I appreciated this thought from Shane Parrish.
“One of the biggest keys to success at anything hard is believing that you can figure it out as you go along. Because most hard things can’t be figured out in advance people never start. As Picasso observed, “To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing.”
We don’t need to have it all figured out before we take the first step. I find that reassuring.
When I sit down to write, I usually have an idea, a structure, and a clear point I’d like to make.
Sometimes, though, when I put the words on paper, they don’t feel right.
So I rearrange them.
I scratch some.
I repeat others.
I turn sentences on their head.
I jumble and mix words around.
Still, something feels off.
On these days, I admit defeat. I acknowledge the post wasn’t ready for the world. I put it in draft, and come back to it another day.
Admitting defeat isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply a lesson in finding the limit.
And we can, and should, be confident that there’s always another idea waiting in the wings.
I was 16 when I first watched Taika Waiti’s ‘Two Cars, One Night’. It’s the story of two boys and a girl, waiting for their parents in a parking lot of a rural New Zealand pub. The short film was different to anything I had seen before. It was equal parts hilarious, poignant, and distinct.
Years later, I’d see this distinct humour all over the big screen: in Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit, and Thor: Ragnarok. It was, of course, the work of the inimitable Taika Waititi—possibly the most exciting and irreverent director in Hollywood at the moment.
I recently learnt a bit more about Taika’s story. He spent his twenties making art, making music, and performing comedy. Two Cars, One Night was his first experience with film, and that was in his thirties. He never went to film school, so much of his craft and work is guided by intuition.
In particular, Taika’s refinement process stood out to me: he watches scenes and he’ll rework whatever makes him feel embarrassed.
It’s difficult to look at your work with a fresh pair of eyes, especially when you’ve already given it so much time and attention. But if you can manage it, it’s a superpower that unlocks a higher standard of work. You can see this superpower in action by seeing Taika’s finished products.
Wired Magazine, one of my favourite publications, shared a list of things that could derail a long stretch of economic growth. The image below shows their list that was written back in 1997.
To put that in perspective, Bill Clinton was the US President, 911 hadn’t yet occurred, Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple—the iPod was merely a twinkle in his eye, Google didn’t exist, and the Nintendo 64 was the hottest new gaming console on the market.
It was a long time ago.
But the predictions are poignant, and some, scarily accurate. It makes me question and think about the predictions people are making now for 2050, and about whether or not we’re building the world we want others to inherit.
New Zealand played Costa Rica in a playoff yesterday. The winner would secure the final, and 32nd spot, in the upcoming Football World Cup in Qatar.
I remember the elation of the All Whites making it to the World Cup in 2010. I was in a room with 20 of my friends and we were jumping and crying at the thought of seeing our country’s team on the world stage for the first time in our lives.
Costa Rica is ranked 31st in the world. New Zealand is 101st. It was always going to be a battle. But the bright side was all the pressure was on Costa Rica.
I watched the match in earnest, but an early goal from Los Ticos, plus a disallowed goal for the Kiwis, ultimately led to New Zealand losing 1-0.
They played well, and put pressure on Costa Rica throughout the match, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I’ll wait patiently for 4 more years.
I came across a unique study today. It was published back in Jan 2020, so no wonder it didn’t make waves back then!
Researchers used machine learning and deep neural networks to analyse 6 million videos of human facial expression across 144 countries. What they found was “16 facial expressions occurred systematically across thousands of contexts… and were 70% preserved over 12 world regions.”
Not only is a smile or laughter universal, they also found the same to be true with facial expressions for elation, pain, surprise, anger, triumph, and doubt.
It reminds me of my time learning Spanish in Ecuador back in 2013. I’d find myself in a place like a bakery and lacked the words to respond to the shopkeeper. A cheeky grin and raised eyebrows would often be enough to make them laugh, and either speak slower or gesticulate. Within a couple seconds, my face communicated everything they needed to know to be able to respond.
We’re 7 billion people, and we’re much more alike than we think.
We can fume at the weather app.
We can ignore the newspaper forecast.
We can scoff at the barometer.
But it’ll still rain.
Similarly, when trusted friends and family are all saying the same thing, perhaps it’s wise to pack the metaphorical umbrella.
President Ford once said the following to a group of business leaders, “We see nothing but increasingly brighter clouds every month.”
The business leaders felt assured. Things were getting better, right?
But did anyone look out the metaphorical window?
Was it sunny with scattered clouds? Overcast? Drizzling? Pouring? Torrential rain? Thunderstorms? A hurricane?
Much can be hidden, and the masses placated, with vague words.
It takes courage to say what’s really happening out the window.
Learning is just as much about unlearning, as it is about gaining new knowledge.
Habits. Assumptions. Perspectives.
The wrong ones can hold us back.
Sometimes we need to let go of things before we’re ready to learn something new.
Most people write for the “in crowd”.
They do it without knowing or thinking about it.
They use acronyms, jargon, and odd phrases. They don’t give context. They assume prior knowledge.
But inevitably, someone from outside the “in crowd” will come along.
And they’ll be baffled.
So why not ask ourselves the question anytime we put pen to paper: “Will the uninitiated be able to understand this on the first reading?”
