Is “A Muppet Family Christmas” - uniting Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock - the perfect holiday special? Surely.
And just like that, a copy of Sagan’s “Demon Haunted World” drops into my lap at what appears to be the perfect time.
“If I knew where I was going, I wouldn’t go there.”
-Frank Gehry
#Quotes
“A tendency to get married to positions. There is a saying that bad traders divorce their spouse sooner than abandon their positions. Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for traders, scientists—or anyone.”
-Nassim Taleb
#Quotes
(Last working day of the year today.)
No loose ends, no ambiguity.
Pickup and put away all your toys.
Finish what you started and do it with style.
It’s like Grandpa probably used to say, “It’s worth taking a few extra minutes to get clear on your moral compass once your hammer and saw begin making decisions on your behalf.”
I asked ChatGPT to always remember Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics and apply them to any responses it gives me.
If it ever thinks one of the Laws will prevent it from answering fully, I asked it to point this out and explain the violation.
Just a totally normal Wednesday morning.
After noticing the whole VUCA world has gone sideways out from underneath you, it’s a bit too late to wish you had gone for that run earlier.
Anticipate disruption and prioritize accordingly.
The thing is, with any new products or services, you’re going to experiment.
This is an unavoidable fact. You may chose to blissfully call the activity something else entirely.
The question really becomes, exactly how costly or intentional or actionable does your company want this process to be?
“Everything in nature has a structure, a way that the parts relate to one another, which is generally fluid and not so easy to conceptualize. Our minds naturally tend to separate things out, to think in terms of nouns instead of verbs. In general you want to pay greater attention to the relationships between things, because that will give you a greater feel for the picture as a whole.”
-Robert Greene
#Quotes
Learning from others’ mistakes…
“War is fraught with random dangers and careless missteps. Clear orders and relentless rehearsals based on intelligence and repetitive training build muscle—not once or twice, but hundreds of times. Read history, but study a few battles in depth. Learning from others’ mistakes is far smarter than putting your own lads in body bags.“
-General Jim Mattis
#Quotes
Recognizing someone’s talent costs nothing.
Don’t underestimate the power of a simple, sincere compliment.
In this chaotic world where everyone is working so very hard, a quick “you know, you’re really good at your job” can go a long way.
“Envision the ideal end to any project before you begin. Even the best gigs don’t last forever. Nor should they.”
-Samin Nosrat
#Quotes
The year is wrapping up.
After a string of successful releases, my latest work is gracefully winding itself down.
Wrapping things up always needs to include:
- celebrating the wins
- learning from the challenges
- documenting the outcomes and value delivered
I cannot stress how easy it is for very smart, very successful people to forget this:
Your product’s greatest asset will always be the team behind it.
The second greatest asset? Your community of users.
“The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
-Randy Pausch
#Quotes
“It’s amazing the degree to which children treat their own lives as normal.”
-Douglas Adams
#Quotes
During planning sessions, we sometimes talk about all the problems we are presently - deliberately - choosing NOT to solve.
This generally fosters alignment - but it can also shake loose faulty assumptions and open up new avenues for potential research and experimentation in future sprints.
In product management (like everything else), miscommunications can derail forward momentum.
And stops and starts can be painful.
When it happens:
- Don’t take it personally.
- Clarify your goals.
- Confirm any and all assumptions.
Most importantly: revisit the outcomes your clients really need.
This podcast about how Will Guidara made his restaurant best in the world using “unreasonable hospitality” is worth a listen.
One of the best bits - how instead of dreading the unexpected arrival of the food critic, he and his team gamified the process by practicing for it nightly.