I think anyone reading this has more and less on the line than they think.
More:
Every decision that you make is going to affect several choices after it, as the second, third, fourth, etc. order effects will change the trajectory of your life.
Whoa.
Less:
The things that are stressing you now probably won’t matter.
Oh.
A weird life we lead, especially if you can hold those two ideas in your head at the same time.
As great as you are at whatever you do, don’t get cocky. My brain tends to start forgetting the basics once things go well.
“Who needs to stretch, look, you are getting stronger anyway, and you have so much stuff to do.”
Next thing you know, BAM, you’re sore and lose a few days because you felt cocky.
Jams happen fast, especially when we aren’t paying attention. When we rush, we head right for it with reckless abandon, daring fate to test us.
Trust me, she wins. She wins every time.
Ego drags us down, keeps us stuck in a time loop of our past victories, and as a result, we lose a visual on the road ahead.
Next thing you know, your inattention makes trouble and then boom, we crash.
In Silicon Valley, there is talk of a mystical 10x engineer. It is said one of them is worth 100 regular engineers.
I am realizing that the same thing with the best material I’ve read over the last year.
A great Paris Review interview that profiles Maya Angelou can turn a cold day hot. The Tao Te Ching is eighty pages of philosophical grace. An essay from James Baldwin on race takes me to the past while connecting me to the present, and that is something I can’t find in a Facebook post.
So then we land on a new question.
Why not spend more time exploring the great originals instead of seeking new retreads?
From my latest Medium Essay – Why Did I Delete My Twitter? 80,000 Tweets Gone.
Find the answer there, and much more.
No one likes the person who is always fighting.
Unfortunately, as a response, many of us don’t ever find conflict at all. We suffer for this.
Our ideas need to find their way in the world. If we try to avoid the tension that we find by being vulnerable, we miss an opportunity and suffer.
Instead of finding the tension in the right place, we find it within ourselves.
Then we end up with destructive self-talk.
Find the conflict and put that energy where it belongs.
When we discuss things, we tell ourselves “we’re rational, and the other side isn’t.”
The truth is, we aren’t either. We are humans. We have other things to consider.
Robots, however, are entirely rational.
They are:
No. That isn’t the human experience at all.
Let’s celebrate that.
This whole month has revolved around Jeopardy Knowledge.
I don’t think Jeopardy Knowledge is a “bad” thing.
Much like a hammer or a piece of paper, it is a tool capable of many things. It’s the consequence of the device, both subconscious and conscious, that interest me.
One of the traps of Jeopardy Knowledge is the trap of “sounding smart.” The consequence of this, both consciously and subconsciously, is that you lose your edge.
Sometimes, the person who “sounds dumb” gets the most context out of the moment. “sounding smart” sacrifices growth in the name of fitting in.
The problem is, when a crisis occurs, no one cares about people fitting in. They want the prepared. They need people on edge.
The edge is where you achieve the freedom to exercise who you are.
For many, these seem to be the same words. However, physics has a clear definition for both.
Precision is the grouping or closeness of your choice.
i.e. A bunch of arrows hitting the same place. Think of a bunch of arrows.
Accuracy is how close your choice is to the value.
i.e. Hitting the target as specified. Think of the bullseye.
They are mutually exclusive.
The trouble comes when we lead; sometimes we confuse one for the other.
If one thing “works” out of five, we were accurate, not precise.
If five things were in the same ballpark but were none of them “worked,” we could have been precise.
It is impossible always to be accurate and precise because we aren’t robots. We also must recognize that because we aren’t robots, it is our duty to understand when we aren’t, and communicate it.
To gain trust consistently, you have to recognize the difference and act on it.
Human beings are complex creatures.
With complexity comes disorder.
We, as humans, like “simple.” The truth is, though, things are never the way they are “supposed to be” for too long. It has always been this way.
The last two items on that list mean there is someone in your family that is still alive who didn’t have a car growing up, or thinks it’s crazy to raise money without going to the bank.
Humanity is always changing.
Don’t get left behind, because later, there will be jet packs.
Don’t confuse bad taste with “taste” you don’t like.
That’s arrogance. It has no place in a work style conducive to leadership.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Difference comes from worldview
Instead of seeing it in my way, I now have a challenge. As a changemaker, it’s now my job to understand why they want Drupal.
Don’t look at it as bad taste. It isn’t; it’s a learning opportunity.
People take different paths, like it says in the Diff’rent Strokes theme song:
“What might be right for you may not be right for some”
The difference between two styles creates art.
When I started unpacking the concept of regular delegation this month, I thought that I would write about just the act of giving someone something to do.
That is regular delegation.
Simple enough. However, there is more than that.
Great leaders recognize the action around the transaction as well. That regular delegation pales to “holistic delegation,” which is delegating which considers all other concerns.
Even before you give someone something to do, there are things to consider:
These questions sound like a lot of work, and they are. That’s why the focus is always important. Doing high leverage work is your leadership balance. Everything else has to fall to the side to even attempt holistic delegation.
Holistic delegating is a meta-skill. The good news is, leveling up any one of those things makes the rest doable.
Did you know I send a newsletter out every Sunday? It is more personal than the blog, combining my personal stories with an overarching theme. I also throw in some great links that I’ve found on the internet.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 