This is always the case.
Something new is always used first by people who are willing to look ridiculous, at least for a few minutes.
Every once in a while, we adopt something because it's truly a better technology, a new taste sensation, a productivity shortcut that pays for itself regardless of what people think of it.
But most of the time, culture moves forward on the basis of a simple question:
"Do people like me do something like this?"
If the answer is 'no', most of us wait.
And so, new fashions (of all sorts) come from unexpected places, not from the arbiters of what's correct. Cameron Diaz and George Clooney aren't showing us new ways to dress, and Thomas Keller isn't inventing brand new cuisine. The people who go first have a different agenda than the standard-setters.
That's why it usually takes years for something to become an overnight success. The culture changes from the edges, and gradually, we come to answer the question about a hat or a software network or a car with, yes, in fact, people like me actually do use something like this.
This explains why Kickstarter campaigns do so well after they hit their minimum… social proof.
This week on HugDug, we saw generous and insightful reviews from:
Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water (on a solar backpack),
bestselling author and snowboarder Amy Jo Martin on what happens when men act more like women,
actress Jessica Stroup on her favorite perfume, Jackie Huba on sweetness,
and NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck on a secret muscle conditioning device that might even work on someone like me.
Not everyone, not yet.
People who care go first.
May 16, 2014
is priceless. Not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. Not imaginary, but practical. Not based on fear, but on possibility. Not designed to make you feel better, designed to make you better.
Seek it out and embrace the true friends that care enough to risk sharing it.
I'm not sure what takes more guts—giving it or getting it.
May 15, 2014
Emotions are far more contagious than any disease. A smile or a panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could.
When you walk into the office or a negotiation, then, wash your bad mood away before you see us. Don't cough on us, don't sneeze on us, sure, but don't bring your grouchiness, your skepticism or your fear in here either. It might spread.
May 14, 2014
If you believe that you must keep your promises, overdeliver and treat every commitment as though it's an opportunity for a transformation, the only way you can do this is to turn down most opportunities.
No I can't meet with you, no I can't sell it to you at this price, no I can't do this job justice, no I can't come to your party, no I can't help you. I'm sorry, but no, I can't. Not if I want to do the very things that people value my work for.
No is the foundation that we can build our yes on.
May 13, 2014
That's what most leaders and owners and bosses and customers want, isn't it?
We want employees who know the why, not just the details of the how. We want customer service people and partners and vendors who understand.
Which is what we get, at least until we encounter the first time that we're unpleasantly surprised. It's in that moment, when we demand a refund, or fire someone, or insist on rules being followed to the letter—that's when it all falls apart and stops being a relationship based on understanding and turns into one that's built on compliance to the rules.
If you want the people you work with to act with understanding, then you must trust them to use their best judgment, even when that means you didn't get exactly what you said you wanted. The failure is yours, because you didn't help people understand the reasoning. When you accept responsibility for that failure, when you educate instead of demand, you can gain the benefits of working with people who understand, instead of merely comply.
May 12, 2014
If you haven't announced a date, you're not serious.
Pick a date. It can be far in the future. Too far, and we'll all know that you're merely stalling. A real date, a date we can live with and a date you can deliver on.
If your project can't pass this incredibly simple test, it's not a project.
Deliver whatever it is you say you're working on on the date you said you would, regardless of what external factors interfere. Deliver it even if you don't think it's perfect. You picked the date.
And as a professional, the career-making habit is this: once you set a date, never miss a date.
May 11, 2014
Car dealers working together to stop Tesla.
The NFL refusing to pay sales tax.
Amazon trading customer satisfaction for concessions.
Power utilities working to stop net metering by solar panel homeowners.
Telecom companies working behind the scenes to get the FCC to abandon net neutrality.
Just because an organization has the power to do something doesn't mean it should.
May 10, 2014
While reading this sentence, hum your favorite pop tune while writing down the first 15 prime numbers, in order.
Those are three tasks, easy to do separately, basically impossible to do at the same time. If you try, you'll just end up slicing each one into little bits and alternating, almost certainly decreasing the speed and quality of work of each.
Cognitive load slows us down, distracts us and diminishes the quality of the work we do.
We can certainly handle some distraction, in fact, in many cases, a little distraction actually makes things better. Going for a walk, for example, can prompt better ideation than sitting in a dark, silent room might.
The key question for anyone designing software, highways or educational settings is whether or not they are choosing to add productive distraction to our cognitive load.
And for those that seek to be productive, realize that you have a choice about what tools and inputs you're willing to adopt or be distracted by. It's up to you.
The number on the speedometer isn't always an indication of how fast you're getting to where you're going.
You might, after all, be driving in circles, really quickly.
Campbell's Law tells us that as soon as a number is used as the measurement for something, someone will get confused and start gaming the number, believing that they're also improving the underlying metric, when, in actuallity, they're merely making the number go up.
Here are a few measurements that are often the result of speedometer confusion:
Book sales vs. Impact
Money vs. Happiness
Twitter followers vs. Anything
Money raised vs. Votes earned
Weight vs. Health
Income vs. Skill
Facebook likes vs. Liked
Tenure vs. Competence
Length vs. Quality
Faster? How about better?
May 9, 2014
…is another word for lucky. Someone needs to get lucky, and it might even be you, but luck is not a strategy.
Becoming good in the long run, that’s the result of effort and tenacity and smart practice.
Not just the individual, the kid who doesn’t learn to walk the first day, or the violinist who doesn’t win a competition at the age of eight, but organizations and their projects as well.
The people who are good in the long run fail a lot, especially at the beginning. So, when you fail early, it might be worth realizing that this is part of the deal, the price you pay for being good in the long run.
Every rejection is a gift. A chance to learn and to do it better next time. An opportunity to figure out how to bounce, not break. Don’t waste them.
Sometimes, getting lucky at the start means that you fail to learn resilience and tenacity, and you lack the tools to get better. The long run is a lot longer than the start is.
May 8, 2014
