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_ Things to read when it's hard Everything is hard in some way. Itâs hard to be in the wrong relationship. Itâs hard to be in the right one. Itâs hard to be broke and miserable, itâs hard to achieve your dreams. Itâs hard to be stuck in the middle, not really feeling anything at all. Everything is hard, but you choose your hard. You choose whatâs worth it. You donât choose whether or not youâll suffer, but you do choose what you want to suffer for. via Brianna Wiest, 101 essays that will change the way you think. what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. if we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. it just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves. via Pema Chodron, When things fall apart. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedomsâto choose oneâs attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose oneâs own way. via Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. _ On going slow to go fast This is an incredible conversation between Chetan Puttagunta (Partner at Benchmark) and Patrick O'Shaughessy on the importance of going slow and building a strong foundation to eventually go fast, with strong examples of companies such as Mulesoft which took 6 years to get to $10m in revenue, and was ultimately acquired for $6.5B. We are so spoiled by amazing software as consumers. This was a great reminder that great things take time. I think that there has been a shift towards this very formulaic driven growth in enterprise software which is very unhealthy. There is a calculation of well here's my CAC, here's my LTV, here's my payback period, I'm ready to sell, let me hire 50 sales reps and let's push this into the market, and three years down the line all the assumptions that went into that formula of growth just start falling apart, your burden gets really high, and then, and then, and then, and you get into a situation where it's really hard to re-engineer yourself out of it. And one of the things that often happens in this evolution is that I find that folks forget that the reason they got into the business was they wanted to develop new technology. And they go from a what I call technology-driven business to a spreadsheet-driven business. And it's like when did you decide to become a spreadsheet-driven business? You got into this because you wanted to develop software. And so, that's the part that go slow to go fast, which is once you sort of cross that curve and are able to have a super-efficient business, you can do really incredible things⌠So, it's developing that product maturity that then allows you to minimize your cost of customer acquisition and ultimately, if you're building great software, LTVs should be infinite. And so software businesses end up working really well when you build mature products that a customer is then continuing to renew and cost of customer acquisition or CAC approaches zero. _ On parenting Raising children has come to look more and more like a business endeavor and less and less like an endeavor of the heart. We are overly concerned with âthe bottom line,â with how our children âdoâ rather than with who our children âare.â We pour time, attention, and money into insuring their performance, consistently making it to their soccer game while inconsistently making it to the dinner table. via Madeline Levine, The Price of Privilege I think parenting young children (and old ones, Iâve heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because theyâve heard thereâs magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and itâs hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. via Glennon Doyle. I donât believe in limiting a childâs screen time; I believe kids should learn to manage their phones themselves. Sit down with your child and let them come up with their own screen time policy. This way, theyâre more likely to stick to it. via Esther Wojcicki (who raised the CEO of YouTube and the founder of 23andme). Your thoughts create your feelings. If you believe that children shouldnât raise their voices to the parent, every time this happens, youâll feel like danger signs are flashing â and thus react/fight back. So instead, think: âMy child is getting defiant. I notice Iâm angry. Let me take a deep breath. I can choose what to do. Thereâs no emergency. My child is allowed to be defiant. via Laura Markham, Peaceful Parenting. See all insights on parenting here. _ On simplicity in product design If you work harder and look more closely, there's always something you can whittle away. It's when you get to the essence of your idea that you'll have something to be proud of. Think Small. Swear allegiance to the concept of small groups of smart people. Remember it well when new project groups are formed. This is a key component of Simplicity, and you must become its champion. Small groups of smart people deliver better results, higher efficiency, and improved morale. Apple encourages big thinking but small everything else.If you want to reap the benefits of Simplicity, think bigâbut donât act that way. As Steve Jobs proved, one of the most effective ways to become a big business is to maintain the culture of a small business. via Ken Segall, Insanely Simple: The Obsession that drives Apple's Success _ On ways to feel incredibly good This is a great list of actionable things you can do to feel generous, so you can feel good. Some of my faves: - That public radio station or podcast youâve been streaming for monthsâor years? Become a member and contribute monthly to keep the programming going. Donât put it off. While youâre at it, send a praise-filled email to the host or production team.
- Find a blogger whoâs been slammed with cruel, vicious comments lately. Send them an email. Say something kind. Encourage them to keep writing.
- Tell a teenager: âYou are so brilliant. I canât wait to see who you become. And I love who you are right now."
- Ask someone, âHow are you doingâreally?â Give them the opportunity to share whatâs really going on. Listen without interrupting. Give them the gift of your presence and attention.
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Why is Infopunk interesting? I define infopunk as a person embracing alternative information dynamics. Someone who challenges the foundational ideas around questions such as âwhere do ideas come from?â, âwho determines what knowledge is?â, âwho has access to knowledge and through what channels?â, and so forth. And the infopunk is on the rise! We are moving away from the era of the experience economy, and welcoming the epoch of the internal experience economy (the more personal, spiritual, intellectual sister of the experience economy). As knowledge becomes the next social currency, our Instagram feeds will see less Coachella, more literary references. This cultural shift will have far-reaching consequences on how the next generations shape their identity, ambitions, and ideas about, and in relation, to the world. |
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A podcast worth listening to on the topic? I host a podcast called Reverb where we dig into the research and ideas around the most important questions of our time. Infopunk-ness is carefully laced into all our conversations (including this episode with Sari herself!). |
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Things worth reading and watching on the topic? My co-founder Tiina wrote this short essay called Infopunk Considerations reflecting on what the term means to her. This essay by Andrew Hui called Dreams of the Universal Library is beautiful and explores ideas such as what constitutes as knowledge, and how to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. I also like this essay written by Charles Broskoski called On Motivation for its reflections on the importance of nodal points. |
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Projects worth following? Weâre building what we call âthe infopunkâs digital gardenâ at Sane. A single tool for creating, connecting, and sharing ideas where users can build âthought spacesâ to showcase any type of knowledge. I like to think of it as a playground for discovery and curiosity. It's a home for all the thoughts you want to keep, work on, and share with others. |
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