Grist - Week of 2/29/2020
I’m trying out a new thing - keeping track of the media I consume on any given week that makes me think.
Background: I took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 quiz a few years ago. It gave me a name for one of the strengths I’ve never known that I have: Input. I am a sponge for information. I love to collect it, and catalog it, and ultimately redistribute it. One of the metaphors that StrengthsFinder uses for this skill is “a mental mill that requires grist”.
I loved that line, and it jumped out at me. So, instead of “link dump”, I’m calling this “Grist”.
This is an outlet for me to catalog what’s making me think, and scratch the itch to share it.
Grist - Week of 2/29/2020
“[Rejection] burns off everything irrelevant. Then you’re left with the purity of what’s important.” - M. Night Shyamalan
Let’s go find us some rejection! https://open.spotify.com/episode/3kPX80bSXoq8q6enuhfx0p?si=AzD-pkajRciWjsewBXm_YA
Lions aren’t at all safe - even from each other - but they do seem a little more comfortable with that than they do with safety. http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
An excellent discussion of why startup/VC investing is not well suited to hard technology problems - e.g. fusion reactors, supersonic aircraft, etc.
There’s not a lot of wiggle room to fail when your career has nothing to fall back on.
Grist - Week of 2/21/2020
- Recently discovered John Cutler’s blog. Everything I’ve read thus far has been interesting and worth my time, but I jive intensely with this post in particular (and not just because it happened to be published on my 31st birthday). https://cutle.fish/blog/promises-kept
- I don’t love Cheryl Strayed’s writing but I love her conversation with Adam Grant in this Work Life podcast, which is new favorite treadmill material. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2qBkf6CZuZlO3QKGsb9XuN?si=ARxlHht1Rfqip7hN__UI6A
- A lot to take in on this blast from the past. This particular line is as insightful as it is illuminating of some backwards logic. “IT pros complain primarily about logic, and primarily to people they respect. If you are dismissive of complaints, fail to recognize an illogical event or behave in deceptive ways, IT pros will likely stop complaining to you. You might mistake this as a behavioral improvement, when it’s actually a show of disrespect. It means you are no longer worth talking to, which leads to insubordination.” https://www.computerworld.com/article/2527153/opinion-the-unspoken-truth-about-managing-geeks.html
- “The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem.” - Amber Case https://www.avixa.org/insight/blog/blog-post/blog/2020/02/12/bring-back-the-buttons