Science isn’t about being right every time, or even most of the time. It is about being more right over time and fixing what it got wrong. (Scott Adams, Sciences biggest fail)
Sometimes, some things are just never done. You just need to iterate until the result is not perfect nor complete, but good enough for your customer.
[To write a novel] You need a super-powered, diabolical device that will transform you into a bastion of literary accomplishment. And I’m happy to report that this implement is in the house, and it’s just waiting for you to pick it up.
Without hyperbole, I can say that this tool is the most awesome catalyst that has ever been unleashed on the worlds of art and commerce. Nearly every beautiful and useful thing you’ve ever touched or witnessed was born in its mighty forge. It’s portable, affordable, and nonpolluting.
[…] What you need to write a novel, of course, is a deadline.
Deadlines are the dynamos of the modern age. They’ve built every city, won every contest, and helped all of us pay our taxes reasonably close to on time for years and years.
Chris Baty. Why deadlines are every writer’s secret weapon
I first published in my school’s newspaper when I was eleven. Since then I started to write a novel at least three times, never achieving more than a dozen pages.
Then NaNoWrimo came to scene, with its gigantic deadline. 50.000 words. 30 days. A novel from start to end, while doing your best to keep up with your life.
NaNoWriMo. A challenging but clear goal in an agreed, achievable time box. I couldn’t do anything but commit.
A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most ass-kicking form. It’s a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path.
Chris Baty. Why deadlines are every writer’s secret weapon
Optimistic ass-kicked as I was, I won. Four times. Thanks to the magical power of deadlines.
Related: How to make deadlines actually work, Jason Fried at Inc.com
Related: Why deadlines are every writer secret weapon, Chris Baty at NaNoWriMo.org
Related: About NaNoWriMo at nanowrimo.org
Related: Quotes on planning, Quotes on time pressure
When I was a child, Spanish broadcasting world was limited to just two TV channels. The First One and The Second One (not very original names, by the way).
Every children my age remembers how, during San Isidro and San Fermin festivals, at mid-afternoon, the cartoons and series for kids that The First One transmitted everyday, were replaced by bullfighting. So every children arriving at home after school had to choose one of two options: Watch bullfighters or watch history and art documentaries on The Second One.
And that is the choosing paradox. I had so few options, I needed to choose something new. This way I discovered I didn’t like bullfighting, but I also found out I like history a lot.
Nowadays, I’ve so many channels available, I don’t need to watch anything I don’t feel like to.
So I end up watching the same as always. The same type of movies, the same type of series, or, worst case scenario, the same old chapters of the same old series again and again. I can always find on TV something I KNOW I LIKE, so I don’t need to watch anymore something I could eventually love.
Sometimes, the best way to taste something new is having very few options available.
The medium is the message. – Marshall Macluhan
E-mail is cheap, both in time and in money. People can send it to an arbitrary number of people, lists, aliases… People can send it from their desktop, while commuting, while having dinner with their boss or their family.
So now, you receive, let’s say, some hundreds of mails per week. Some of this mails require an answer from you. Some of this mails are just to keep you informed. Some of them can wait, but some of them needs an answer right now.
But you need to open them, just to tell which is expected from you.
Only if we could have a look without needing to open them.
Yes, we can.
Just taking advantage of the subject of the message.
Rule#1: Always read the subject before answering. If the subject doesn’t relate anymore, adapt it to the new theme. Particularly if the subject has become just a bunch of chars like “Re:FWD: RE:RE:RE: Fwd Re:FWD: RE:RE:RE: Fwd: Yesterday’s meeting minutes”.
Rule#2: The FYI (for your information) mark is pretty useful. Why hiding it into the body? Just include the FYI in the subject.
Rule#3: If it’s a short message, don’t even use the body of the message. Just type the message on the subject and use “(eom)” (End of Message) to tell the recipients they don’t even need to open it.
I was having some tapas with five of my friends from college.
We arrive to that big fancy bar.
Before ordering, someone realized something strange happened with the menu…
It was an obvious mistake, we agree. If you would order six croquettes you’d pay 1€ for each one. And then, from the seventh on, you would get a 0,25€ discount.
But we were having fun, so it couldn’t hurt to ask the waiter about it. So we ask him if we could order six “additional” croquettes instead of the six pack.
He told us, “if it’s in the menu, you can ask for it”.
We explained him that it should be an error, that if we ordered only additional, they were making less money.
“I only work here”, he answered.
In the beginning, he didn’t know about the menu. But in the end, he didn’t care about the profit.
Please… please, please, please… If you are a boss, a manager, an owner, keep in mind that your workers make the profit. Keep in mind that they need to understand how this profit is made. But, above all, keep in mind that they need to care about it.
Inform them. Motivate them. Good news is that both things are strongly related.
Not more.
Great bosses leading successful companies won’t want you to work more.
They want you to be more productive. To bring better results in less time. Since…
Productivity = Work done / Time spent
When some kind of (pointy-haired) boss asks you to spend more time at work, they are asking to increase the divisor. Increasing the divisor, by itself, will only DECREASE productivity.
Some other type of boss (not as pointy-haired but still kind of) could ask you to increase both the divisor and the dividend. The trick then is that if you would spend an extra 20% time at work, you would need to get at least a 21% increase in the work done to be more productive. This could seem plausible… but by definition extra work is done AFTER you’ve work your normal hours, so it’s unlikely that those extra hours would be the ones getting the most work done.
And all of this leave great bosses with the only strategy able to let them increase productivity. They must make sure to leave alone the divisor. The people is working as much as they should. So they need to INCREASE THE DIVIDEND. More work done in the same time.
How can you accomplish this? Let’s see some strategies:
Related
As a manager you could trust more in some members of the team.
As a team member you can trust more in some colleagues than in others.
As a contributor you could gain the trust of your boss, or not.
When wondering about why trust is earned, remember this dialogue between Marge, Lisa and Bart from The Simpsons.
Remeber. You can be Bart. Or you can be Lisa. Every role has its advantages and drawbacks.
Choose. Bart or Lisa. Because you can’t be both at the same time.
