Archives for 2022

I really liked this recent tweet from The Orange Book. It sums up a lot in so few words.

“People take you seriously once you take your commitments seriously. Have a long-term coherent vision, calmly execute every day.”

Multiple friends have recently, and independently, brought up the topic of Effective Altruism.

I’d like to learn more.

The basic idea is “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis”. This could include donating a certain percentage of one’s income to impactful causes, or making career decisions that maximise good over the long term.

Apart from some appetiser-sized reading, I have little to no understanding of the deeper nuances, who are the leading thinkers, and what are the most pressing topics in the field.

I have a feeling a number of you will have already explored this topic in some depth, and I’d love if you’d be willing to share some of the articles and people that got you thinking!

Product and technology companies are obsessed with Product-Market Fit.

The key question is does our product solve a customer’s need well enough so they pay us for it? And are we solving this problem for a meaningful number of customers, meaning are we making enough money to stay afloat?

In the early stages of a company, this is really all that matters.

One thing that product teams often get wrong is a poor definition and understanding of Product-Market Fit. They define arbitrary metrics and targets thinking that when those targets are reached, they’ve achieved Product-Market Fit.

That’s just not how it works.

The more time I spend working in technology, the more I believe Product-Market Fit is a feeling. It’s when people can’t wait to recommend your product, when your product is flying off the shelf, and when you can’t keep up with orders or customer queries. There’s a papable buzz in the team where it feels like you’ve discovered the secret sauce.

The data, metrics, and targets are just guides.

Real Product-Market Fit is a feeling.

My usual barber—Jimmy, who I’ve written about before—was closed earlier this week, so I tried a new place.

I went to a place in a downtown, office-riddled part of the city. The barber and I started chatting, and we quickly got to how they fared during the pandemic, and what it’s been like since the UK has re-opened.

Sadly, they’re still struggling. With many people embracing hybrid working, and fewer people returning to the office than they anticipated, this year is make or break for them. They’re in limbo. They don’t know how things are going to play out.

For the most part, the way I live my life is now very similar to pre-pandemic life. But it’s moments like these that make me realise there are second and third order consequences from the pandemic that are still being felt by people and businesses. And how there is still an arduous and uncertain road ahead for many.

It’s an important thing to keep in mind when we think about where we shop, and from whom we buy.

You can double, triple, and quadruple check your writing, but if your title has a typo, you’re going to undo some of the hard work.

Despite double checking my posts before they go out, a typo found its way into the title of my post yesterday.

Those of you who replied to the post were gracious, you didn’t point out the error. But I cringed and went back to the post to change it.

Many will say a typo doesn’t matter.

But it does.

How we do anything, is how we do everything.

The way we treat even the smallest typo communicates something about how we turn up each day, how we approach problems, and how we strive for better.

I’ve been 90% plant-based for almost a month now.

After reading and writing about the book ‘How Not to Die’, and being confronted by the science on health, environmental, and ethical reasons for eating less meat, I decided to give it a go.

I’ve had a few principles that have made the whole process easier.

1) In my previous attempts at vegetarianism I took an “all or nothing” approach. This made meat tempting, and when I caved, I felt like a fraud and the whole habit fell apart. This time round, I’ve opted for a target of 90% plant-based, and have found it much easier to integrate with my daily life, as well as social calendar.

2) I’ve optimised around maintaining a high protein intake. I feel even more motivated to maintain a plant-based diet if I can still hit my target protein intake as part of my exercise programme. I’ve been pleasantly surprised here. A mixture of tofu, tempeh, seitan, peanut butter, protein bread, soy milk, and protein bars enable me to hit these targets.

3) 90% adherence over the long run is better than 100% adherence for a sprint. Consistency over time matters, not what happens in the next few weeks. So I’m happy with my current levels of plant-based adherence.

This is still an experiment, and I’m only a month in. But I’m really enjoying it so far, and feel little desire to eat meat.

Sushi, though, that one is still hard to resist.

Some readers will know that I’m a big Kevin Kelly fan. I like how he thinks about the future, and also like the myriad of interesting projects he always seems to have on the go.

One of those projects is Recommendo. A free, weekly newsletter that Kelly writes with a few friends sharing “cool stuff”. It could be articles, gadgets, or tools and tips. The recommendations are always well curated, and are fun to read.

