Lessons & Ideas

What is a problem so interesting and inspiring that you could dedicate the next 3 decades to solving?

Podcast Update

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Got big questions about your career or company? Good. You should. Exhibit A: Phil Knight started Nike in 1964. Twelve years in he still had major questions about Nike... “What are we trying to build here?” “What kind of company do we want to be?”

Simple way to catch issues on your team before they spiral... Track these 4 metrics: 1. Hours 2. Stress 3. Happiness 4. Education Monitor weekly. Meet if any are out of whack.

When was the last time your team convinced you not to do something that you wanted to do? If you can’t remember, that’s a problem: 1. Everyone has ideas 2. Most get run through the filter 3. Yours probably bypass the filter That’s a bad thing. Fix it. Use “What do you think about…” to rephrase your mandates as question and give your team a way to filter you ideas.

Writing Tip: Split your writing ito two sessions. 1. End each day by writing for 15m 2. Start each day by writing for 45m 3. Publish by 8am Leaving it mid sentence and letting my brain work on it over night works wonders.

How to set quarterly goals Here is the simple framework I use: 1. Vision: want I want things to look like 2. Habits: Do task X times, use streaks 3. Projects: 1 time initiatives 4. Use basecamp to log it all Listen to this episode for more details and examples.

Life lesson I learned recently

I've been thinking about this quote a lot... "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." -F. Scott Fitzgerald When you encounter a thought that doesn't ring true (meaning that it doesn't reconcile with what you believe or how you view the world) you have two choices: 1. Dismiss the idea 2. Examine the idea If you choose to dismiss it, that's ok. In that case, withstand the urge to disparage or form a straw man. WARNING: Only disparage ideas that you fully understand. You'll know if you fully understand the idea if you can recall it to someone that holds the view and they agree that it is an accurate representation of their view. WARNING: Even then, disparaging idea is probably a bad idea. If you choose to examine the idea, don't adopt the idea (yet) or dismiss your current view. Instead, hold the new idea in your hand and examine it. A few potential outcomes of this examination: 1. Slight recalibration to your world view 2. Major recalibration to your world view 3. Wholesale dismissal of the new idea If you are forced into discussing an idea you haven't fully examined, say so. And leave room for being off target in your view. "Anybody who doesn’t change their mind a lot is dramatically underestimating the complexity of the world we live in.” — Jeff Bezos