👽 The Alien at the Convention: The Power of Weak Ties ⋆ ⌛ The Countdown to a New Era ⋆ 🚀 Trading Small Troubles for Big Wins

3-in-3

By Zvonimir Fras – 05 Jun 2023 – View online →

What do aliens have to do with your acquaintances and entrepreneurship? How to live in an era of extreme uncertainty? Why do you need to let small bad things happen to get huge good things done?

Thing 1 - The Alien at the Convention: The Power of Weak Ties

You're a superhero of your own movie. Your best friend, your sidekick, knows all about your powers, your secret lair, and even the type of pizza you like.

But when an unknown supervillain from a distant planet attacks, who will have the information you need to defeat him? Not you. Your sidekick? Nah.

Here's where that random alien superhero you met at a superhero convention last July comes in.
You know each other just from exchanging a few looks and hellos in the hallway, but he might just have the knowledge you need about that supervillain.

That's the strength of weak ties theory in a nutshell. Your acquaintances can connect you with different worlds and information that your close friends don't have.

Findings

A recent study showed this makes sense by testing it on 20M people. If you had a dollar for each person in the study...

Weak ties are more beneficial for job seekers on LinkedIn than strong ties
There is an optimal level of tie weakness that maximizes job transmission
The strength of weak ties varies by industry. Weak ties are more helpful in more digital industries and strong ties are more helpful in less digital industries.

Action items for entrepreneurs

Talk to more weak ties who can help your business.
Find the right amount of weak ties to talk to. How often you talk or how many friends you have in common can tell you how close you are.
If you do more online business, get more help from weak ties. If you do less online business, close friends can help as well.
Keep your close friends close.
Be nice to your weak ties, who can like or dislike you.
Be interested in your weak ties, who can teach you new things. Use questions and comments, such as "What do you do?", "What do you think?", or "What do you recommend?"

(source)

Thing 2 - The Countdown to A New Era: Life in the Midst of Uncertainty

Tim tweeted about how to handle the existential uncertainty we're facing due to AI development. It's so wholesome and I loved it so I though you would too.

Whether you're optimistic or pessimistic about the future, the fact is that we're facing existential risk at worst and a vastly different future world at best.

The world we're used to very well might not be around for that much longer, so let's really enjoy this world while we have it.

Visit the places you've always wanted to visit.

Dive into that hobby you've always wanted to try.

Spend quality time with your loved ones. Savor each sunny Saturday, each great meal, each moment of fun.

If we end up looking back on these days with great nostalgia, we want to at least know we made the most of the time we had.

- Tim Urban

Thing 3 - Trading Small Troubles for Big Wins

Life is full of compromises, and it's necessary to let small bad things happen if you want to get huge good things done.

- Tim Ferriss

You have a limited amount of time to do the things you want. If you're busy fixing small things that don't move the needle, you don't get to work on the big ones that change the world.

I'm gonna stop searching for a perfect example and get some quality sleep. This was meta, eh?

Cheers, Zvonimir

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Key phrases

huge good things small bad things less digital industries less online business random alien superhero weak ties theory

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