💬 Quotes
Day 6: echo
“Just give me a little more echo.”
💬 Apocryphal Elvis
Return On Effort
"This time he was here to help us understand some truths about how we really run the business, make decisions, and value what's worth doing. When I say value, I don't mean a list of generalized "values", or the bullshit phrase of "adding value", but how we attribute value when evaluating our options and making tradeoffs."
💬 Jason Fried
🚧 Coordination Costs
The Stripe co-founders were candid about their failure to predict where the economy was heading. They also said they overspent on things like “coordination costs.” That’s not a term I’ve heard before, but I suspect it is a reflection of getting too big and too inefficient.
💬 Jessica Lessin
It's a new term to me aswell - BUT recently on LinkedIN there was a meme running around - which used this graphic.
It's pretty self explanatory. The formula is that for every person you add to an organisation, the number of potential conversations increases - a lot. If 'n' is the number of people in an organisation, the number of potential conversations is n-1 + n-2 + n-3 .... in other words ...
3 people ... 2 + 1 = 3 4 people ... 3+2+1 = 6 5 people ... 4+3+2+1 = 10 6 people ... 5+4+3+2+1 = 15
And adding 1 person to a 10,000 person organisation adds 10,000 possible new lines of communication.
“Ravages of age,” really? That phrase has got to go.
“Language matters. Journalists need to stop relying on offensive, misleading phrases like ‘ravages of age’ and we need to keep calling them out until they do.”
💬 Ashton Applewhite
“Chuck Schumer’s been in Congress so long that medically he’s considered a pre-existing condition.”
💬 Peggy Noonan
“If you’re producing an event, you want the best person you can get. And then inevitably, you have to settle for the best person you can get.”
💬 William Gallagher
“At this rate, the next PM will be the chasm where Suella Braverman’s soul should be.”
💬 Frances Ryan, The Guardian
We Are Becoming A Power Skills Economy
Josh Bershin writes that we are becoming a power skills economy.
In other words, automation did not eliminate work at all – it created new jobs, better jobs, and an acceleration of our workforce into what we now call the “service economy.” We are essentially shifting to the right in this model.
💬 Josh Bershin
BTW, in case you are wondering, ‘Power Skills’ is the 'new' name for ‘Soft Skills’. To be fair, it did need a new name. It’s also fair to say that whilst he’s not wrong, he fails to mention that in the last 15 years (where he references 2007) no mention that the average income of people is flat and that real income is declining.
But that's a different opportunity.
Oh - and maybe not so 'new' Josh was talking about this back in 2019 - and gave us a few clues as to what he was talking about, this is one of his graphics.
Here's My Take
1) Becoming? I think it is really more like that we are starting to recognize these skills. They have always been there - and though not necessarily recognised or even understood - I bet if you find successful people in that 'old' economy - they would demonstrate a lot of these traits.
2) Josh is not alone in highlighting these skills and their importance. What nobody is doing is organizing these skills into a taxonomy - much less an ontology. (What's the difference you may ask) Stan Garfield has a very simple explanation)
Taxonomy
Ontology
... except now there is.
More of this to come, but have to say, very excited by a company I have been talking to that has not only done a lot of research into these skills, but also which skills are most important - and why, depending on what you are trying to do.
Not only that, but they are releasing an app that will allow anybody to
- assess their personal strengths and weaknesses across all skills
- define which of those skills they should focus on to maximise their ability to be most succesful at what they are trying to do
- all through a self paced, self directed, learning program.
As I said - more to come. Just to say - the cavalry is on its way.
Featured Image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
I don’t always remember to put up the readwise quotes that catch my eye when I see them - so here’s a collection for you
Fareed on Education
Geoffrey Moore
No comment on increasing disorder at all levels!
Robert M. Pirsig
Something to bear in mind on the ‘journey to the top’.
Douglas Rushkoff
A corollary to finding the problem for your solution?
Venkatesh Rao
George Orwell
Explains some decisions by certain people.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Well - yes - maybe in his day. Is it just me that thinks this no longer holds true? (That is the younf asking questions. Or am I just cynical?
Dave Winer gives a shout-out for our very own Manton Reece.
“And I look forward to reading his book.”
💬 Dave Winer
Even Dave was waiting!
Dana Channeling Lennon?
The Fog of Global War, Dana Blankenhorn
“This is also no normal midterm election. This is an existential battle between democracy and fascism. Major media try to both sides it, but that’s increasingly impossible. Every possible -ism is rising against democratic compromise and common sense – sexism, racism, fascism, Christianism. All the evils bedeviling the rest of the world have come here to roost because Vladimir Putin invited them in.”
and concludes ominously
“I do know that, around the world, compromise is no longer possible. This world cannot continue half slave and half free. It will be all one thing or all the other.”
“Every possible -ism …”
Everybody’s talking about Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
💬 John Lennon
Different Times.
If Adam’s grandfather was alive today - I wonder how he would negotiate the virtual office. Remote work. Fractional and Interim people.
Secret life of Gerald: the New Zealand MP who spent a lifetime crafting a vast imaginary world
Not even Gerald O’Brien’s wife of 60 years knew of the countless hours he spent drawing and writing stories of his parallel world.
These are the kinds of secrets I would like more people to have. Such a welcome change to the usual. What an extraordinary man.
“I talked to him for a year … about all sorts of things, but the imaginary world never came up and it pisses me off that I didn’t know,”
💬 Lucien Rizos - his nephew
😂😂😂
“I could have put the lists into a spreadsheet, but that would mean the client would have to open the email and then open the attachment. If you knew the level of computer literacy my clients have, you would understand why I wanted to avoid that and just have the lists in the body of the email.”
💬 Robin Rendle
“Innovation is about shifting from a culture of management to a culture of leadership.
💬 Brian Solis
“The debate is done: the SPAC fad is over.”
“676 trading SPACs haven’t yet found a mate according to SPAC Research. Of that group, 80% are likely to liquidate, predicts Jay Ritter, a finance professor at University of Florida.
💬 Akash Pasricha - The Information