Product & Startup Builder
Separate the ”What” from the “How”
You need to separate the ”what” from the “how”.
I see a lot of people discussing presidential candidates saying things like “it’s a good policy if he can get people to support it” or “they’d be a great president if they were electable”. They also follow this same line of thinking in their own personal lives “I’d love to do this thing if only X”
First decide the “what”, then figure out the “how”.
The “what” should be an idealized version of the future. The “how” is a series of incremental steps to get there.
The policy is good. It’s not good IF.
The candidate is good. They're not good IF people support them. So just support them. If everyone who believed in the candidate would back them in this way, you would probably be 3/4 of the way there. You can then sell the rest of the people on the merits.
If you truly believe that a product or service is the right thing for the world, or a course of action is the right thing for you, then decide to do it, and find a way to get it done.
Democrats Are Spineless
Democrats are so spineless. Lock his ass up and throw away the key. Instead they buy into the farce
Everything wrong with CNN in one article.
1. Pointless story
2. Distracted by moving things
3. Clickbait headline that misrepresents the facts
4. Stoking fear to sell ads
5. Totally useless
New Toy at #SkySanctuary
My 3 Wishes
If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?
For me I’d try “unlimited wishes”
If that wasn’t allowed I’d wish for “the power to grant my own wishes”
If that wasn’t allowed I’d wish for the 3 things that basically give you the power to “wish” and get what you want in today’s society
1. Healthy: The ability to optionally and intentionally control the life, death and health of me and everyone else (to be able to live a very long, healthy life)
2. Wealthy: Unlimited wealth stored in whatever form is most relevant to the period and place that I’m in
3. Wise: The ability to optionally and intentionally see the truth
US 2020 Debates
Watching the US 2020 debates...
- Warren and Sanders: Everyone will get healthcare
- Debate hosts and Republicans: But they’ll lose their health insurance!??
- Warren and Sanders: But... Everyone will get healthcare!
- Debate hosts and Republicans: But what about all those amazing health insurance plans!?
*blink*
Boggles the mind.
No one wants health *insurance*. They want health *care*.
The argument isn’t that they will lose their current health insurance. Current US health insurance sucks. The argument is that no civilized country has abolished private health insurance just because they have a universal public system.
The public option provides a safety net and the private system provides luxury perks for those who can afford it. It’s really quite simple.
How to Solve Global Problems
Right now large global summits (like the Paris Climate summit) are organized on an ad-hoc basis. This can be inefficient because they occur at uneven intervals and the format and deliverables change each time.
Instead, there should be multiple standing “summits” each year where all the leaders of all the countries of the world are invited to work on the largest issues of the year.
The format and the dates should be preset and standardized.
One yearly summit for each major subject. For example
- Climate
- Defense
- Trade
- Immigration
- etc
The emphasis should not be on trying to get leaders and countries to sign things or pass “resolutions” but rather simply to do a best effort to draft a basic consensus on the current state of affairs and policy refinements for the year to come. The emphasis of the drafting process should be to get rough broad strokes down on paper with the end of the summit acting as a forcing function (e.g whatever we have will be released at the end no matter what).
The world would then have a document that represents broad, shared directional understanding. A simple tool to focus conversation.
Countries can (and likely will) choose to ignore the details - but if these documents create even lose alignment they will be valuable.
This process will also force counties to come to the table with something of a global perspective multiple times each year.
This is similar to how teams inside companies work to drive consensus by using standing meetings and rough consensus. No one has to sign anything, they just get a good idea of next steps and move on with their day.
Fighting For The Right Thing
They say the older you get the more conservative you become. For me, I’ve certainly calibrated some of my views more conservatively but mainly I’ve become more sensitive to the way conservatives see the world while still largely rejecting their world view.
This video is a great example. Liberals see a young warrior fighting for the right thing (climate change). I imagine conservatives see a girl being manipulated by adults and the “liberal media” us a low and tight camera angle to avoid revealing just how small this protest is.
When I hear Castro or Beto talk about their immigrant American Dream and speak Spanish on stage, I know us liberals feel excited by a diverse and shrinking world. But I imagine conservatives freaking out - yelling at the TV “this is why we want fewer brown people in America - they’re taking over!”.
Personally, I find it mind numbing that we need this girl to say plainly obvious things to corrupt, shameless old people in a vain attempt to jog them from their ignorance, apathy and/or corruption.
When It Comes To Facing Challenges, There Are Two Kinds of People
Most people live very practical and pragmatic lives. They go to work and do the job they’re assigned.
There are two other kinds of people, though.
1) There are aspirational people who demand that they work on specific types of projects and problems. Big and impactful things that make them feel excited, important and inspired! This is typically a positive thing - but it can sometimes become unbalanced and lead to a situation where they are unable to execute on pragmatic, commercial things. It leads to a kind of execution paralysis.
2) There are other people who fail to act (or act well) because they feel afraid. They procrastinate or self-sabotage. This is due to a wide range of reasons that they rarely even understand themselves - but irrespective of the reason, it ultimately also leads to execution paralysis.
I suspect, in both cases, these people could benefit from recalibrating the role of “feelings” in their lives.
Part of crafting a successful life requires that you don’t over-index on feelings.
