Archives for 2023

If you go searching for it, you’ll find someone who will give you a free pass.

They’ll tell you what you want to hear. They’ll say it’s OK to give up, that the game was unfair, or that you were just unlucky.

But don’t let someone else make the decision for you. If you want to give up, make sure it’s your decision. When we don’t accept the free pass, we’re able to tap into a reserve of energy and grit that increases the chances that we might succeed.

I tried sheer yakh for the first time today. It’s a churned-to-order Afghan ice cream made from milk, condensed milk, and cardamom.

A friend took us to Sundae Gelato in Harrow and I had the Jala version which is Sheer yakh served with rice noodles. It was rich and refreshing, reminding me a lot of Malaysian cendol.

It’s a good weekend when a friend introduces you to something you’d never try otherwise and you love it!

The iPhone gives us access to any song at any moment via a Spotify or Apple Music subscription. Despite the convenience of the iPhone, I sometimes get iPod nostalgia.

I received my first iPod almost 20 years ago, and I still remember the feeling of that second hand 4th generation iPod Classic arriving in the post. I thought it was the most beautiful product I’d ever seen, and the fact it could hold more than 5,000 songs blew my mind.

My trusty iPod that came with me everywhere. Although it wasn’t the entire universe of music at my fingertips, it was my universe of music at my fingertips. It was my antidote to boredom, and a little world that provided a musical escape throughout my teens.

The effect of some products never leave us.

It’s already spilt.

Likely on the counter, probably on the floor.

Any time spent complaining just gives the milk more time to settle in to the crevices.

It’s frustrating at the time, but it’s never that bad in hindsight. We just need to roll up our sleeves and methodically mop up the mess.

True for milk, and many other pesky day-to-day problems.

It took longer than planned. It was harder than we thought. It was more complex than we anticipated. It was more costly than what was budgeted.

Something will always go wrong. That comes with the territory of doing hard, meaningful things. If the unexpected is the norm, the good thing is we can condition ourselves and our teams for this outcome because it happens so regularly.

On my morning cycle, I pass through a small side street. There is usually a flock of pigeons eating a pile of seeds and grain scattered on the ground.

I didn’t think much of it until today. But someone out there is thinking about those pigeons. They plan ahead and buy the food. And they reliably venture out every day to make sure the pigeons are fed. They likely act thinking no one notices, but I did. And their kindness makes me smile.

The pigeons always get fed.

If this topic is ice cream, over the past few months I’ve written about its many different flavours. But at the end of the day, it’s still all ice cream.

I’ve recently found myself working through some particularly ambiguous problems. When the problems don’t have an obvious answer, it’s easy to procrastinate, and in the worst case, fall into inertia.

When I sense a tough problem coming up, I try to get something down on paper on the first day. Sometimes it’s a scribble on a physical piece of paper. Other times it’s a rough but structured set of thoughts in a Google Doc. I try to give my best answer on day one, and make highlights and comments on all the things that I’ve probably got wrong and need to think through in more detail.

Then I sleep.

I trust that tomorrow’s brain is going to turn up and have something meaningful to contribute. I trust that my subconscious is going to have worked overnight to process the problem. I also trust my co-workers and let them in on the work in progress. I let their feedback guide, push, and challenge the work.

Rarely does something truly important need to be completed in a few hours. Creating space and time for the subconscious to work, trusting tomorrow’s brain, and the brains of others, is a high probability way to root out any logical errors in our work.

So I started training Jiu-Jitsu about a month ago.

I deliberately haven’t written about it until now for multiple reasons. One, I wanted to see if I enjoyed it enough to commit and continue. Second, my big boss has recently been in the media for taking up the sport and for potentially having an MMA match versus Elon. I didn’t want it to seem like I was copying Zuck.

The truth is I always wanted to practise a martial art when I was a child, but there was always a stigma in our house around martial arts being too violent. However, a friend recently shared that they’d started Jiu-Jitsu to improve their mobility as a compliment to their strength and cardiovascular training. Mobility, or a lack thereof, is something that’s been on my mind over the last few years, so I decided to research a few local gyms.

I’m thrilled with the gym I’ve found. It’s close to home, and the head professor is a former World and European champion. They’ve got a great curriculum for learning the basics to this infinitely complex sport, have a supportive environment, and are beginner friendly.

One of the other reasons why I chose Jiu-Jitsu is because it isn’t a striking based martial art. I’m not interested in punching or kicking another human, nor am I interested in them punching or kicking me. Jiu-Jitsu instead is a grappling sport that’s intended to help a smaller person be able to defend, protect, and survive against a bigger opponent. That’s definitely something I want to learn how to do.

I’m still very early in my journey, and I’m not committing yet to training for the long haul. But I’m enjoying it for the moment and intend to continue.

UK summers are special. There’s so much going on it’s hard to choose where to go and what to do.

There are music festivals every weekend. Fun runs and park sports events are aplenty—today I saw hundreds of people downtown running the London Landmark 10k. This weekend we had the Ashes, the British Grand Prix, and Wimbledon all happening at the same time. And the pubs and restaurants overflow with patrons, many of them enjoying their food and drink in sun. Everyone is happy and in a good mood.

It’s a special time of year, and one I don’t take for granted.

The root of the word amateur isn’t hobbyist, or non-professional, or inept, or unskilled.

It’s derived from the Latin word ‘amare’, which means to love.

The amateur, above all else, pursues the sport, the art, or the activity, for the love of it.

Whether it’s a run, a weights session, or a solo or team sport, try and end the workout with some gas left in the tank.

If there’s nothing left in the tank, the chance of an injury towards the end of our workouts is much higher than if we have a little in reserve.

For most of us, the goal isn’t to win today, it’s to be able to turn up tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

Rarely does late night problem solving lead to break through solutions.

A good sleep, fresh eyes, and a calm mind drastically increase the odds of success.

This, it’s important to know when to put the pen down for the evening.

Teams are quick to bemoan the headwind.

They’re usually also quick to take credit for the tailwind.

It’s better to do neither, and to simply build more margin of safety into the plan from the beginning.

The team had put in a ton of work—thinking and refining their document. They’d debated the nuance, the tone, and the clarity of every word.

The presentation day arrives and the executive walks into the room. Their first words: “Can I see some diagrams or pictures, please? That’d help me understand what we’re proposing.”

A mountain of effort to craft out the detail won’t beat a simple image that succinctly shows the end result.

There’s usually an elephant in the room in every meeting. It’s typically that one problem, opinion, or opportunity that stands out from the rest.

Talking about that elephant is hard, it’s much easier to focus on simpler topics. But putting it as the first item on the agenda, and not moving on to something else until a meaningful decision has been made is a recipe for progress.