Month: April 2019

For most of us, recalling the worst thing we have ever done is easy. Why is it so difficult to think of the best thing we have ever done for someone?

Does it help?

Does that type of criticism, by judging ourselves for our worst mistakes, make us better?

Well, does a writer who reads all their one-star reviews become a better writer after they’ve read all of them? Of course not.

So why do we judge ourselves this way? Why do we judge ourselves (and worst others) for the worst things we (they) have ever done?

Feeling guilty for making the wrong choice can motivate us to do better next time. “I failed, and next time I’ll do better.”

Shame, on the other hand, does nothing but subvert us from being the person we were born to be. It subverts us from doing our best work, trying things that might fail, and doing work that matters.

Shame says, “I am a failure.”

Instead of focusing on our shortcomings, we need to emphasize work that improves someone’s life and use that as fuel for the next project.

If we do that, we can create a cycle of failures that teach us for the better.

The one who fails the most wins.

There’s a reason why magicians don’t reveal their secrets.

The reason is, magic isn’t real unless we believe it is. Telling us how she did the trick takes away from the tension she spent the last hour creating.

Most of us spend our day trying to make this kind of tension go away.

We fight to get to inbox zero, to finish meetings without being noticed or hope we are not picked for a difficult project that might fail.

The professional, on the other hand, learns how to embrace this tension and to create it.

They instigate, ask questions, make assertions, challenge the status-quo…creating a ratchet.

Learning to leverage this tension is the work of a professional. It’s what we do to get your audience on the edge of their seat.

Not the kind of courage it takes to scale a wall without a rope.

But the kind where you will make one uncomfortable interaction.

Whether it is clicking publish for your blog or phoning a long-lost family member.

Make one interaction each day that scares you, one that might not work.

As you do so, you’ll begin to notice that it is easier to walk through doors that you have been hesitant to open.

Notre Dame can be rebuilt. And it can be wonderful if we can simply let go of this idea of authenticity.

Because nothing is authentic anymore. Nothing is original.

Even in Notre Dame, the paintings, the sculptures, the architecture were all borrowed ideas from the style of the time.

So, if we want to rebuild it, we can. We can restore it to be consistent from what it was before.

Because that is what we are really looking for. A feeling that is consistent with the past.

[Don’t be sad that it’s over. Be happy that it happened.]

In his interview with Tim Ferriss, Neil Gaiman talks about the type of pen and notebook he uses to write.

The thing is, expensive tools are nice to have but they are not enough to get you to write like Gaiman. It’s not enough to get us in the mood. And it certainly doesn’t give us the courage needed to ship.

Plenty of great books have been written with a BIC pen on yellow legal pads.

You don’t need fancy tools, you just need to care.

In 1988, Bill Dedman pointed out in his Pulitzer Prize winning article the devastating effects of redlining.

Redlining is an insurance term that started when companies would literally circle areas on a map that were deemed too risky to insure. Of course, the people most affected were in inner cities or low-income neighborhoods.

While insurance redlining is now illegal, there are still hundreds of examples where it happens every day:

1. Online Delivery Redlining: Amazon, “The Everything Store” with one-day delivery, is apparently not for everyone.
2. Supermarket Redlining: In Hartford, Connecticut, 85% of supermarkets left the city between 1968 to 1984 and few supermarkets have opened since.
3. Geographical Redlining: Retail giants like Home Depot and Staples charge different prices based on where you live.
4. Predatory Loan Redlining and Liquorlining: In sort of a reverse redlining, areas where banks are not loaning as much money see an increase in predatory loans and liquor stores.
5. Subprime Loan Redlining: Back in 2000, Wells Fargo targeted churches in black communities and convinced their religious leaders to deliver “wealth building” seminars to their congregation. The bank would then make a donation to the church in exchange for every new mortgage application.

The list goes on with student loans, auto insurance, workforce services…you name it.

Now, as Joi Ito wrote, we are training our computer algorithms to do the same thing. Big Tech can now target and begin redlining because we have surrendered so much of our personal information.

So what happens when your Apple Watch predicts that you are 18% more likely to have a heart attack at age 50? Will you be uninsurable?

Or how about predicting the likelihood whether someone will commit another crime or get in a driving accident or perform well at a job?

The problem isn’t predicting. The problem is how we use the prediction.

Right now, the algorithms are wrong. Most of the time in fact. Yet, we are increasingly relying on them each day to tell us what to do.

The question is, what happens when we begin to rely on these algorithms for everything? What happens when these algorithms actually get good at predicting behavior? Is that algorithm biased in anyway?

Computers are not biased like humans. They don’t think or feel or carry the same prejudice that human beings do. But humans have built computers and computer are a reflection of our flawed system.

Most leaders fixate on the wrong problem.

The boss who can’t motivate their employee to show up on time fixates on them setting their alarm earlier.

The parent that wants their child to have better grades takes away their phone and sticks them with a tutor, but fails to ask What is school for? Is it for my child?

It seems so simple. But it’s not.

The answer to complex problems isn’t always suggesting the simplest solution and doesn’t often get to the root of chronic problems.

It’s lazy to think that simply changing behavior we can create desired outcomes.

Chronic problems require more thought and care. They require us to think about the system we have built. Reductionism isn’t the only explanation available.

“Shape up and shut up” or “Just do it” only works when you have total authority over someone.

So unless you are a drill sergeant, it doesn’t work that often. Not enough to justify the frequency of use. Because once you push that button, you’ve just spent the last of your capital (trust).

Yet, this is a go to tactic for parents, coaches, bosses, mentors when working with someone who is stuck.

Let’s be clear, most of us that are stuck are not refusing to move to be difficult. No, they don’t know where to go.

This is far from the cry of “they just don’t care.”

Worth exhausting all other tactics and strategies before blowing it up.

A good teacher teaches with us not to us.

If you have ever seen Star Wars, most people can think of a sound that a lightsaber makes. They can hear the zap when it turns on, the crashing when they hit each other and the humming when they wave.

Yet, no one has ever held or heard a real lightsaber. No one has ever seen a real one off screen.

We accept imagination as culture.

The question is: If someone invents a lightsaber what would it really sound like?

Probably not like the movie we grew up loving.

Does that make it a real lightsaber then? Is what we have positioned in our mind’s eye the real one?

Worth thinking about while listening to how Ben Burtt created these cultural icon sounds.