Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - June 28th, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Air Travel Data Suggests China Had Nearly 40 Times the COVID-19 Cases They Reported. (VFTW)
• Airlines Tried Social Distancing on Board. For Many, that Experiment is Ending. (Chron)
• MLB Targets 60-Game Season Starting around July 24, Assuming Conditions Met. (ESPN)
• Doomscrolling is Slowly Eroding Your Mental Health. (Wired)
• Photos Show Devastation Unleashed on Terror Leaders by Sword-carrying Ninja Bomb'. (MilitaryTimes)

 

Trading Links:

• Delta Could Furlough More Than 2,500 Pilots, Will Close 3 Flight Attendant Bases. (ThePointsGuy)
• You Won't Believe How Many Airlines Haven't Survived Coronavirus. How Does It Affect You? (Forbes)
• These Mall Staples Announced Thousands of Store Closures in June. (CNN)
• Here's Why New Traders are Losing Money. (TheStreet)
• Warren Buffett Has Warned about the Dangers of Speculating for Years. Day Traders Aren't Listening. (BusinessInsider)

Generations of Fathers

Happy Father's Day!

Both of my children are adults now. It's strange to consider them fully-functioning autonomous adults – because I remember their childhood like it was yesterday (like worrying whether the soft spot on their heads would ever fill in and harden up, or if they'd ever stop sleeping with a nightlight). 

Today, they're men doing great things,  and I get to be proud of them.  I also get to be proud of my role in their growth and proud of passing down the wisdom of my dad, and his father, and the rest who came before me. 

It has been 20 years since my father died ... Crazy how time flies! He was my best friend and an amazing mentor. His vision for what I could become helped shape and inform my goals, my accomplishments, and yes, me.

For example, after winning the State Championship in the shot put, my dad came down from the stands onto the field.  He hugged me and told me that he knew I could do it. Then, he looked deeply into my eyes and asked whether I was a little disappointed?  "Disappointed?" I asked. "But, Dad, I won."  He looked at me and said, "Winning is great ... but you didn't throw a personal best."   He was proud, and he loved me.   He recognized that winning was important ... but he wanted to remind me that the other throwers weren't my real competition.  

In life, to be and do your best, the competition is really with yourself; and we both knew I could do better.

My Dad believed in setting high standards.  He taught me that most people's lives are defined by their minimum standards.  Why?  Because once those standards get met, it is easy to get distracted and complacent.

One of his favorite sayings was, "The difference between good and great is infinitesimal."  This applies to many things. For example, people who are good take advantage of opportunities; people who are great create them. 

As time goes on, I recognize how much of my Dad is in me. And, likewise, how much his father was a part of him ... and how parts of all of us have somehow become a part of my children. 

 

Me, my dad, and grandfather

My Impact on My Children

I hope I've imparted many important lessons to my children - but one of the most impactful lessons was teaching them to enjoy reading. 

Some parents try to limit the amount of time their kids spend watching TV or playing video games. I tried something different.  Instead, my kids earned their games by reading books. And, they also received more books in the process. 

Here's how it worked. 

When they finished a book, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the bookstore for us to pick up the next book together. Likewise, when they finished ten books, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the computer store or game store for them to choose any game they wanted.

When they finished a hundred books, they earned a game system. 

There came a point when I wanted one of my sons to start reading grown-up books. He was comfortably reading a particular genre (teen fiction) and didn't want to read the kind of books that I thought he was ready to read (and might enjoy more).  So, I created a bonus system that counted a specific book (it might have been a Tom Clancy novel) as three books.  I didn't force him; I just let the easier path to a reward "whisper" in his ear what to read. Once he finished that, he never went back to teen fiction.

As they started to get into their teenage years, I needed to up the ante a little. So, 500 books meant they got a laptop of their choice. Both boys cashed in and probably felt like they were taking advantage of their dad.

So, Who Got the Better Bargain?

Three generations of Getsons

Fortunately, in child-rearing, everyone can win. My sons love reading to this day - and have learned that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to... one step at a time. 

My sons weren't ever forced to stop watching TV, or read a certain type of book, and always had endless things to keep them entertained. 

Win-win. 

I like to think each generation becomes better (as people and parents) due to the cumulative experience of the generations that came before them. 

We stand on the shoulders of giants. 

I look forward to seeing how my (eventual) grandchildren turn out, and how little pieces of me and their great-grandfather show up. 

