Dan's Daily

I tell myself I’d like an endless summer, but I do like how each of the four seasons mark the passage of time.

In particular, shoulder seasons give us a signal as to how the world is changing around us. They give us clues as to how we need to adapt. And they teach us a lesson if we don’t heed their advice.

Our careers, friendships, relationships, and personal projects also have shoulder seasons—when a warm summer feels like it’s approaching, or that we may soon be trudging through a winter.

Why not take a moment and think about what season may be approaching?

Every so often I like to take a look at my baselines and consider whether or not they need a reset.

When I say baselines, I mean quantifiable expectations we set for our growth and self improvement.

A good example are the targets many of us set on fitness trackers. When I first bought an Apple Watch, I started with the default move target of 500 calories. I have periodically reviewed my daily goal, and increased it slowly over time.

Another is the number of focused minutes of Cantonese and Spanish practise that I complete between my weekly lessons. I often find myself the day before a lesson trying to cram in some reading or vocabulary to make the lesson worthwhile. I realised I was setting my expectations too high, and that some consistent daily practise was better than none.

The goal of resetting baselines isn’t to create a laundry list of tasks we need to complete. That’s exhausting, and the opposite of what I’m getting at.

Resetting baselines is about choosing the few things that matter, setting new and high standards for what we expect of ourselves in those few things, and deliberately dropping the rest.

…when you’re in a foreign city, walking at 50% pace, listening to an album for the first time, and have a willingness to pause at the slightest curiosity.

This post was written whilst walking the streets of Zurich with a couple hours to spare before my flight home.

Give it a try some time!

All you need is one person in the group who can ask great questions to completely change the course of a conversation.

It’s true for work, play, and for meeting new people.

The good part, it’s a skill that can be learned.

I clearly remember my first visit to Zurich almost 12 years ago because of the video that plays on the airport train taking passengers between terminals.

There are a series of screens mounted on the walls of the tunnel. As the train moves past them, the screens’ frame rate is synced to the speed of the train. This means that despite moving past the screens at speed, you see a clear and coherent image unfold.

I was in Zurich this week for work, and made sure to capture the screens to share with you. Unfortunately, the FPS capture on my iPhone is different to my eyes. So what was a clean image for me looks a little more stuttering on video.

It also makes people smile every time, which is reason enough to do it.

Staying on the wagon is most of the battle.

Even if today’s progress is slow, tomorrow’s the weather looks poor, and next week’s route is an uphill slog.

Falling off, or breaking down, requires a costly stop or repair to get back on the road.

Even if we feel like we’re not making as much progress as we’d like, just turning up everyday and inching forward keeps the momentum going.

I got some feedback that my recent blog posts have skewed more towards ‘lessons learnt’ rather than ‘interesting observations’.

This reader went on to say that “not every post needs a lesson”, and that “it was more fun reading about the things you noticed going on around you”.

The feedback resonated.

So, expect a little more dancing between the two.

I recently found out a childhood friend from
New Zealand moved into our London neighbourhood; literally two minutes walk down the road.

What are the chances?

It’s been great catching up with them, and realising that even though this city is vast, and the world much larger, connection can happen seemingly random places.

Next time you’re writing an important document, blog post, or email: edit back to front.

Start at the last paragraph, and check your work in reverse.

When we read our work from beginning to end, we’re more likely to believe we’re making sense—we’re biased after all!

Reading in reverse forces us to edit with greater caution, and thus increases the probability of finding faulty logic and mistakes.

I’ve recently been using a language learning platform called italki to practise Spanish and Cantonese. It’s an online marketplace connecting teachers and students.

I used to think these types of marketplaces didn’t have a shot; especially for services that can easily be taken “offline”—where a person could pay the service-provider directly.

However, I’ve been convinced otherwise because of italki’s excellent tools and a critical mass of students and teachers.

As a student, I want to know I’m getting a good teacher, and that the price is reasonable. With their platform, I’m able to easily filter by reviews, price, and experience (i.e., number of classes taught). I can quickly select a teacher for a trial lesson that I feel confident could be a good match.

A teacher may have 50+ students, and scheduling is a nightmare when lessons are on an ad-hoc schedule and online. Italki provides a very simple scheduling tool, allowing teachers to choose when they work, and places the responsibility on students to pick a time that works best for them.

The combination of these factors mean both teachers and students are happy to pay a percentage of fees to italki to take the hassle out of matching and scheduling.

Bolt: to secure, or to flee

Left: remained, or departed

Sanction: to approve, or to boycott

Strike: to hit, or to miss an attempt to hit

Consult: to offer advice, or to obtain it

Context is everything.

I was at a friend’s house whilst they were setting up an Amazon Ring—a smart doorbell. Part of the process was picking a doorbell sound.

A debated ensued about what sound was best. Some of were traditional—a bit boring. Other’s were futuristic and ethereal—easy to miss. Some were loud and in-your-face—grating.

The lesson I took away, not just about doorbells, but for any alert—whether it be on our phones, laptops, post-its, or diaries—the sound itself doesn’t matter all that much.

What matters is being universally heard and recognised.

Set alerts accordingly.

I used to play touch rugby at a relatively competitive level back in New Zealand (if training 4-5 times per week is a proxy for competitiveness!). It’s a simplified, non-contact version of rugby that gets progressively faster and more strategic as you level up.

I recently found a group at work that competes in a corporate league, and I went along for my first game this week. I was surprised at few things.

Firstly, the muscle memory came back so quickly. I’m sure I looked uncoordinated after more than decade of not playing, but I definitely felt my brain click into gear much faster than I anticipated.

Secondly, I realised I was completely unprepared for the speed—touch rugby is based on sprinting and quick movements. This is in stark contrast to almost all of my exercise, which is typically strength training or steady-state cardio.

The juxtaposition of my brain knowing what to do, but my body being a few steps behind, felt odd! But it helped me realise the value of “functional” training that’s outside of our typical routine.

I don’t have hard data or evidence, but it feels logical that frequently stressing the body in new ways is important for longevity.

If you step in mud, do you walk straight into the house?

Probably not.

You likely wipe your shoes on a door mat, and take them off before you go inside.

Mud is obvious. It’s easy to see. And in the grand scheme of things, easy to clean.

But there’s other, less obvious, types of “mud” that we pick up throughout our day—often without even realising it.

It’s the impatience we let get to us in the supermarket line. It’s the snarky comment from someone in the subway. It’s the colleague who refuses to collaborate.

The people we share our homes with don’t need us dragging in the literal and figurative mud of the day.

In the same way we wipe and take off our shoes, is there something you do to stop the figurative mud from entering the house?

More ideas appear on a brisk walk than when staring at a blank screen.

Get out. Get moving. Get used to ideas coming when the subconscious mind has time to work.