Dan's Daily

The unwritten lesson often gets lost.

The written lesson can be shared, can be digested, can be built upon, can be refined.

When we write down what we learn, and share those lessons generously, it starts compounding.

I respect the advisor who says to seek out another opinion.

I tread with caution around the advisor who offers a singular point of view as the only path forward.

Our world is nuanced. It’s messy. Most roads to good work are uncharted.

Seek the other opinion, and keep close those who tell you to do so.

Long time readers know I’m a big fan of Jacob Collier. My opinion, and my bet, is that he’ll go down in history as more than a generational talent. He’s breaking rules and creating music that no one has imagined or dreamed of before, and even the best musicians are stumped by how his creations work.

Okay, enough. What I’m here to say is his most recent single is an effortlessly delivered tapestry of intricate sound. It reminds me of the feeling of swimming in a calm, clear, crystal-blue bay. Tranquil on the surface, but filled with immense depth when you look below the surface.

Don’t listen to Little Blue whilst you’re doing something else. Pull out some headphones, and listen with intention. I’m sure it’ll move you too.

Maru shared this Baz Luhrmann song with me when I was 19; only a few months after we met.

It’s not so much a song as it is a collection of life advice in 5 minutes.

I find myself rewatching it every couple of years. The lessons keep getting more real as the years pass.

Ideas rarely arrive fully formed.

We can do the bulk of the work, but most of the time they require input from others to become their best.

Questioning, prompting, prodding, and challenging. All of it can serve to methodically test each assumption, and move us closer, or farther away, from belief in our initial hypothesis.

I spotted the below sign in an independent pasta restaurant earlier this evening.

It’s opinionated, tongue-in-cheek, and filled with personality.

The place really cares about making good pasta. They don’t just serve great dishes, they also coat the rest of the restaurant with the same attitude. I liked it!

Note: I needed to ask the waiter the meaning behind “pasta shapes will not be treated equally”. He told me it’s a comment on how each individual piece is handmade, so they’ll never be equal in size.

I came across this interesting NY Times article from 1922: 5-day, 40-hour work for Ford employees.

There was a time when the norm was to work for 6 days per week, 8 hours per day. However, the Ford Motor Company set a precedent for a 5-day working week, and others followed.

It got me thinking about whether a “giant” of today may make the same move for a 4-day working week.

I don’t think so, but I know anecdotally from people that work 4-days per week or compressed hours (40 hours in 4 days), that fewer days focuses them, and that more time with family over the weekend is cherished.

The email address that begins with dontreply@ speaks volumes.

It says we can talk to you, but you can’t talk to us.

It says we have something we need to tell you, but you get no say in the matter; no chance to reply.

It says our voice is more valuable than yours.

Companies with dontreply@ email addresses communicate a much deeper message than what’s in the email.

I’m gravitating toward reading opinion pieces rather than run-of-the-mill news articles.

So much of news journalism nowadays is syndicated from the major publications. The articles feel less thoughtful, perhaps spurred on by the transition to digital news and the prioritisation of volume over quality.

Opinion pieces on the other hand take a stance. They encourage debate. They are imbued with the style of the writer. The opinion piece puts itself in a position where it invites critique, and that pushes our collective thinking forward on a topic through both agreement and respectful disagreement.

Two of the big mobile phone carriers in the UK—O2 and Virgin Mobile—merged recently. An error in their billing handoff meant that I spent 4 hours on the phone with them today sorting through the issue.

I spent >80% of the time on hold, and 2 out of every 3 calls were dropped. When I was finally able to get through to an agent, I was thrown around like a hot potato between the organisations.

The whole process was evidence of a lack of thought and care for the customer. They simply didn’t care enough. It’s possible to build great user experiences, it just takes time and deliberate care when doing so.

The harder we work on a problem, the more likely we are to convince ourselves that our solution is right.

Even if we’re wrong.

So, as the volume of work and effort increases, we need to simultaneously increase the hurdle that our ideas and plans need to cross.

Travelling east is much harder than travelling west. To get into time zone, travelling east requires you to go to bed earlier than you normally would. Whereas travelling west requires you to stay up later than you normally would.

I try not to get frustrated with the difference. It’s physics after all. It’s better to accept it, adapt to it, and most of all, learn not to fight it.

You can attempt to solve a Rubik’s cube by trial and error, but the probability is low, and you’ll be at it for a long time.

However, algorithms exist that help us solve the cube. An algorithm is a set of repeatable steps that when executed with precision will lead to a desired output.

Whilst you’re executing the algorithm, the rest of the cube will look like a jumbled mess. It requires trust in the process.

The Rubik’s cube has many hidden lessons for how we approach the challenges in our daily lives.

Some of you who have followed this blog for a while know that one of my hobbies is simulated racing. I have a low-budget setup at home, and compete in an online league that races monthly.

I’ve been working out of Meta’s Burlingame office this week in Northern California, and one of the cool things about this office is the Immersion Arcade. It’s a space where you can try a bunch of high-end VR gaming and simulation experiences. There is a flight simulator, a VR-treadmill so you can literally run when playing a game, and a racing rig.

I sat down in the seat, put on the seat belts (yes, you need seat belts!), and popped on the headset. I was instantly transported to the Silverstone Circuit in the UK and was in the driver’s seat of a Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The direct drive wheel, the load cell pedals, the VR headset, and the motion cockpit meant that as I accelerated out of corners, or braked going into them, my whole body was thrown forward, backwards, or to the side to simulate what a driver feels in real life. Within 10 minutes, I was already feeling nauseous and had to pause.

That racing rig is well out of range of my personal budget range, but I was thrilled I got to try out what a high-end simulator feels like. For now though, I’ll stick with my non-nauseating setup.

It’s a hard problem, and someone has put together a plan to solve it.

People read the plan, and in a tentative tone someone says, “Well, it sounds reasonable.”

I want more than reasonable.

I want conviction. Commitment. And a line drawn in the sand.

A luke warm plan has never sat well with me.