saturday mornings #6
gaining velocity, spending less & managing energy
Happy Saturday morning all,
Thanks for tuning in and spending a bit of your morning with me.
I know your time, and inbox, are extremely valuable, and I hope I’m making the most of it.
I’ve heard positive feedback from several readers, who’ve found value in exploring some of the ideas or topics discussed. And for me, that’s all I wanted from this newsletter. Even if only one person implements something or each reader remembers one idea that makes their life incrementally better, I’m happy as I’ve been able to make a positive impact.
Enough rambling, let’s dive in. Thanks for being here.
Quote I’ve been thinking about:
I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” - Kurt Vonnegut
For me, this quote serves as a reminder to live in the present moment but also to have gratitude for what I have when I have it. We often get caught up in the pursuit of something more, and right when we accomplish something or get the big break we’re waiting for, we quickly move on to the next goal. But, as Kurt emphasizes, it’s important in those special moments, to take a step back and just appreciate that feeling of happiness.
There will always be something more, but if you can’t appreciate what you have now, odds are that achieving the goal you’re working towards won’t provide any lasting fulfillment. It will simply become a step towards setting an even bigger goal.
I struggle personally with this, as I hope to do bigger and better things in the future, but I’m also working to realize that if I’m not happy with where I am now, I will probably feel the same way in the future, as there will always be another milestone to reach.
In short: enjoy the present moment and the special events in life while you’re living.
Book I’m reading:
That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
That Will Never Work explores the genesis of Netflix, told by Mark Randolph who initially created the idea (for a DVD delivery business) and was the CEO of Netflix for the first couple of years before Reid Hastings took over.
The story reads very similar to Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, as it dives into detail about the challenges that Netflix faced and acutely captures the feeling of this early-stage company that is struggling to get its footing in a dynamic business environment.
Although it was packed with a lot of great ideas, I wanted to pick out my two favourite.
1. Clarity equals velocity
One thing that stood out to me in reading this book was the importance of focus. Any time Netflix began to lose focus on their core business model and tried to be too much to too many people, they ran into roadblocks.
An idea Mark continually draws back to is the importance of focus in starting a company, especially with how competitive business can be. He emphasizes that business owners must understand what their business is to customers, what they can do exceptionally well, and then invest their people and time into furthering those competencies.
Put simply, those who have a clear vision of what they’re doing and where they want to go, will move much faster and be more successful than those who lack that clarity.
To translate this idea into more personal terms, I resonated with the author’s suggestion of gaining clarity on your strengths or the unique value you bring to the table, and then seek out positions that allow you to refine and build on those strengths rather than worry or feel inadequate about some of your weaknesses. When you have clarity on who you are and who you aren’t, what you can do and what you can’t - and accept that - you’ll be able to move with much more velocity.
Tim Ferriss presents a similar idea in the 4 Hour Workweek:
It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.
2. Nobody Knows Anything
One of the most memorable parts of this book, and Mark’s response to everyone who told him “that will never work”, are these three words: nobody knows anything.
The essence of the idea is that people who tell you that your idea or dream will “never work” have no clue what will and what won’t work because the future is so unpredictable. People are always eager to share their thoughts, beliefs, and opinions with you, often more frequently the more uninformed they are.
One must retain confidence that if they work hard and live with integrity that the future will work out. Although it may take shape in a different way than you might envision, you can make the most of it by remaining opportunistic and embracing uncertainty.
Because although you don’t know what the future holds and whether you’ll achieve your current goals, neither does anyone else … because the future is highly unpredictable and “nobody knows anything”.
Article I’ve been pondering:
Consumption is an idea I’ve been thinking about recently. Largely because I think the preconception people often have is that the desire to purchase a good is finite, and as such, purchasing the item fulfills that want, and it dissipates.
See professional diagram 1:
However, as far as I can tell from experiences in my life, the opposite occurs: purchasing items only fuels the urge to purchase more items.
See professional diagram 2:
The Diderot Effect attempts to explain people’s tendency to overconsume.
The effect is named after Denis Diderot, a French philosopher from the 1700s that emerged from poverty as a middle-aged man but upon buying one luxurious item with his newfound wealth, he felt the urge to buy all new items to match the same level of luxury (and eventually went bankrupt).
The Diderot Effect hypothesizes that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.
In my own life, I purchased a new desk when my old desk was fine, and before I knew it ended up purchasing a new keyboard, mouse, and monitors that I probably didn’t need.
Life has a natural tendency to become filled with more. We are rarely looking to downgrade, simplify, eliminate or reduce. Our natural inclination is always to accumulate, add, and upgrade.
To bring it back to being actionable, I try to be thoughtful about the items I buy and avoid reactive buying (emphasis on the word “try”). A simple rule of thumb I use is to wait 1 week before buying something, and if I still want it after a week I’ll buy it.
I’m not trying to say one should shove all their money under a mattress, but I am suggesting that purchasing an item you want may not scratch the itch you think it will. There’ll always be another thing to buy (and major retail companies love it that way).
Photography I discovered:
This series of haunting photographs are from Dillon Marsh, who's based in Cape Town, South Africa. I thought they were too cool not to share.
Song that’s been stuck in my head:
“Instant Crush” – Daft Punk
Check out the song on YouTube or on Spotify
App I’ve found useful:
Flipboard is a free news curation app that allows users to select topics they’re interested in (ie. happiness, foreign travel, Canadian finance, wildlife photography, etc.) and then consolidates news across thousands of different news sources under those categories.
Although I don’t spend a ton of time reading the news every day, I’ve found it to be a helpful tool to better allocate my time towards reading about topics I’m interested in and digging into articles that I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Idea I’m exploring:
Energy management > Time management
I think the time management industry has been very good at getting people to buy into the idea that managing one’s time makes them more efficient, and therefore every event should be penciled into a calendar and every minute of one’s day should be tracked closely.
As Dr. Jim Loehr says on his podcast with Tim Ferriss:
“I began to learn that our most important resource as human beings is not time. We were fed a bill of goods when the time management industry said that if you want to be successful, the most important thing you need to do is to carve out time, align it with your deepest values and just devote time to those highest priorities.
The most precious resource we have is not time but energy. We are vessels of energy. And as long as we have energy, we can have an impact. And I began to realize that every time you invest energy in something, you spawn growth.”
The big idea is that time lacks significance without the corresponding energy to make that time impactful. Think of days you spend in bed watching TV; lots of time but no energy.
To be actionable, when faced with the decision to take on a new commitment or project, the question you ask yourself shouldn’t be around time but rather:
“Over the immediate to long term will this give me more energy or take away / deplete me of more energy?”
For me, this has made the decision to say no to opportunities that look attractive on paper much easier, because they will drain my battery and involve working with people that make my stomach churn.
And on the other hand, there are projects that take up a lot of my time but because they involve great people and work that I love, they actually add more energy and excitement to my life.
That’s all for this edition of saturday mornings folks.
As I write more, I’ve realized I enjoy exploring more subjective ideas with less clear answers, but that inherently involves becoming more opinionated in nature.
As such, give me a shout if there’s something you disagree with or see differently. I’m frequently wrong, and I love having thoughtful conversations about these types of topics.
Thanks again for reading and your continual support. It means the world to me.
Have a great weekend
Much love to you and yours,
Thomas
On a side note, I recently created a Google page for the newsletter. If anyone feels moved to leave a review, you can do it here. I’d really appreciate it.