For those who sign up to their newsletter this week you get a free copy of their e-book, which has over 1,000 brief reviews.

I’m not usually a fan of the “sign up to get a free e-book” club, but this group has built up a lot of trust and goodwill, and I thought some of you would enjoy getting their emails too.

I loved watching my 3-year-old nephew riding his balance bike when I was back in New Zealand over the holidays.

As he rode it around the campsite, he was building his confidence, gaining speed, and practising lifting his feet off the ground.

But he was so focused on moving forward, and moving faster, that we all had to remind him, “Look where you’re going!”

Head staring down at his feet, he hadn’t yet developed the instinct to look ahead.

It’s an obvious and literal example, but the same principle applies to trying almost anything new.

That new role, job, hobby, habit, friendship, relationship, exercise, or recipe, all of these things take time and require patience.

It’s easy to look down, but training ourselves to look where we’re going, that’s a shortcut to a smoother ride.

The UK loves to crowdsource.

Perhaps the most famous example is the public voting ‘Boaty McBoatface’ as the preferred name for a new polar research vessel back in 2016. The National Environment Research Council—with its tail between its legs—vetoed the vote and chose RSS Attenborough instead.

Given we’ve had a couple of large storms roll through the UK in the past couple weeks, I got curious about how our storms are named. And I found that the crowdsourcing continues.

Every year, the Met Office invites the public to propose names. Last year more than 10,000 names were submitted. And once the list is published, the names of storms are used in order; alternating male and female for each storm.

Recent storms were named after an unruly cat (Storm Ruby), or a lightning-fast, goalkeeper grandson (Storm Logan).

Although we name storms because it helps people take their risk more seriously, I love how the naming process is fun, simple, and participatory at the grandest of scales.

I was recently asking a colleague for more data, evidence, and insight on a topic.

They pushed back, and I’m glad they did.

Sometimes the data just doesn’t exist. Sometimes things can’t be reduced to numbers.

Doggedly pursuing more evidence when there is none is just false precision.

It may give us comfort, but it doesn’t take us closer to our goal.

It was devastating to wake up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I can’t even begin to imagine the fear and suffering Ukrainian families are facing right now.

Although I know little about the history and events leading up to this moment, I’m determined to spend the next few days understanding it better. If you happen to have any recommendations of good articles or summaries to read, I’d love if you’d be willing to share them with me. Similarly, I hope to share some resources over the next few days for those of you also trying to learn.

And although I’m unqualified to comment, I feel a deep human responsibility to acknowledge, to sympathise, and to offer my deepest thoughts and prayers to those facing this crisis in Ukraine.

The average non-fiction book is about 50,000 words.

I checked the stats in my blog folder, and I’m just shy of 150,000 words.

I can’t claim to have written three books though. That would require a huge level of commitment to a specific topic, and the insight to hang a set of ideas together in a deliberate way. And I know I’m not there yet.

But it still feels meaningful.

Little by little the words add up.

Although there’s no single post that stands out, it’s the consistency that matters.

I loved this project from Samuel Ryde.

The idea is really simple.

Every day at 12:34, Ryde has an alarm that goes off, and he takes a photo of whatever he’s doing at that moment.

And the purpose of the photo is not to capture the best or most beautiful memory from that day, but rather to capture ordinary, daily life.

It makes a difference looking at his images and knowing they were all taken at exactly the same time of day.

Constraints make us more creative, and they can make the end work more powerful, meaningful, and beautiful.

I also love that Ryde picked 12:34pm for no other reason than it’s the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in sequence.

Ryde has kept his photo-taking streak for 10 years. As someone who is almost 3 years into their blogging streak, I’m inspired because I’ve still got a way to go before I hit that milestone!

A colleague recently shared the idea: “Run towards the pain.”

Of course it’s not universally applicable; that’d be unwise.

But given the right set of circumstances, this is an excellent piece of advice.

Sometimes pain is symptomatic of the most meaningful problem to solve. Other times it will signal that an experience will help us growth at a faster pace, or better prepare us for future challenges.

And if we’re careful to minimise injury—both physical, mental, and emotional—pain can be a fuel, a stimulus, and a catalyst for our betterment.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working” – Picasso

This quote hit different today.

It sums up so much in so few words.

And it reminds me of one of my favourite books: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

The crux of his book is that our responsibility is simply to turn up. Over and over and over again. And eventually, the muse arrives.