Capitalogix

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!

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 3rd, 2020

 

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

Lighter Links:

• China Has Started a Grand Experiment in AI Education. It Could Reshape How the World Learns. (TechReview)
• I Have Seen the Future And It's Not the Life We Knew. (The Atlantic)
• Army Ranger School is a Laboratory of Human Endurance. (Outside)
• Watch Picasso Make a Masterpiece. (YouTube)
• Michael Jordan Reportedly Once Turned down a $100 Million Appearance Fee. (FTW)

 

Trading Links:

• Buffett's Berkshire Posts Nearly $50 Billion Loss as Coronavirus Causes Pain. (Reuters)
• Bets against the Stock Market Rise to Highest Level in Years. (Wall Street Journal)
• NYSE Research Shows Humans on Exchange Floor Limit Volatility, COO Says. (Cheddar)
• Nasdaq, Cboe Fix Feeds Facing Options Overload. (WatersTechnology)
• China's National Blockchain Will Change the World. (CoinDesk)

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 26th, 2020

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

Lighter Links:

• Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling Because It's Authoritarian'. (NYPost)
• Amazon Asks Workers to Request Leave If They Continue Staying at Home. (EnGadget)
• You Can Now Download the Government's Controversial Contact Tracing App. (Timeout)
• A Startup is Pitching a Mind-Uploading Service that is 100 Percent Fatal. (TechReview)
• Burning Man is Going Virtual, and So are the Orgies. (Vice)

 

Trading Links:

• This Pandemic is Over. Let's Stop the Economic Suicide, and Get Back to Work. (RealClearMarkets)
• Negative Oil Prices Were a Warning, Not an Anomaly. (Bloomberg)
• Ken Fisher on Nixing the VIX. (RCM)
• Hedge Funds are on Defense and Testing the Stamina of a $5 Trillion Stock Rally. (Bloomberg)
• Who's On Top in the S&P 500 Before and After the Coronavirus?(SeekingAlpha)

The Show Must Go On (But In VR)

Several states are conditionally reopening. 

As they reopen, it's important to think about a new normal. I'm excited about what we'll accomplish on the backside of this pandemic. 

It challenged what we do and how we do it.  In many ways, the thing that doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

With that said, I saw this video, and it struck a chord. It shows a famous orchestra playing the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey updated for 2020's social distancing. You’ve got classical music played by classical musicians – together, but only via technology.  This new form borrows from the past but creates something new.  As a result, we experience a new dawn.

via Opera North

I encourage you to think about what the Quarantine made better for you, your family, your business, the country, or the world?

 Sure, there are things that suck ... but there are things that surprised! 

Think about the things that you did more of during this period.  Are there new things that will make sense to continue as we move back to normal?  Are there things that you did less of – and it somehow made things better (or made room for better things)?

How can you combine the best of the old with the best of the new to create something even better?

Things are going back to normal ... but you get to decide your new normal ... and it can be better than your past.

Stay safe and enjoy the ride,