Hope you had a great weekend.

Carol's Keeping Me In Shape

As I get older, I become more conscious of my mental and physical health. It's easy as an entrepreneur or business person to lose track of your health - but investing in your personal health can be the best thing you do for your business.

Many of my friends now believe that with technology and a sustained focus on health & longevity, they can live past 100. They're paying attention to genetic, physiologic & biochemical makeup, cognitive function, body composition, cardiovascular performance, hormonal status, and much more. Whether they're going to live past 100 or not, I can see the daily results in the quality of their life and the way they look. 

It's the reason I started working with APEX, Dr. Jeffrey Gladden's concierge medical wellness practice.

They've got me eating salads, taking supplements, and thinking about what it takes to be healthy, fit, and vital. 

The goal is to enjoy life though ... Not to deprive yourself as this image portrays ...

 

Exercise is also an important part of the "healthy, fit, and vital" equation.

With gyms being closed during the recent Quarantine, I found another tool that I fell in love with.

Her name is Carol; an AI fitness bike that personalizes a HIIT workout for you,  based on your fitness and your preferred workout length. It makes it way easier for me to fit workouts into my schedule (and way harder to justify skipping a session). 

 

The promise is an "hour's worth" of exercise compressed into an 8-minute workout that really only has two 20-second periods of intense effort.

The science is sound. My experience is that it works for me.  I've done it for about two months now.  The results are undeniable (in terms of muscle tone, endurance, 20% improvement on many of the metrics tracked by the bike, etc.).

The more you use it the smarter it gets. It automatically adjusts to give you exactly the resistance you need to keep you motivated and to continue making progress.

I've been impressed. Working-out at home has always been a struggle for me. I've bought other tools for lifting or cardio, but they tend to end up as coat racks or space fillers. 

Exercise has a "social" component for some people ( comes to mind). Some people need the "social" component of exercise to get through hard workouts (think Peloton or OrangeTheory.) The Carol bike doesn't fully satisfy that part of exercise ... but they do a great job of keeping the session short, fun, and gamified (so that you know where you are, how you are progressing, and where you stand in the rankings).  The combination of the efficiency of the workouts - and being able to see that you are getting fitter, objectively, has been just what I needed. 

Besides Carol's website, here is a link to check out their YouTube channel. 

Onwards. 

Sometimes, Less Is More

The idea of “less is more” was popularized in 1947 as an argument for minimalism. But today, more than ever, minimalism is important in all aspects of life. You can see it in the resurgence of simplistic design, or Marie Kondo, or in the re-popularization of stoicism. 

There’s too much competition for our attention. We can’t buy everything we see on TV, deep-dive into every interesting topic we learn about on the internet, or track everything that’s happening in the world.

Instead, we tend to focus on what is relevant or interesting to us.

In business, there are Specialists and Generalists.  It isn’t hard to imagine that their reading lists, habits, and sources of happiness or fulfillment are probably quite different.

The same is true for  Simplifiers and Multipliers (which is a concept that Dan Sullivan at Strategic Coach has written a book about).

In your business career, to get to where you are, you’ve been successful at two things. You’ve simplified things, which gave you an advantage. And you multiplied things, which gave you an advantage.  Said a different way, as a simplifier, you took something that was complex for everybody else, and you made it simple. And as a multiplier, you took something that was a new solution, and you had successes multiplying it out in the world so that a lot of people could get the advantage of your simplifications.

But the truth is most people are either primarily simplifiers or multipliers.  The best partnerships happen when you pair the two.  Amazing conversations happen when a simplifier says to a multiplier, “I’ve got this really neat solution ... What would you do with it?” Each has something the other doesn’t; and the combination is often exponential.

I am primarily a simplifier.  So, I tend to look for people or technologies to multiply what I produce.

I shot a video on the topic. Click here to watch.

 

The internet and global digital economy enable you to find an audience for almost anything. 

No matter how far you niche down to find your true calling, there are likely people who are just as excited about what you do as you. 

So, sometimes less is more.

Are you a simplifier or a multiplier?

Solid Advice from MMA fighter Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen is a famous retired mixed martial artist. He was also a coach on the show The Ultimate Fighter. 

The advice in the video is fantastic - whether you're fighting in the ring or your own personal battles. 

