Creative from New York NY
Thinking “no one else works around here” is a trap that will kill your ability to connect, lead, and make an impact
Doing my startup I felt arrogant, and although I didn’t tell people what I felt, it bled through the work, killing chances to collaborate.
(Three Questions)
What should I do when I tell myself “no one works around here”
How do you define arrogance
What are some early collaboration wins I can find?
I loved the Art of Self Defense. It was a movie filled with abrupt, awkward comedy. If you are a fan of shows like “Rick and Morty” or Archer, this will be a good use of a few hours. Jesse Eisenberg was tremendous.
Funniest movie of the year.
Clear minded work is incredible. I feel more focused than I have in weeks, which is a godsend since I am finally off the road for a while. The last eight weeks took me to Baltimore, Durham, Lancaster PA, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Hello New York – I don’t plan on leaving for a while.
Right direction, low speed is expert territory because the results aren’t precise. Tempting to switch direction, and maybe it’s the right, perhaps it’s wrong, but you can’t know unless you decide. The expertise in knowing how to increase the probability you are right, and for that, you need data. And data is hard to get.
I saw “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” this weekend and enjoyed it. Here are three things I appreciated about his films while watching this particular one-
Worldbuilding – Tarantino knows how to get you, the audience, to care about what is happening on screen through dialogue and the environment.
Completion – I often come away feeling like Tarantino loves to toy with the audience with half-finished conclusions. This film is no different. I appreciate it because that’s life – it’s never neat, always a little messy.
Rewatchable- Can’t just watch them once. Tarantino loves to hide things in his movies, things that make you go “AHA” when watching it for a second or third time.
Hustle Hustle Hustle
I was hustling with my startup and I hustled right into a 3 week recovery period.
No breaks lead to burnout and it can happen faster than you think
(Three Questions)
Why is “grinding” a way of hiding
Why should you make your breaks in advance
What can you do to create boundaries that help you stay at your best
1. What is your purpose?
I don’t know yet. Some things that I suspect are a part of it:
Growth Teaching Understanding
2. After a fall, what have been your learnings?
Sometimes you need to stay down to heal, have no shame about it.
Time does heal most wounds when you find a way to talk about them, if you don’t they fester.
3. How do you identify opportunities in life?
Trying things that make me go…”hmmm.” Forcing myself to go talk to people. Fellowship groups.
What do you do with those?
Try the smallest step, however, I can define it.
What is your daily routine?
Writing a blog post and a ton of coffee. I don’t think I do anything else every day.
Product maturity – I’ve had some thoughts swirling about a product team’s maturity. There are several factors, I think. Here are five that immediately come to mind:
A team doing these things on a high level is mature. How is your team doing?
What could be worth doing right now, but you choose not to do it?
As if any of those companies aren’t hiring from a small subset of the American population that has “culture fit.”
This type of “evangelizing” of tech is dangerous because it assumes all things being equal. This cultural blindness is why a liberal arts degree is important, why history is important, and why con-men (Jason Calacanis isn’t ignorant – he surely knows why this is dangerous) like this shouldn’t be listened to.
Is learning how to code good – sure, much like any skill, one can find plenty of enrichment. Learn for yourself, build stuff, get a gig with it, I’m all for it – but to pretend it’s some sort of cureall for poverty?
Yuck.
Outcomes & Alignment – Leaders lead by making better outcomes for their teams. When you are leading, it is more impactful for you to spend time aligning than whatever other work that may be available. That is the trick, actually, and it is counter-intuitive. You probably become a leader because you did the other stuff well, and now you aren’t supposed to do it anymore. Well, in the words of Marshall Goldsmith – What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
The Scientific Method – The scientific method works. Within product orgs, I’ve worked with teams that wonder how to get research off the ground. Well, there are a ton of techniques – and your mileage may vary on all of them. Before you get to them though, it is time better spent to review the scientific method. Framing your research with those tentpoles in mind lessens the risk of it being nonsense. Once you have that down – those other methods make a lot more sense.
What is the scariest question you can ask yourself at this moment?
From the desk of Adam Thomas 