There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs.
And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in reality over the long term.
Divisive power tears things down. Resilient power builds things up.
Resilient power creates the conditions for the community to produce value over time. Resilient power uses optimism and fairness to create value because participants can see ways they can participate and contribute.
Fear might be for sale, but that doesn’t mean we have to buy it.
Better is possible.
November 5, 2024
Culture has stability. “The way things are around here.”
When we are pushed too far from our norms, life gets stressful.
Some of the people in the systems that used to keep things stable have discovered that they can make a profit or gain an edge by embracing extremism instead.
You might not have thought you’d be spending seven hours a day reading the internet, or most of your free time posting and responding, but that’s what the social media companies have pushed us to do.
And you might not embrace some of the extreme views that we’re exposed to every single day, but the pressure can feel relentless. It feels like we come out just a bit ahead if we go along with the latest angry meme.
It’s worth checking in with ourselves and the people we care about. What are we signing on to and supporting? How are we choosing to spend our precious time? Is it riskier than we’re comfortable with? And mostly, what sort of new world are we endorsing?
It might make sense to choose stability when we can.
November 4, 2024
Principles have a priority.
Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were:
First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
We’d like to think we can honor everything we believe in, every time, but of course, the difficult work of having principles is that we must put some ahead of others.
If one of your principles is, “win at all costs,” then you have no other principles.
It’s a lazy amplifier.
“Very” can modify almost any adjective, but it might not deliver our intended message.
Putting it in front of a positive like “charming” or “kind” or “generous” can make it clear that we mean what we said, but more so.
But, placed in front of a description of otherness, it can push the person we’re describing into a corner. “They have very pointy ears” or “They are very midwestern in their approach to a problem,” communicates that we’re highlighting and objectifying, not celebrating. We often do this when the amplifier isn’t needed or even accurate. It’s a cheap hack to remind people that we’re not like the person we’re talking about.
If you’re saying something nice, it’s helpful to choose a memorable amplifier like “extraordinarily” or “off-the-charts.” Or just enunciate and emphasize your compliment.
If you’re describing someone in a way that labels them, consider why, and leave it out.
If removing an amplifier like ‘very’ makes the message clearer or consistent, why not simply skip it?
Our words tell a story. Even when they’re lazy.
November 3, 2024
If worrying about paying the mortgage gets you motivated to lean hard into the next project, don’t be surprised if that sort of fear arises every time you have hard work to do.
If your goal is to teach the naysayers a lesson, remember that you’ll need to find people who you want to defeat every time you need to do important work.
If you are measuring a false proxy, a metric you say you don’t care about, it’s quite likely you’ll start caring about it.
When we pick our fuel, we pick our companions for the journey ahead.
Choosing to care about what other people care about surrenders your agency. You’ll find that success feels hollow, because it’s their success, not yours. And blaming the false metrics for losing your way is not as useful as simply walking away from them in the first place.
We thrive when we find a goal and a metric that’s resilient and easily replenished. It turns out that making a contribution is something we can do, again and again, and it never gets old.
November 2, 2024
Alas, we probably will.
Recurring scams, hustles and deceptions work because we’re eager to be fooled by them.
Vaporware, false deadlines, fake budgets, unrealistic promises and straight out con jobs persist because at some level, we demand them. Divisive arguments, mob enthusiasm and simple lies work surprising well.
False hope delivers a benefit in the moment, while the reality we have to live with doesn’t arrive for weeks or months.
If you don’t want to get fooled again, think about why you got fooled last time.
November 1, 2024
