Dan Cullum

Our worries can fall into one of two categories:

1. Worries that will matter in the long run

2. Worries that won’t

This simple categorisation should lead to lighter shoulders.

I’ve been reflecting on this Picasso quote: “To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing.”

A plan with perfect grammar is fine.

But it alone won’t get us where we need to go.

We need to start, and figure it out as we go along.

I wrote years ago about ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott, one of my favourite books.

The short story is always worth a read:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

Today was a bird by bird kind of day.

All the little things piled up.

But I was ready. I’ve conditioned myself to recognise these kinds of days.

They’re ones where you aren’t going to hit a home run, but you swing anyway and do your best to make some—or any—forward progress.

On these days, the inches matter.

This topic is niche. It’s specifically for folks who create and use metrics on a regular basis to make decisions.

There are 4 elements to a simple, clear, and useful metric.

1. Unit of measurement (e.g., number, average)
2. Subject (e.g., sales, returns, complaints)
3. Verb (e.g., completed, failed, delayed)
4. Time period (e.g., per day, week, month)

If you have these four things, generally in this order, you should be able to create a metrics that works in 90% of situations.

I played tennis for the first time in 5 years today, and it reminded me of one of Rohan’s posts called ‘Avoiding unforced errors’.

In many situations—in both tennis and in life—we can do well just by avoiding unforced errors.

Instead of trying to hit the difficult winning shot, we should just focus on getting the ball back over the net.

It also reminds me of something an old boss of mine said, “90% of the job is just doing the basics really really really really really well.”

Nothing fancy. Just a bit of restraint and the basics.

The baker begins their day around 3am.

The bouncer ends their day around 3am.

I used to think being an early bird was better.

It doesn’t matter when the day starts, and “morning routines of successful people” are just a hack.

As long as you get down and working on the most important thing, that’s all that really matters.

I battled for 2 years with a lower back injury. One of the symptoms was piercing sciatica—which is an irritated nerve causing pain from the lower back down the hamstring.

It got worse during my first year of full time work. I couldn’t go 30 minutes in a meeting without feeling an ache or pressure with my lumbar spine. I was restless and uncomfortable throughout the day.

I eventually saw a doctor who said, “You need to deadlift.”

I didn’t know what it was, nor was I much interested in death or lifting at the time, so I was skeptical.

The deadlift is where a loaded barbell, or similar weight, is lifted from the ground to the hips, and then placed back on the floor. It gets the “dead” from the weight being dead, or stationary, on the floor before the lift begins.

The exercise changed my life. After 3 months of deadlift training, all my lower back issues were gone. I felt foolish to have suffered for years when the cure was as easy as lifting a heavy weight 2 times per week.

The reason why the deadlift is such a great exercise is because it works the entire posterior chain: upper, middle and lower back, as well as the hip, core, quad, and hamstring muscles. As these muscle get stronger, our strength, stability, and posture all improve.

Another observation was that if I don’t deadlift for a few months, the lower back pain starts to return.

Unsurprisingly, the antidote is simple.

This post was a little longer than normal. But I thought it may help someone. Counterintuitively, lifting a heavy weight and putting your back under stress can be one way to help tackle long standing pain. It’s important though to get a trainer or someone who knows how to deadlift properly to help you nail the technique.

When I lived in Melbourne, I used to attend an after-work club for English-Spanish practise. A group of us would meet in a cafe downtown and spend an hour speaking each others’ languages.

At one of these events I met a Colombian man about my age who was obsessed with classical music—specifically Rachmaninov. I’d never heard of Rachmaninov, but I soon learned about his prowess as a composer, and his reputation for crafting piano pieces that were almost impossible to play.

Many of the world’s top pianists are scared to try. Some defer learning until they’re older—more mature. And one American pianist, 93-year-old Gary Graffman, was heard saying he regretted not learning Rachmaninov’s ‘Piano Concerto No.3’ when he was “still too young to know fear”.

This is what makes 18-year-old Lim Yun-chan’s version of “Rach 3” so special. It was the performance that earned him first place at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

The 40 minute performance is spell binding. I encourage you to watch at least some of it. There are moments where Lim’s hands are moving so fast it’s hard to tell what’s going on. The precision, confidence, and emotion with which he plays is an example of a master at work.

Few people reach such heights of perfection in their craft. It’s a joy to watch one in action.

Speed cameras in the UK stand out.

There are signs hundreds of metres up the road warning drivers that a speed camera is ahead. And you can’t miss them, they’re painted bright yellow!

I like this approach. Warn people of the consequences ahead, and help them avoid the pain of both a ticket and a crash.

Speed cameras in France are different.

The cameras are usually grey, and they’re more likely to be obscured from view.

I’m less a fan of this approach. Surprise people with a fine, and perhaps that’ll motivate them to drive slower from now on.

One country offers a carrot, the other holds a stick.

It reminds me of my favourite Charlie Munger quote, which is rather apt given the subject: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I don’t go there.”

As a follow on from my post from the other day called ‘Always be the note taker’, I ran into similar idea that I liked a lot: Carry the water.

When I played football or rugby in school, no one wanted to carry the water.

If you carried the water, you weren’t in the starting line up. It was a job for people on the bench.

When the heroes scored a goal or a try, you were the one to lug the 12 bottles over to them so they could hydrate until the game restarted.

You got no thanks. You rarely got a glance.

However, the book ‘The Captain Class’ changed my mind.

Sam Walker, its author, puts it well: “Most people believe the leader of a team is the person who does something spectacular when the chips are down. However, great captains lower themselves in relation to the group whenever possible in order to earn the moral authority to drive them forward in tough moments. The easiest way to lead is to serve.”

I then came across an image of Richie McCaw, arguably the greatest rugby player of all time. He was injured in one of the pool matches of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Guess what he was doing?

I’ve needed a few days to cool off from last week’s UK heatwave.

Temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time in recorded history.

I know 40 degrees is a walk in the park for some countries, but in a place unused to such temperatures, our buildings, transportation systems, and homes were unprepared.

Transport for London advised only essential journeys.

Some offices told staff to stay home because their air conditioning units were only capable of cooling down the building if the outside temperature was below 32 degrees.

And little south-facing flats like ours—which I’m grateful for in the middle of the UK winter—were baked during the day and retained that heat throughout much of the evening.

The BBC shared an image which was equal parts crushing and fascinating. It was a comparison of global temperatures in 1976 and 2022, with the average global temperature between 1951 and 1980.

I love when a chart summarises a huge amount of data into something easily digestible and understandable.

Read: the world is getting hotter. Much hotter. And it’s not isolated to one area or another, but is happening across the global.

I’ll spare you the climate change platitudes, but perhaps think about sharing this image with someone who needs to see it.

I once heard a tale about a Japanese village famous for the longevity of its residents. One of their supposed secrets was celebrating birthdays—deliberately getting together and appreciating the passage of time.

I like that; as both an idea and as an attitude.

This blog just turned three years old.

And I’m celebrating.

Thank you for being on this journey with me. The experience is all the richer for the time you take to read, share, and thoughtfully reply.

I subscribe to Wired magazine, and I recently received this tote bag from them in the mail.

I’m not big on these subscriber gifts, but I made an exception for this tote because of its message and its execution.

Use fewer words.

Make text bigger.

Take a stance.

All good stuff.

What we learn after formal education is proportional to how curious we’re willing to be.