 

via UFC

Silencing the voice in your head that says "you can't" is impossible, but ignoring the voice, and learning to compete with it is entirely possible. 

Failure is an option, but it's the only option available if you don't try. Motion begets motion. And, with persistence, failure can be a stone on the path to eventual success. 

Onwards! 

Here's How Time Works Now...

At this point, time feels like an illusion. My son, Zach, was recently musing on how nebulous time has felt during quarantine ... ebbing and flowing between passing too fast and lasting an eternity. 

But, what does he know?! At 50+ years in age, time flows much differently than it did in my youth...

Right? It's not just me?

Eli Grober wrote a piece for McSweeney's titled "Here's How Time Works Now". It is conspicuously fitting. 

Here at Time, we’ve made a few changes you may already be experiencing that we think you should know about. Please see below.

A Minute

A minute used to be sixty seconds long. We thought this could be spiced up. A minute can now either be one hour, or it can take 3.5 seconds. We hope you enjoy this new feature.

A Day

You may remember that a day used to take place over the course of 24 hours. We felt this was too much. A day is now over the moment you first ask yourself, “What time is it?”

It does not matter what time it actually is when you do this. As soon as you ask or think, “What time is it” for the first time that day, even if it is still ten in the morning, it will suddenly be eight at night. Does that make sense?

A Week

A week was once measured over the course of seven days. Our testing showed that this has been way too short, for way too long. So we made a big adjustment: a workweek now takes an entire year. From Monday to Friday, you will feel like it’s been (and you will actually age) an entire year. This is non-negotiable. This brings us to…

A Weekend

A weekend doesn’t exist anymore. You will go to sleep on Friday and you will wake up on Monday with a vague memory that you may have watched an entire TV show (every episode, every season) sometime in the last 48 hours.

Read the Full Article via McSweeney's

What year is it?

The Power of Asking The Right Questions

There's immense power in asking the right questions. 

Finding the right answers can be valuable too - but I'd argue finding the right questions is more important than finding the right answers. 

To some extent, if you ask the right questions, the answers don't matter as much as how easy it was to find appropriate answers, proof of progress, or meaningful momentum.

I shot this short video on the power of asking the right questions. Check it out. 

 

The exercise of asking the right questions is really an exercise in the power of framing - of digesting or accessing information differently. There's power even in the reframing of the same question:  "How do I survive the pandemic shelter-in-place quarantine?" vs. "In what ways has the pandemic shelter-in-place quarantine improved my relationships (or productivity, or health)?" 

In my experience, asking someone what they want often results in a response about what they don't want.  Yet, when the obstacle becomes the path forward it becomes easier to find the "hidden" gift.

You control what you make things mean and how things make you feel. In many respects, this is the difference between feeling sad or happy or feeling like a victim versus someone in control of their destiny.  Your ability to control your perception is the difference between feeling like life happens to you or for you. 

It's the same when tackling a research problem. When I hear "it can't be done" my first thought is usually "It can be done ... just not the way you were thinking about it."

The most important advances in society were impossible until they weren't.  The examples are too numerous to list.  But imagine telling someone in the middle ages that you could communicate with people around the globe in real-time, while seeing their faces, and sharing documents.  They'd try you as a witch faster than you could say "Zoom!" 

The term Moonshot, in a technology context, is an ambitious, exploratory, and ground-breaking project that was considered to be impossible (like going to the Moon).

Success is often a function of using Moonshots to set direction, then asking the right questions, being willing to see things differently, and finding a way to move in the right direction while gaining capabilities and confidence.  As long as you are doing those things, the trick is to keep going until you get there.  The result is inevitable if you do those things and don't give up.

Onwards!

Working From Home... Forever?

Almost everyone - barring essential workers - has been working from home for over two months at this point. 

So, on some level, we all have a pretty good understanding of the pros and cons of the work-from-home lifestyle. Despite some of the potential detriments, many companies are realizing that productivity hasn't dropped the way they expected. 

In fact, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, just announced that henceforth his employees won't have the obligation of coming into the office. They can work from home forever if that's what they choose. 

via Dilbert (September 1995)

It's interesting to see how fast this pandemic changed "normal" in regard to business operations, shopping, etc. It is another reminder of how adaptable humans and society are – and how that has helped us survive and thrive throughout time. 

