When you bring a product or service to the free market, the market decides what it’s worth. If you don’t want to be treated like a commodity (a race to the bottom), there are two paths:
Through scarcity: This is worth extra because there’s not a lot of it or we’re the only one who’s got it.
Through connection: This is worth extra because everyone else is already using it.
A little or a lot.
Few substitutes, either because it’s hard to get or because you’ve got all the good folks already.
We pay extra for something because it’s the only one its kind, because we’re quite thirsty and there’s nowhere else to stop, because we think it will go up in value, because it’s our best option from a limited selection. Right here, right now, you’re the best option. In other words, scarce.
Or…
Because we don’t want to be left out/left behind. It’s worth more because it connects us.
Value is not profit. Widespread and cheap innovations are valuable indeed. Profit, though, often has a different calculus, the creation of things that (some) people think is worth paying extra for.
August 6, 2018
Here’s a simple test:
Ask a few people to name a logo they like.
With very few exceptions, people will choose a logo that’s associated with a brand they admire.
That’s because what makes a good logo is a good brand, not the other way around.
August 5, 2018
Your first mistake was getting on the A53 bus, the one that goes crosstown instead of to where you're going.
Mistakes like this happen all the time.
The big mistake, though, the one that will cost you, is staying on that bus.
I know it wasn't easy to get on the bus. I know you got a seat. I know it's getting dark outside. But you're on the wrong bus, and staying on the wrong bus won't make it the right bus.
If you really want to get where you set out to go, you're going to have to get off the wrong bus.
August 4, 2018
In the short run, weather emergencies can create a boost in the economy. They put people to work, require new building, emergency action and investment.
But like a war, these boosts are only temporary. Over time, the work and cost of dealing with weather that doesn’t match our expectations produces a significant drag on all of us.
There are significant human costs, of course, but for the bloodless economist, the costs of missed shipments, expensive commutes and ongoing spending to simply maintain the status quo begin to wear down the engines that create value for us, and more important, for our children.
We all pay a tax for an endless cycle of unpredictable weather, and get little in return.
August 3, 2018
When an organization succeeds, the owners decide what to maximize. Some of the choices:
- Salaries for the bosses
- Distributions to the shareholders
- Stock price
- Salaries for everyone else
- Positive impact on customers
- Positive impact on the culture
So, if you’re the local cable company, you can decide to invest extra profits in customer service or lower rates, even if those choices don’t maximize long or short profitability. If you’re a public company, you might try to hype the stock price with a buyback. Or, if you’re a company with a mission, you might re-invest in that mission.
The myth is that the only purpose of a company is to maximize profits. That’s a fiction, and a dangerous one. Organizations exist to make things better for people, not the other way around.
One reason that social entrepreneurship is a useful concept is that it announces the priorities from the start. Be profitable enough to grow, but put most of that profit to work serving your customers and their neighbors.
You don’t have to have a fancy label to build an organization that you’re proud of. You simply need to decide what you’re trying to accomplish, and then go do that.
[Also! the new episode of Akimbo is out now, and a new podcast called Everything is Alive is the next thing you might want to listen to after that. I’ve listened to two episodes and they’re extraordinary acts of originality and genius.]
August 2, 2018
Here’s a simple hierarchy:
The self-driving car
Cruise control
Manual driving
Hitchhiking
Bicycling
Walking
The arc? As you move down the list, it gets harder and harder to coast. It moves from “set it once and forget it” to “one step at at time.”
The growth of audiobooks is outpacing reading. Why? Because audiobooks come with their own motor. Even readers are pointing out that they’ve forgotten how to read. But of course, that’s not true–we can still read a word, or even a sentence, it’s pushing ourselves through a chapter that’s difficult.
The internet is the greatest self-teaching resource ever developed. But few take advantage of it, because it doesn’t come with a motor. No tests, no certificates, no cruise control.
The decline of our personal momentum might be the great untold story of our time. That electronic media, incoming, ‘breaking’, please reply, didn’t you see that, react right now, click here… this has a cost. And the cost is our internal drive to initiate instead of to just react.
Someone’s driving. It’s either you, going where you choose, or someone else, pushing you.
August 1, 2018
Wanting to do two things at the same time.
If you’re on the stairmaster at the gym, you’re engaged in a workout voluntarily.
But if your job involved standing on a stairmaster all day, every day, you’d be stressed out. Because you want to stay (you need the paycheck) and you want to leave.
A volunteer fireman feels totally different about a burning building than someone who is trapped in one.
That’s because the volunteer goes in on purpose.
The distinction (and the stress) comes down to the word “but.”
I need to do this but I hate it.
I have to stay but I want to go.
The external forces might not be changeable, but our use of the word “but” can be.
If it’s what you want to do, then do it. Dropping the “but” costs you nothing and saves you stress.
July 31, 2018
“We’re not going to be here long.”
That’s because this project isn’t going to work and we can’t afford to stay, or because this project is going to work and we’re going to move up.
That’s a pretty profound thing for some real estate to say about its corporate tenant. And the employees absorb it each and every day.
Compare that to a bank in the big building in the middle of town… They’re in maintenance mode, how could they not be? It’s too hard to move—up, down or out.
Choose your metaphor, choose your narrative. It’s not just your office, of course. It never is.
[For those intent on moving up, consider applying to the altMBA. The last session of the year happens this fall.]
July 30, 2018
Quietly, over the last thirty years, engineering has become dramatically more efficient and effective.
Insulated glass, cars that don't break down, keyboards with just the right feel to them… Mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering are all moving faster than ever.
Several factors are at work:
- Computer aided design and engineering means that smaller teams can do more, faster.
- The internet shows engineers the state of the art immediately, so everyone is working off the latest benchmark.
- Markets are more open to levelling up… new innovations that translate to productivity are adopted more easily.
- There's an expectation that better is possible, so organizations are hooked on seeking out better. The ratchet turns the ratchet.
When we're in the middle of it, we don't see it. But travel back in time just a bit and you'll see that few things worked as well as they do now.
July 29, 2018
Everything moves better in smooth water. Engineers spend a lot of time and energy to avoid cavitation, the often dangerous bubbles that are caused by pumps or propellers. And sailors and surfers prefer to do their thing without excess chop.
As we apply pressure to an organization, the same thing happens. At first, people engage with change as an opportunity, doing their best work in the face of small shifts. But once fear sets in, so does cavitation. The cavitation, the bubbling, the uncertainty, the expansion and collapse of bubbles of doubt and disagreement—this becomes the primary problem, more than the fear that originally caused the issue.
The challenge is to avoid this before it happens. To insert pressure relief valves, smooth out the bends, and give the energy a place to go.
The stories we tell each other will lead to the actions we take.
July 28, 2018