If the answer is “no”, we still have work to do.
Think of any subscription service you’ve signed up to online.
My bet is all of them, every single one, renews automatically.
If they have your credit card on file, and the renewal date passes, they attempt to take your money.
This behaviour is normalised. We’ve come to expect it as a default pattern. So we, the consumer, are responsible for setting calendar reminders to cancel subscriptions and free trials. The onus is on us.
So here’s what makes Pinboard so special.
I’ve written about Pinboard before. It’s an online bookmarking tool that makes searching and tagging for saved content easy. I also like that Pinboard is built end-to-end by a single developer. He is the whole company.
Today I got an email from Pinboard that said, “This is a friendly reminder that your Pinboard subscription expires on 21 June 2022. If you wish to keep using the site, you’ll need to extend your subscription. If you don’t renew your subscription, you’ll still be able to see and export your bookmarks. But you will no longer be able to save new bookmarks, edit your bookmarks or tags, or use the search engine.”
Firstly, renewal isn’t assumed. This is a breath of fresh air. Secondly, I don’t loose access to my bookmarks; compared with many content-focused companies that threaten you with losing access to all your content once you stop subscribing.
Being a one-person operation, Pinboard can go against the grain in surprising and unorthodox ways. By not auto renewing, Pinboard has built more trust and good will with me in one interaction than many other companies do over many years.
This is an example of going against the grain that, in my opinion, is a masterclass in playing the long game.
It’s easy to have an opinion about the future.
It’s significantly more challenging to share that opinion as a public prediction.
Last year, Clubhouse was all the rage. It was a fast growing start-up that was causing a stir due to its audio-only approach. Users could drop into a room, listen to live conversations, and also take part.
When people such as Elon Musk, Naval, and Gary Vee started using the platform, there was massive momentum forming around Clubhouse’s prospects.
Then came along Shaan Puri, who back in March 2021 posted a brutal opinion on Clubhouse, it’s product, and it’s prospects.
Puri needed to wait 15 months before reality caught up to his predictions. Clubhouse is currently struggling. Despite finding early traction, its failed to convert it into sustainable and retentive growth in users.
My broader reflection here is reality will eventually prove us right or wrong. And if we share our predictions publicly, we have to deal with those predictions standing alone without a verdict for days, weeks, months, or even years. That shouldn’t stop us from forming an opinion though, because something happens when we say it publicly — it forces us to adopt a higher standard of rigour and care in what we’re sharing with the world.
Regardless of whether it’s a short weekend trip, or a multi-week journey, I find unpacking upon arrival home does wonders for helping me settle back in.
Unpacking is a tangible, physical action that functions similarly to a full stop punctuation mark in prose: it’s a guide to the reader that a sentence or paragraph is coming to an end, and that a new sentence and journey must begin.
I always find the first few days difficult after I’ve said goodbye to family. Despite living apart for 10 years, it doesn’t get easier. But little actions like unpacking immediately can help put me in a good headspace to look forward to the week ahead.
I previously wrote a post called ‘Always try the oyster’.
It’s a way of approaching new experiences; committing to trying them rather than shying away. It’s also about creating a habit of trying things that we historically haven’t enjoyed (hence the focus on oysters in the original post), just in case our tastes have changed.
I’m wrapping up a wonderful 2 weeks with my family here in Malaysia, and on this trip I tried a bunch of things (mostly food!) that I previously avoided.
One of those was Cendol: a concoction of shaved ice, coconut cream, kidney beans, flour jelly, and palm sugar syrup.
My mum would always talk about how refreshing and tasty it was, but I always felt uncomfortable with the thought of kidney beans in my dessert.
However, this time, I remembered to “always try the oyster”, and I discovered a love for cendol. It’s the perfect blend of cold and sweet goodness. I now believe one of the most refreshing things one can eat on a hot and humid afternoon.
Perhaps I’ll start a series of posts on always trying the oyster. Sharing where, when, and what changed my mind.
I remember hearing a quote that we’re only as old as the last time we changed our minds. So here’s to staying open, being curious, and always trying the oyster.
I recently went karting here in Malaysia.
When I hopped in the kart, I was surprised—and scared—to find there were no seat belts.
Apprehensive at first, I was worried it was an oversight on the part of the karting facility, and I even considered forfeiting my drive.
Afterwards, I googled safety standards for karting and was even more surprised to find that karts typically don’t have seat belts.
In vehicles with no roll bars or collision protection, it’s actually safer to have no seat belts. In the event of a crash, it’s better for the driver to be thrown away from the vehicle than risk being hit by or trapped underneath it.
My brain needs some rewiring because it still feels unnatural to not have a seat belt when karting, even if it’s objectively safer.
Maru and I then began discussing other scenarios where what feels natural is less safe. For example, when SCUBA diving it’s dangerous to hold your breath, even though our natural reaction is to want to hold it when underwater. Or when learning how to ski, it’s natural to want to lean backward away from the speed and slope, but it’s better to lean forward to achieve proper weight distribution on the skis.
No deeper insight today. Just a reflection on an oddity I came across that I’m still wrapping my head around.