Dan's Daily

You can usually find me carrying round a backpack. I don’t like clutter in my pockets.

In addition to the usual suspects—phone, wallet, a book, and keys—I take some extra face masks, in-case-I-need-it medicine, and a pair of sunglasses.

However, over time a few other things end up making their way into my pack: a padlock for the gym lockers, an old copy of The Economist, or a folded sweater hidden at the bottom. I often forget to take these items out.

Eventually I realise I’ve been carrying around dead weight. Taking out those items makes my pack lighter, and makes any subsequent journey a little bit easier.

The backpack is easy to clean out, and the dead weight is noticed quite quickly.

Our minds, habits, and projects, on the other hand, those require a different kind of attention, thought, and care. The dead weight can mount quickly when the additions are imperceptible.

Whenever I buy avocados from the supermarket, Maru stops me from throwing out the pits.

She’s mastered making them sprout, and has populated our flat with avocado plants.

She attempts to germinate about 5-8 at a time, and often can be found giving them away to friends.

She has also started picking up decanters from antique shops to house the pits and their roots whilst the stem and leaves grow.

It’s a proper thing now.

If you want to give it a go, or know someone who would, the avocado vase is a great addition to your mantle piece or a nice gift!

Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973 and has since grown it into a $3 billion brand.

Earlier this week, he announced, along with his wife and two adult children, the donation of Patagonia to a charitable trust. Any future profits not used to run the business will be dedicated to fighting climate change.

Their website now states: “Earth is now our only shareholder.”

What makes Chouinard’s decision stand out is he’s donating the company. Which is meaningfully different from an individual, like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, donating their personal wealth.

I don’t anticipate this kind of thing happening often, because it requires a phenomenal, privately-held business with a great brand, margins, and shareholder agreement (i.e., 100% ownership) to make such a decision.

Nonetheless, it’s an inspiring move, and one that I’m sure will spur others to take action in their own way.

The moment a new process, system, software, or a plan is put in place, entropy sets in.

Without constant care, things descend into chaos.

But “everything is always broken,” is a liberating realisation.

The joy is in the work of making things better, of “unbreaking” things, of keeping the train on the rails.

I went karting for a team event today. We went to the newly opened Capital Karts here in London.

I was particularly surprised at the location of the circuit: Canary Wharf — London’s financial district. They’re far closer to central London than almost all other karting options. This made it a no brainer for us to choose them because it was easy for many folks in my team to get to and from the event.

I also anticipate they were able to get real estate in such a prominent area because they’ve set up their circuit four stories underground in a repurposed car park. They’ve done great work turning the space into a circuit, and we had a lot of fun slipping and sliding around in their electric karts.

They’re a great example of 1) the importance of choosing a great location, and 2) being creative with space constraints.

Both my personal and work laptops were getting full of cruft. There were apps, processes, installers, and files clogging the system and slowing my machine down.

I put off reimaging both laptops—fearful of the time and hassle, as well as the risk of losing important files.

When I finally got round to doing it, I realised the process is far easier than I anticipated.

Firstly, all my files are now in the cloud. I didn’t have to back up a single thing.

Secondly, Apple makes it really easy to erase all content and reinstall the operating system. The whole process takes about 15 minutes.

I worked with slow and laggy laptops for a long time. Little did I know a quick and painless reimage was all it took to return my machines to fighting fit.

It’s worth understanding if the cure is a lot less painful that you believe it will be.

The UK has been overwhelmed with the sad news of the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

I’ve held back from posting because most of what can, or could, be said has already been covered in newspapers, magazines, and TV shows.

However, I came across one of her quotes that resonated with me, and I felt sharing it was a natural way for me to pay my respects.

“Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.”

The Queen’s role was laced in pomp, ceremony, and duty. Despite this, she implored others to not take things, or themselves, too seriously. I enjoyed seeing this advice in action. For example, her 2012 entrance to the Olympic Games with James Bond, or when she appeared on camera earlier this year with Paddington Bear—hiding a sandwich in her handbag prior to her Jubilee celebrations. In this quote she also acknowledges how easy it is to be wrong, and encourages and attitude of humility and curiosity rather than a know-it-all arrogance.

