Issue 45: Legos, Non-Obvious and Money
“All I want is what I can see. And all I can see is what’s in front of me.” Matthew McConaughey
Figure and ground. While applied to our ability to segment the visual world into things in focus, figure, and keep some things in the background, ground, it can also be applied to our mental and emotional state. Considering the sheer amount of things going on in the world, and our ability to access all the information about all these things, one would think our figure/ground separation would be shot right now. But, and I can say this based on many conversations, it’s actually the clearest we can be about what matters vs what doesn’t. Up until Q1 2020, we’d spent the most of our time focused on what should have been the ‘ground’ in our lives. The things that mattered early this year have been pushed to the ‘ground’ in our lives. ‘2020’ has absolutely made the figure clear in our lives.
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A good friend told me that we’re making the mistake of thinking this, whatever 2020 has been, can’t get worse in 2021. I choose to believe things will get better. Truly. But, and this is a serious but (as Mindy from ‘Wow in the World’ would say), whatever 2021 will bring will require us to be absolutely clear about what our personal ‘figure’. It’ll be the only way we navigate the next few months/years of our lives.
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One of the great joys of my life is having conversations with my wife. As you can imagine, that’s been happening a lot more than usual over the last 8 months. Unsurprisingly, some of these conversations tend to cover the books and articles we read. You didn’t think I was getting all this good stuff myself or sharing the good stuff with only you? :) We’ve had conversations Ted Chiang’s stories in ‘Exhalation’, ‘Stories of your Life’. We’ve had conversations about Molly Graham’s ‘Give Away Your Legos’ and her fantastic management lessons from First Round’s podcast. As we’ve had conversations about some of the 10 articles and six books in this issue of Polymathic. It’s been a great way to navigate these times. I hope these help you realize that there will be a time beyond this ‘time’ and we should truly take the positive and make the best of the now.
Who knew the term ‘Marijuana’ was racist? Apparently, a lot of people.
Further setting back the gains made so far, and there was still so much to do, during the pandemic women are bearing most of the brunt in two-income households with kids.
In business, we pay most of our attention to the business that survive. Are we selling ourselves short?
We all think of Matthew McConaughey as the ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ guy. Prepare for the transcript of this commencement speech to change all that.
What is the future of cities? We don’t quite know. Regardless of how certain some of your favorite pundits sound. My prediction? It will be somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. http://buildingremotely.com/blog/how-remote-work-will-change-our-cities
We also don’t know what the future of work will be. BBC Worklife speaks to a few experts.
Even though we don’t know what the future holds, we do know that tech is a huge part of what that future will be. Palantir will be a part of that and, consequently, Alex Karp will be a part of that (especially for government tech). Long read about an enigmatic character.
In a time of the creative class/knowledge work, information overload, turbulence, complexity, and an ever changing social environment, what is needed is a deeper understanding of The Nature and Value of Personal Knowledge Management {Research}. And most importantly we should all develop a plan to anticipate -> explore -> find -> connect -> learn -> act. Basically, lifelong learning.
To understand Daniel Elk is to understand Spotify. Fascinating interview that shares a different perspective on almost all things we consider as standard in tech startup management/leadership. He talks about balance and shadows other founders etc. I wonder which founders I should shadow right now… any suggestions?
Molly Graham’s ‘Give Away Your Legos’ is required reading for any manager. While she focuses on startups, the ideas she shares are applicable to any company that hopes to attract the creative class (see below). Pair this with her fantastic management lessons from First Round’s podcast.
Books
I’ve always shared my admiration for Morgan Housel. And that continues with declaring that one of the best books I’ve read so far is ‘The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed and happiness’. It takes money from an atypical angle; how we behave. How we feel plays more of a part in our money outcomes than what any spreadsheet or advisor tells us. And Housel eloquently shares how we should behave when it comes to money. Must read.
Rohit Bhargava brings the Non-Obvious series to an end with the tenth issue, Non-Obvious Megatrends. I’ve read most of the books in the series and, because the author shares past trends and how wrong he might have been
The title story in ‘Stories of Your Life and others’ by Ted Chiang gave us the movie ‘Arrival’. It’s unsurpsingly more nuances than the movie, which was in itself nuanced, and, frankly the easiest one to bring to the screen. Others, -‘Tower of Babylon’/‘Hell is the absence of God’- have a religious tint to them but are (cleverly) still science fiction stories. It takes a certain level of ability to make esoteric subjects (linguistics, stonecutting etc) central to stories that are all about life, love and choices. Well worth a read.
Another one of the best books I’ve read this year is ’The Lessons of History’ by Will and Ariel Durant. From government to religion to war, this book focuses on timeless truths drawn from history and manages to cram in more wisdom than 128 pages should.
The future cannot be predicted. But we choose not to believe or accept that. So we continues to seek out predictions both short and long-term. We mistake our natural inclination to ‘navigate’ our surroundings by anticipating for being able to see into the future. In Uncharted: how to navigate the future’ by Margaret Heffernan, offers that we should explore, create and imagine what the future might look like. Less prediction, more preparedness for whatever it brings. With hope. I guess it’s a book for the now…
It’s fascinating to reread ‘Rise of the Creative Class (Revisited)’ by Richard Florida during COVID. Experts are suggesting cities will lose their allure, while techies suggest Silicon Valley will continue to be the epicenter of tech for the creative class.
Practice self-care this week. We’ll all need it.
Stay well,
Seyi