Category: Uncategorized

If we’re smart, we’ll never shy away from making decisions. And if we’re really smart, we’ll try to make as many (important decisions) as possible.

Sometimes we’ll make the wrong decision and realize during the course of the failure that the decision was wrong. We may even know what the right answer is and envision ourselves making the right one next time.

But the true test of our learning is being able to determine when it’s worth it to scrap everything and start over. The answer isn’t always obvious.

Reading books and watching movies are two of my favorite pastimes, and I’ve got a few favorites that I return to from time to time. What I love noticing is the new insights I gain on my work and outlook when reading some of the same passages and watching some of the same scenes in my favorites works, years after I’ve initially experienced them.

My current fascination is learning the nature of systems and how simple components fit together to form something complex. This deals with such concepts as purpose, efficiency, adaptability, and interoperability. From bicycles to servers to social science, there are lessons and insights all around us.

Only the focused hours count towards your 10,000.

Going through the motions just wastes your time life.

I’m more convinced than ever that we’re all alike in more ways than we care to admit. What seems to matter most (and what explains our perceived differences) is the lens through which we view the world and the way we decide to reach our goals.

These things are influenced largely by our world view and our peer group but the overriding x-factor is the conscious decision we make to determine where we stand on issues, why we believe what we believe, and whether or not we have the courage to renounce previously held beliefs after developing a clearer perspective on something.

And as it turns out, the people I’ve come to respect most tend to profess a mastery of few things. Instead, they simply share their observations and their personal path to success in their craft and how to reach a particular end based on what has worked for them.

Our diverse views of the world can coexist peacefully if we develop a more empathetic perspective and look first to understand why others have certain viewpoints rather than taking the mental shortcut that is labeling someone and refusing to consider an issue more deeply.

It’s not your job to reject yourself, other people don’t need your help. Your job is to think through how to most effectively communicate and demonstrate your competency.

You can spend time thinking about why you might get turned down, but it should only be in the context of honing your approach.

You’re too smart and resourceful to concern yourself with whether or not a door is locked, your focus should be on where to apply your heel on said door after getting a running start…

I’m an Everlane fan, customer, and unpaid product evangelist.

For Black Friday, they chose not to engage in the madness that is American consumerism:

— BUY LESS, BUY BETTER —

As a business, we appreciate holiday shopping,
but we feel the excess around Black Friday has put
the focus on quantity over quality.

Because we want to help people consume
less by creating fewer, longer lasting products,
we decided to shut down the site today.

Have a wonderful holiday and
we’ll be back tomorrow.

That takes balls. But this message sends a very clear signal to the kind of customers that Everlane is looking to attract.

Among the comments when I posted this on Facebook:

I have been getting their emails for a while but haven’t purchased anything yet. Extra tempted now.

I’ll be buying from them tomorrow 🙂

That is SO cool, and I had never heard of that company. Because of your post, I’m now looking forward to finding out more, tomorrow.

And lots more discussion on Twitter.

To the company that makes 80% of their revenue between Thanksgiving and New Years (not uncommon in retail), this move probably looks like suicide.

But to the company that stands for something and that’s willing to draw a line in the sand, this is a (brilliant) no-brainer that will pay dividends for many weeks and months to come.

“I don’t know what I want to do with my life” is a common statement among my peers who are trying to find their calling. There are all sorts of terrible ways to address this issue, but here’s an approach that might be helpful:

Instead of trying to discover (in a vacuum) what gets you fired up, look back at the jobs you’ve taken and the projects you’ve completed. What are the common themes? And how did you feel?

Working backwards (and skipping over my last job, for reasons that will be clearer in a moment):

1. I used to work in the computer store at FSU. and it was one of the most enjoyable (and only…) jobs I’ve ever had. I enjoyed it because I was interacting with and helping people all the time, discussing technology (which isn’t “work” for me), and there was no rigid structure being forced upon me. My input was valued and proactively solicited. It was great.
2. Before that job, I worked as a server at a restaurant called Hops. Again: people interaction, camaraderie, and being myself.
3. In high school, I worked at a place called Me and Mom’s Produce. No, I’m not typing this with a straight face and yes, that was the actual name of the business. The pay was terrible, but I loved the owners and felt like family.
4. And my first job (back in middle school I think) was as a Jr. Counselor at a summer camp.

So if I wanted to draw some lessons from my own life and I needed to know what I should look for in a vocation that gave me joy, I’d find something that:

1. is people-facing
2. involves people I enjoy working with
3. allows me to leverage my personality to do my job better

All of these jobs helped me hone my soft skills, my ability to connect with strangers, my ability to work under pressure (Saturday nights in a busy restaurant? Man.), and other things that benefit me to this day.

And if I were to ignore these lessons and get a cushy desk job where I interact primarily with spreadsheets and corporate drones, it might not work out so well.

Ignore the lessons staring you in the face at your own peril.

When I first started in my current role as a web performance engineer, I used to disrupt my entire department (albeit on Skype) when I was working. I wanted all hands on deck when I took on a task I was unfamiliar with because I was afraid to ruin someone’s site or break their server.

[Now that I understand a bit more about how business works, I’m aware of how awful the impact of this was for the department and company (if a project was worth $xxx and my time was worth $xxx/hr and each one of my teammates time was worth $xxx/hr, we end up losing a lot of money with every project). Whoops.]

I grew to the point where I could successfully break things without the assistance of others, but old habits lingered: if something was out of my area of comfort, I’d “outsource” the completion of it internally. It felt good because the work was getting done, I wasn’t breaking anything, and I could complete more projects in the same amount of time. Perfect!

Well, not really.

The problem is that I wasn’t growing. In my line of work, I need to develop a sixth sense for the root of problems as soon as the symptoms are introduced. There’s no other way to run support and competently (and profitably) deal with issues at scale.

In other words, I need to develop a mastery of my craft. This can only come from a tireless and focused dedication to it, regardless of how long the work takes and how painful it is.

Looking back, it’s clear that I spent the better part of a year stunting my own growth. Once the crutch was removed, there was a near overnight uptick in my rate of learning and growth. Additionally, my confidence has gone up since I now understand that the issues that seemed terrifying to me a year ago have simple fixes, or at least a very clear path to resolution.

This confidence allows me to sell better, spot potential issues from afar, and delight customers with my increased competence. Winning.

The lesson to me, aside from the obvious danger in developing a dependence on things that harm me, is that I have to be in a constant posture of evaluating the net effect of the things I do while on “autopilot.”

Habits make a man.

I forgot to mention this sooner.

The I’m Fine, Thanks site is live so the documentary can be purchased (DVD or direct download) now. Originally mentioned on the blog here.

You’re probably not too busy for a 15 minute phone call.

What’s more likely is that you don’t want to have it in the first place.

But why?

With a little effort, you can save everyone some time and create some meaningful dialog around why an opportunity is a poor fit for you or why you’re not open to discussing the opportunity.

Examining the “why” helps me a lot, even if I’m not sharing it with someone.

It’s the thinking that matters.