My team has been working remotely since the beginning of March, and so far they've stepped up to the challenge. I've been impressed with the productivity, the hours they've worked, and the connection and collaboration achieved despite the loss of physical proximity.  I've heard similar stories from friends around the globe, in many industries.

Nonetheless, I don't believe that the level of remote work and productivity we've experienced will continue.  Several things contributed to this level of productivity and output.  First, the world shut down and people had little else to do.  Second, during scary times, doing something productive and feeling like you are contributing are both comforting and therapeutic.   Third, I feel like people felt that it was an "all hands on deck" emergency, where many companies or industries were fighting for survival. 

Time kills all things ... and part of adapting is to make the "New", well, "Normal".

That doesn't mean that remote work is bad.  Nor does it mean that we can't learn from the experience.  It is just that the shiny newness will fade and human nature will kick back in as we settle into the new normal.

Texas is supposedly "Open for Business" – but our office will remain mostly unused.  A survey of our team found that 75% didn't believe it was smart or safe to return to the office yet. 

Our next target date is June 15th.  In the meantime, the office is open for people who want or need it.  We just don't expect many to be there.

We are better at the skills, tools, and mindsets that make remote work possible or profitable.  Still, I'm curious how time and human nature will affect the level of work done in the next month (compared to what was done or achieved in the prior month).  What we do now really does have the power to change the future.

Personally, to keep productivity up while at home, I've dedicated a certain space - and time - to work. That routine, combined with not muddying the space with other activities, has been helpful. A side benefit is that I've also made time for mindfulness and exercise.  Combine that with healthier food (meaning way fewer restaurant meals or entertainment calories) and the health benefits are obvious.

What habits do you want to bring back to your world when it re-opens?

I'm also curious to hear about the methods and tools you're using to stay productive.   

Onwards.

Selective Attention: What Are You Missing?

Sticking with the philosophy theme, I encourage you to watch this video below on selective attention. 

Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous.  The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.

While watching the video, count how many passes the team in white makes. 

This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.

OK, click the video to do it now.

via Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (Click Here To Read The Full Paper)

First, did you get the number of passes correct? Second, did you see the gorilla?

If you have already seen this video or heard of the study, it's much easier, but most people absolutely miss the Gorilla, despite it not being hidden. 

Think about how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.

This next video demonstrates "change blindness".  In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter was replaced by a different person.

 

via Derren Brown

Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.

It's well known that we often miss objects in our field of view due to limited attention and change blindness, but, it's true with more than just sight. Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next. 

More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe.  Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.

 

via Pickles

As an entrepreneur, when I focus fully on something, it's as if everything else goes away. That level of focus can be a gift - but it can also be a curse. In Genius Network, we have a form we fill out at the beginning of each meeting. In it is a diagram where you rate your score on 8 factors: physical environment, career, money, health, friends & family, significant other, personal & intellectual growth, and fun & recreation

It's rare that I'm fully succeeding in all 8 ... we only have so much focus and bandwidth, it's inevitable I'll miss things. Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).

What are you currently prioritizing, and what's falling to the side due to that focus? What are you missing?

Hope this was a helpful reminder. Let me know what you think about posts like this.  Thanks.

A Look At Razors (No, Not That Kind)

In philosophy, a razor is a rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate unlikely solutions or actions in relation to a hypothesis. They're called razors because they shave off those unlikely explanations. 

Most people have heard of Occam's Razor ... even if you don't recognize the name, I bet you recognize the idea of abductive reasoning. 

When presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem, one should select the answer that makes the fewest assumptions.

Essentially, the fewer assumptions a solution requires, the more likely it is to be true. As with any rule of thumb, it's a good starting point but is not definitive. There are plenty of exceptions to the rule.  It is still a good starting point for intellectual conjecture. 

I recently found out there are more philosophical razors, and they're all interesting.  Here are some of the more interesting ones:

• Hanlon's Razor - Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity;
• Hitchens' Razor - What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence; and
• Alder's Razor (also known as Newton's Flaming Laser Sword) - What cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating.

I've had to remind myself about Hanlon's Razor a lot recently.  Also the other kind ...

 

As I told my mother on a Coronavirus Quarantine Mother's Day, "Yes, I know I need a haircut and a shave."  

I'm planning on getting them on May 19th, because our part of Texas is opening up to a new normalcy that week.

I hope you are doing well and staying positive.

Looking forward to seeing people in real life again soon!