In a sea of information it’s difficult if not impossible to consider every possible perspective on even a single subject matter. Sometimes you have to pick one person that you trust and just stick with learning from them for the time being. Do a little research and try to base your trust on more than faith, then bury your head…
Category: Meaningful Management
Stop being cheap
I’m flabbergasted by people that talk about tools–that have serious productivity enhancements–as expensive because they cost $99. What world do these people live in where expense is based on the money alone? These tools often save people hundreds of hours every year, how in the world is $99 expensive? A tool that saves hundreds of hours every year is cheap…
Altruism is suboptimal malarkey: helping myself by helping you
Sometimes people wonder why one would help others for free, aside from supposed altruistic benefits. I personally believe altruism is a myth. There’s no way to help others without helping yourself. Maybe you consider the help to yourself as a deficit to the value you provide to another person, but I think that’s also just puritanical hogwash. There’s no way…
How to work just enough to be successful
As I mentioned, coming in early and leaving late is deplorable, not laudable. One of the reasons this happens is simply that you don’t take the time to determine what’s worth doing–in advance. Consequently, you try to do as much as is possible in the hope that it’s enough. One way to get around this, each day make a list…
Coming in early and leaving late is deplorable
When I ask people about the habits of those they work with, inevitably they’ll mention people that come in early and/or stay late. And they’ll describe the work of these individuals as admirable. Sometimes it’s the basis with which one justifies their own lack of advancement, because they don’t put in long hours. But, the practice of working long days…
Quality cannot be standardized
I’m staying at a resort in northern Thailand, there are many activities including encounters with elephants and boat rides to Laos. As I was scanning the list of options, I noticed a rice planting experience: Try your hand at Thailand’s age-old rice cultivation methods in our resort’s private rice paddy I haven’t decide yet if I want to try it…
Do you occasionally hate your own work?
Sometimes you’ll re-read something you wrote, listen to something you spoke, or otherwise reflect upon your work. And this is a very valuable thing to do, but, when you don’t like something you should take pause to consider against what standard you don’t like it. Often, I dislike–maybe even hate–things I’ve created that upon reflection, I find I had no…
Recognize that innovation is innate
The bedrock of innovation is improvement, improvement is something we all do automatically. Even my dog, Pax, knows how to improve. We go through countless treat toys, toys that have a treat pouch or other means to embed or lock away a treat, something that makes getting the treat a bit harder than snapping it out of my hand. No…
Don’t specialize
Specializing means you’re focused on what you can do. The problem with this is a specialized focus often narrows your vision so you no longer see what your customer needs and instead only see what you can do. Often times that means you might be an expert at something nobody wants to buy. I’ve always disliked the question: “What do…
Innovation requires orienting people toward the right goals
Part of the reason that innovation is innate is because our minds are hardwired to achieve a goal, when presented with one. It’s part of the lazy nature of our mind. Effort is expensive, therefore we seek to minimize effort. The goals we hold people accountable to, dictate the optimizations they create.