All in Learning
The thing about transformative technologies is that they expose where value is - or isn’t - being generated.
As a result, they accelerate the shift towards value ‘maximization’. In other words, those tasks that technology should deliver, it will, and those high value tasks that humans should focus on, they will.
One of my (many) shortcomings when it comes to cooking is that I follow recipes to a tee.
Yes, I appreciate that that can be a positive and it is - in the sense that the resulting dish will be exactly to specification. It will taste and (for the most part) look exactly as the recipe author intended.
We tend to think effort and graft are the most critical ingredients to doing our work well. They're not.
The fact is that there's one, far more important and foundational requirement for success, as I discuss in today's episode.
"Success isn't determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose."
-- Pele
As we kick off 2023, our thoughts naturally turn to new beginnings and starting afresh.
It's tempting, when we've achieved some measure of success, to believe that we've arrived.
The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, counseled against this idea of "arrival" and believing we are important, as I discuss in today's episode.
Here, in the US, this is the season of Thanksgiving and it’s a wonderful time to remember who and what we should all be grateful for (putting aside the fact that giving thanks should be a daily activity).
When doing so, though, one of the things that we tend to struggle with is the duality and contradiction of so much in our daily existence.
In ancient times, when a Roman general achieved success and marched through the streets of Rome in triumph, an auriga (a slave) was appointed to walk behind him and every so often, whisper in his ear, “Memento Homo”.
Remember, you are only a man.
I love actual, physical books. Mostly non-fiction, sometimes fiction as well.
I love not only the content in the books I buy, but I love how it feels in my hand, even how it smells. It’s a rare, almost nonexistent thing now, but I love walking through a bookstore, discovering new and interesting titles across all sorts of genres. That process of discovery is (was) one of the best things ever.
When I was a 14 year old learning to play the guitar, there was no internet. Which meant that, if you wanted to learn a song, there were only a few ways to do it.
You could try and learn it ‘by ear’; you could have a friend show you how (assuming you had a friend who played guitar and knew the song in question); you could buy a guitar magazine and check out the included sheet music (assuming they transcribed that specific song in that specific issue)…
Bill Gates said that he once believed that, if someone had a high IQ, they could be good at everything. He doesn't anymore, and that's a key idea to come to terms with if you want to build a great enterprise.
Because great teams and achievements are, as I discuss in today's episode, built on the back of diverse capabilities and people.
Like it or not, mistakes are par for the course.
As much as we’d like a perfect innings, there really isn’t any such thing.
That’s a function of the variability inherent in our environment. Our colleagues will not always act predictably. Competitors don’t always behave the way we’d like them to.
If you’re going to make the time and incur the expense of attending a trade conference, it’s worth trying to actually learn something while you’re there.
I was at just such a conference recently and sat down to listen to a talk. A few minutes before the start of the session, a couple of men sat behind me and immediately launched into a conversation amongst themselves.
What is art?
Is it the physical artifact, the making of the physical artifact, or is it both?
Recently, Jason M. Allen won the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition under the digital art category, by submitting a piece of work he created using an artificial intelligence program called Midjourney, a software that turns lines of text into hyper-realistic graphics.
Trust is something we all intuitively believe in. We understand that it forms the foundations of each and every relationship we have, in every sphere of life.
We're, therefore, very careful about doling out our trust. It's worth realizing though that trust is a two way street - and that it's as much our responsibility to foster it, as it is the other person's.
When we lose an opportunity (a sale, a promotion, a job offer, etc.), it’s normal - and OK - to feel down, especially if it was something we really wanted. After all, if we’ve really given it everything we had, we’ve made a commitment (emotional and otherwise) which, ultimately, has not been rewarded.
So, we take the lumps.
When those we work or live with are going through challenges, large or small, we’ll often have this desire to solve their problems for them. We want to do what we can to make things easier for them and ensure they remain happy and sailing along smoothly.
This is, of course, completely understandable…
I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Wall Street, which stars Michael Douglas, who plays probably the greatest white collar villain of all time, as well as a young Charlie Sheen as his impressionable apprentice.
It’s really an incredible film that provided some powerful social commentary on Wall Street (and, in many ways, America) in the 80s…
It took me a while to understand that the idea of "learning" was not a one and done concept but an enduring, long lasting one.
There are a number of reasons for this as I discuss in today's episode and my key message or takeaway is that, while we've made progress over the years, the path is continuous - so long as we shift how we think about it.
At a commencement speech years ago, the author David Foster Wallace recounted a story of two young fishes who meet a couple of older fish as they’re swimming along. One of the older fish greets the young fish and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” The boys continue swimming and a short while later, one of them asks, “What the hell is water?”
I know it’s a cliché to say this but we learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.
The reasons are obvious, of course. Through our mistakes, we gain practical experience in what not to do - and it’s this experience that generates knowledge that is seared into our subconscious, often painfully so.
