6 seconds, and have a top speed of 145 mph—more than enough for me!

In top gear and at full throttle, my whole body was shaking. Turning in the corners, I felt my body slide and get pushed into the side of the car. The deafening noise and being so low to the ground also helped me appreciate just how difficult it must be for the professionals to race without incidents.

Here is a short photo and video of the experience!

“A person who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.”—Confucius

I re-stumbled upon this quote today. It reminded me of how our habits make us, and how we do anything is how we do everything.

I got me thinking: when I spot the mistake, how much faster can I diagnose the root cause, and resolve to avoid it the next time round?

Feedback loops are everywhere. Our actions produce results that help inform our next actions.

It’s important to distinguish between different types of feedback loops though.

There are reinforcing feedback loops, and there are balancing feedback loops. The former helps us strive for better, the latter for moderation.

Say you’re learning a new language and you use a new phrase in conversation. It gives you a confidence boost and inspires you to continue learning. That’s a reinforcement loop.

Say you’ve set the temperature in your home to stay constant. Anytime the sensors detect the temperature is too hot or cold, it turns on the heating or cooling systems to bring the home back to its target equilibrium state. That’s a balancing loop.

It’s important to identify the type of feedback loop we’re dealing with; optimising for growth when what we need is balance (or vice versa), can send us down the wrong path.

It’s amazing how a street, a park, or a city can transform when we put away our headphones, turn off our phone, and soak in all that’s around us.

We learn new things about what’s in plain sight.

There’s richness to be found in ordinary.

Some shortcuts save us time.

Other “shortcuts” end up adding more risk, creating more problems, and causing more frustration.

It’s easy to measure the success of a shortcut when we travelling somewhere with a map and a watch.

It’s hard to measure the success of a shortcut when we’re talking about plans, and people, and trade-offs, and decisions made over months and years.

Not all shortcuts are the same.

Cut with care.

Dark patterns are deliberate designs within websites and apps that make you do things you didn’t mean to do.

After a couple years backing up my files to both Google and Dropbox, I realised I didn’t need both services. And since Dropbox feels like it’s fallen behind as a product—for example, it’s impossible to tell the size of a folder if it has sub-folders or files in it—I decided to cancel my subscription.

I spent 2-3 minutes searching for for a way to downgrade my plan. After having no luck, I eventually went to Google for the answer. That’s the first problem: Dropbox makes it hard and confusing to even find the downgrade page.

Once I arrived at the downgrade screen, I was greeted with this dark pattern.

Solid buttons, the ones of the left that are filled in with colour, are typically used for the default action the user wants to make. For example, the ‘Buy Now’ button on ecommerce websites. This is in contrast to the ghost button on the right, which is typically reserved for a secondary or alternate action, such as ‘Cancel’.

In this instance, Dropbox reverses the expected interaction. ‘Downgrade’, the action I want to perform, is in the ghost button. Whereas ‘Change my plan’ is in the solid button.

And you know what? I actually clicked on the wrong button because I wasn’t paying close attention, and I’m so used to clicking on solid buttons to confirm my intended action.

I don’t get why Dropbox does this. It’s short sighted and feels desperate. In the long run, consumers will build negative sentiment towards companies that deliberately make decisions like this. It makes it even less likely for consumers to want to return in the future.

Twitter user, @Orinithophilel, posted a great photo yesterday.

His challenge: “Did you know that Hog Deer follow tigers? They let off continuous alarm calls and keep following them from a safe distance. Tell me why.”

The answer: “The Tiger is an ambush predator. It hides and strikes. When a deer can see him, it can outrun him. Once sighted deer prefer to keep the tiger in sight so as to avoid being hunted.”

There’s a great metaphor in here.

What’s the tiger that could throw your project, plan, or team off track?

How are you keeping your eye on the tiger to avoid the headache?

A new cafe just opened up 2 minutes down the road.

The counter staff were disinterested and unwelcoming. Their food was placed in the window and was baking in the sun. And their drinks were hot to the point of being burnt and undrinkable.

Any one of the above would be forgivable. But together, it gave the impression the cafe didn’t think deeply enough about the experience they’d give to customers.

After one visit, I made up my mind to continue walking 7 minutes down the road to my usual cafe. The additional 5 minutes walk for a significantly better experience is well worth it.

Consumers can be fickle. If we’re trying to serve them, we may only get a few chances.

Maru and I are away for the long weekend with good friends in the English countryside.

This is the fourth time we’re staying in an AirBnb that’s a standalone unit next to the owner’s home. Rather than the highly commercialised feel of AirBnbs within cities, it really does feel like the experience AirBnb set out to build: people opening up their homes to travellers.

One thing that I’ve found about these properties in particular is that everything’s just works. The care and thought put into the space and the amenities make the stay easy and enjoyable. It’s a distinctly different feel to the more commercial AirBnbs where it’s clear they’ve tried to cut a few too many corners.

It reminds me of the quote: how you do anything is how you do everything.

We had to put Ruby down today. She was a beagle with a huge personality, and my family’s dog for the past 12 years.

It all started when I was 9 years old. My sister and I made signs and picketed out the front of our house—petitioning our parents to get us a dog.

Almost a decade later, my mum finally relented. To be honest, I don’t know why we chose a beagle, but it was probably the ears. Beagles have the best ears.

Ruby was mischievous, sassy, and strong willed from day one. She’d always find a way on to the couch, and when you told her to get off, she’d conveniently look the other way—pretending like she couldn’t hear.

Once I left New Zealand in 2013, my annual reunion with Ruby became a thing. Upon arriving at Mum and Dad’s house, I’d get down on all fours, and Ruby would run over, nuzzle into my face, and whimper for a full minute as I greeted her.

Every morning and evening, you could find Ruby on my dad’s lap. She’d sit expectantly until he put her special blanket on his lap and she could jump up, settle in, and take a nap.

Dogs allow us to see and experience a pure form of love. They turn up every day with a wagging tail and are overjoyed to just be together. That was Ruby for our family.

Run free, Ruby.