Here’s to you, Your Majesty! Thank you for a life well lived!

I met up for dinner with my good friend Lucy this past weekend. We were celebrating the completion of her first triathlon.

Lucy was running me through her training plan, and curiously quoted all her distances in miles.

I quizzed her as to why she was using imperial measurements. For context, we’re both Kiwis, so we’re used to the metric system.

She said, “It’s purely psychological. I can run farther when I think about the training being in miles. And when I eventually convert miles to kilometres, I end up completing a significant distance.”

I liked this approach. Sometimes the size of the challenge doesn’t change, but it’s the way we frame it that makes all the difference.

Clarity of thought is often correlated with the amount of time spent alone.

We can work through a tonne of mess with some patience and a pen.

When working on tough problems, its easy for people in a team to have a different understanding of the issues, options, and trade-offs.

Allow no confusion.

Don’t accept it.

Banish it.

When you feel like you don’t get it, or see that someone else in the team is struggling to understand, keep asking questions and being curious until everyone in the room understands.

Too many mistakes are made due to people assuming everyone else knows what is going on.

As our products, services, projects, and companies grow, we assume the people currently working on them are the right ones for the job.

This makes sense, right? They’ve been there from the start. They have the right experience. They’re subject matter experts. They know how to grease the wheels. They have strong conviction for what the future should look like.

Now, I want you to imagine your friend group when you were 7 years old. How many are still close friends today? What about friends from when you were 12? Or 18? Or 25? Or 37?

As we grow and change, so do most of the people who influence, inspire, and motivate us. Sure, there are a select few—best friends, family members, spouses—that remain constant, but the majority end up changing. And that’s a good thing.

This helps give me perspective anytime people move in and out of the orbit of the projects I’m working on. Those moments provide opportunities to reinvent, and to learn.

Apple’s iPhones in recent years have had a notch. It’a the small black cut out at the top of the phone to house the Face ID camera and the speaker for voice calls.

I found the notch weird to begin, but I got used to “not seeing it” after a while.

Apple is set to shake up their design for the iPhone 14. The black notch will now sit within the screen, and it’ll morph into different notifications or widgets. A short GIF of what this will look like can be found here.

It’s a great example of taking a constraint—such as the need to have the Face ID camera and voice call speaker—and building it into the design of the phone so it feels natural. Or even better, so it doesn’t feel like it’s there.

Carte Blanche problems are hard. Constraints can be superpowers if we embrace them.

J.K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin are responsible for two of the biggest stories to hit our books and screens in the past 20 years; writing the Harry Potter and Games of Thrones series respectively.

Both were massive efforts of fiction: each series planned to have 7 books. What I realised recently was they faced similar pressures, but handled the execution and follow through differently.

Rowling had published her fourth book by the time the movie was released. She maintained a consistent publishing schedule—despite the pressure that comes with such a global franchise—and ensured the books stayed well ahead of the movie schedule.

Martin, on the other hand, released five books; the latest in 2011. And then he stopped. The Game of the Thrones TV series covered content in the first five books, and with Martin’s blessing, continued the story to its conclusion. Martin still hasn’t released the sixth book in the series.

No one comments on Rowling’s follow through, but they do remember Martin’s lack thereof. They’re helpful examples to remember when we’re in the middle of the work.

Shane Parrish recently shared a great idea in his newsletter on Farman Street.

“Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide.”

When we see a clear piece of writing, we know the writer has done the work. We know they’ve wrestled with it’s content, structure, and presentation.

We should also remember others will do the same with ours.

I’m often reminded that ‘I’m never lonely if I have a book.’

When something goes awry, or there’s a delay, always carrying a book allows us to jump into stories set in far flung places, or converse with intelligent minds on subjects we want to learn more about.

And if we choose a good book, we’ll always have good company.