It might sound harsh, but In some cases, they need to harden up and be an adult. They need to look at the world with sobriety and meet the market (and it’s challenges) where it is, not where they wish it to be.
This is not to say that the aspirational people have to give up on optimism and ambition, only that the most effective way to achieve their optimistic goals is typically through very pragmatic and incremental means. Of course, the trick here is to understand where the line is, and have the right balance of impatience, stubbornness, and pragmatism. A difficult but critical balance to strike!
This is also not to say that afraid people can simply have their fear absolved - but rather that they need to act bravely to break out of their shell to provide for themselves and their families.
Hope is for . . .
“Hope is for people who lack intentionality and effective execution” - Aliya Saad
12 Rules For Success
Wasted Time
There are a lot of hidden fees and charges in life. Little taxes and tips that often go unaccounted for. By far, the largest one of these is wasted time.
Ironically, time is the most expensive and precious resource we have. Both as individuals and as leaders of companies.
Do the things you love, do things that are high leverage and productive, spend endless time with loved ones, watch and read things that inspire you - but try to avoid choosing the cheapest option or the menial chores over getting the best service and professionals to help.
What you’ll spend in cash you’ll make up for in quality of life, momentum, and leverage.
The Letter Travis Kalanick Never Sent
The letter linked below represents the Travis we all got to know a little at Uber - either through personal interactions or weekly, candid, all-hands meetings. Bold, ambitious, comprehensive and open to tough conversations on any topic. Not the caricature the media painted. Breaks my heart he never got to send it and we never got to see what Uber might have become under his leadership.
Political Polarization Visualized
Don’t Be Afraid Of Judgment
There’s been a lot of talk around me lately about judgment.
The cliche/easy answer is “I don’t like to judge”
The reality is that, as humans, we are pattern matching and judgment making machines. That’s how our brains work.
We make determinations about what‘s safe and what’s dangerous, what’s productive and what’s unproductive, who we are and who we want to spend time with. We are constantly making judgments about the world. It’s the only way we can function.
What’s dangerous and toxic about being “judgmental” is not the judgment, but rather the judgment applied without empathy, context, and perspective.
This is much, much harder than it sounds. The people you are making judgments about are the hero of their own story. They are going through an emotional journey that you can likely never understand, and are dealing with past traumas and future anxieties they can barely rationalize to themselves much less explain to you.
So for you to make high empathy and effective judgments about others is extremely difficult. This reality demands that, as you make judgments about them (and you will), you give them generous quantities of latitude and forgiveness on a regular basis. However, you ultimately will need to make judgments about whether they belong in your orbit - whether their contribution is a net benefit or net negative to your life and in the life of your family.
What’s particularly pernicious, though, is when some people pretend that they are free of judgment and use that as a cloak to suppress judgment about themselves, while they themselves are in fact judging people all the time. This is a lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy that creates a self-referential feedback loop that takes them nowhere.
Ultimately, making good, rational judgments about how to spend your time, where to invest your money, who to let into your confidence and how to answer the millions of questions and challenges that spring up in life are the difference between success (however you define it) and failure.
So don’t be afraid of judgment. Be afraid of poorly informed judgment that lacks empathy and effectiveness in the world.
Father's Day 2019
Personal Feedback Results - 2019
I recently asked my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks to give me feedback by filling out a survey. I also said I might share the results. Here they are...
3 words that first come to mind when thinking about me
My 3 best skills/personality traits/features
My 3 worst skills/personality traits/features
How likely are you to recommend me to others?
Net Promoter Score: 33 (Based on this method). Terrible!
My thoughts and interesting tidbits
Contradictions
The most interesting thing to me is the fact that some of my positive traits are at direct odds with my negative traits.
For example:
Some of the responses to my positive traits were as follows (note: The number in brackets represents how well they claim to know me.…
Approachable (10)
Confident (7)
Positive (9)
Smile/laugh (7)
On the other hand, some other people listed my negative traits as…
Unresponsive (5)
Low self-esteem (10)
Pessimistic (9)
Sullen (5)
Initially I thought this was maybe related to the fact that the negative responses came from people who didn’t know me well. I feel like this theory is debunked by the fact that at least 2 of the negative contradictions in this small sample above claim that they know me 9 and 10 (out of 10).
Another possibility is that I’m not as consistent as I hope and strive to be to all the people in my life.
The only other possibility I can think of is that people project onto others what they hate or see in themselves.
What do you think?
Authenticity
In my worst skills tag cloud, the word “Inauthentic” obviously looms large. The fact is that the word was only used once in the feedback, but I summarized another piece of feedback using that word because it seemed to be what they were suggesting (with many more words). Unfortunately due to the small sample size (22) even 2 occurrences make the words (good or bad) loom large over the others.
That being said, I’m going to take that feedback (and the others) seriously and check in with myself as to why I might be behaving in inauthentic ways, or in ways that might be miss-perceived as inauthentic.
Partners vs. Mates
Mitchell just observed: In Australia we call our sexual companions “Partner” and our business companions “Mates”
“Not Caring Is Not An Option“
Are you tired of me and others posting about politics? Do you believe that being neutral or balanced is better for your life or career? Watch this.