JacobAldridge

“Punctuated Equilibrium” - long periods of stability, and then short periods of great change.

I find it interesting to see the effect in other fields in my life - for example, I’ve been tracking net worth each month for almost a decade, and it follows a similar pattern of slow (or no) growth ... and then big jumps.

I switched to Compact reddit a few years ago - much easier ride than the full site or needing a separate app.

https://www.reddit.com/new/.compact

I also wonder what benefit the study of alchemy, the Bible etc may have had on his other discoveries? Sometimes ‘flashes of insight’ come from patterns developed in other fields.

Gutenberg, for example, made a breakthrough with the printing press because his earlier career as a goldsmith taught him enough metallurgy to develop movable type; Charles Babbage credited his work on silk weaving machines with helping him visualise his adding machine (with Ida Lovelace, creating the first ‘computer’).

I’m a night owl, struggling with the adjustment to fatherhood and expectations to be present at home right at the time my motor normally fires up.

I’ve always felt 3-5am was the most beautiful time of the day; though I’m used to seeing it on my way to bed, and pushing myself to wake up early enough to make it worthwhile hasn’t paid dividends yet.

Thanks for sharing your experience - it gives me confidence I can switch.

Thanks for that.

Here’s an example of what I’ve done - as ‘simple’ as copying the text into my CMS (Wordpress) and then polishing as I read through it with some headings and graphics to make it more readable - https://jacobaldridge.com/dont-waste-a-good-recession/is-thi...

Still a 30 minute exercise, but that’s now a ~5,000 word article on the subject plus graphics plus a video.

I’m much the same ... and I’m saying that as someone who trained as a TV journalist, once hosted his own tv show, put out 134 weekly episodes of a business video series, and even now focuses on putting out 1-2 videos (on businesses <500 staff in this economy) each week.

As a creator, it’s laziness - I can produce a video in far less time than a quality article. As a consumer, I’ve started watching a few more video channels to learn from others - but would much prefer and retain information from the written word.

The compromise I’m approaching: YouTube do a pretty good job of automatically creating subtitles. These are readily formatted so I can add punctuation, edit, and polish into something readable (and searchable).

That also provides a text transcript!

Seconding the Compact version - at one point the site upgrade / redesign reached the point where it was unusable in my browser. Compact saved the day, and makes the experience much smoother to a fellow app-refuser.

> it was still just an internet study where people were self reporting

And I wonder whether it would largely have been people contemplating a decision because they were dissatisfied/ unhappy with the status quo?

My immediate thought it to Nassim Taleb’s via negativa - not necessarily any more well researched, but the view that in uncertainty do nothing or indeed do less to create a better outcome. That inaction is to be preferred where change and action has no clear benefit.

We started with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and it was all downhill from there!

One film blurred into the next; time stood still; I believe the final movie was Fight Club although our choices were cut back when the VHS Player overheated about 55 hours in.

Aged 21, I became the first person in the world to watch more than 60 hours of films without falling asleep (under controlled conditions), for which I (and two friends) was awarded a Guinness World Record.

Almost two decades later, that’s the story most people want to hear. In fact, only a few weeks ago I was interviewed about it on Dublin radio (which then got a write-up in the Irish Sun).

I’m also especially proud of my completing the Monopoly Pub Crawl of London in order for my 30th birthday. But since few people have attempted it, and most who do it, do it out of order and thus reduce the time required by a third, it rarely sounds as challenging or impressive as I found it.

People also seem slightly interested that I graduated top of my university course while also winning the student award for “most lectures attended while drunk”, co-hosted my own TV program, have written 4 books across 4 genres (history, architecture, crime fiction, and business), and helped my daughter visit 19 countries before her first birthday.

I wonder if there will be some competing airline startups in the next year or two wanting to bid for the domain, or if it will sit on Walmart’s balance sheet for a few years redirecting traffic and waiting for the airline market to pick up again?

While I was aware these were largely a relic of the Little Ice Age, I hadn’t realised how rare they were even then. Nor had I appreciated the confluence of factors that created them, including the narrow arches of the previous London Bridge.

In my main keynote I talk about being in the top 25% of the field across 3 different domains, while also being at an intermediary level in a range of others.

In part, that’s to set an achievable first goal - most of the audience are probably already there in 1 or 2 fields, so it’s not insurmountable for them to progress, and hopefully from there they have the success to keep going wide as well as deep.

If I had to add a stronger definition it would be more onerous than that; but at the same time, I’m not keen to be a gatekeeper playing the ‘No True Scotsman’ game - I just feel people would be happier if they pursued their interests and let curiosity guide them, and that we would probably achieve more commercially and creatively if we embraced that part of our natural desires.

This is the focus of my main keynote presentation topic, On Being a Deep Generalist.

Specialisation came to the fore during the Industrial Revolution and achieved a form of preeminence in the 20th Century that hadn’t existed elsewhere in human history when knowing, at depth, a wide variety of skills and disciplines was either essential for survival or in order to be considered a well-rounded individual.

The internet, not without ongoing battles against vested interests, has solved the discoverability challenge faced with approaching the wealth of knowledge created in the past few centuries. For many of us aspiring polymaths (and I agree with the other comments here that a polymath isn’t someone who knows “everything about everything“, but rather knows “a lot about a lot” or “enough about enough”) the challenge is mental and societal.

We convince ourselves that we must specialize to succeed; most schools and many workplaces promote the same. Yet creativity and insight so often depends on interdisciplinary knowledge and the ability to use our brains to connect novel ideas.

It’s not the right choice for everyone. If you want to be the best in the world (or the top 1%) at something, then specialize. But most of us are more varied than that, which has benefits for us as business owners, or employees, and as humans.

FUCK is still my default “Find>Replace>Find>Replace” placeholder. Need to shift a wad of spreadsheet cells laden with formulas but don’t want to risk anything?

Find All “=“ Replace with “FUCK” Copy/Move Find All “FUCK” Replace with “=“

Also handy for updating words or names when word processing.

The choice dates back to my first computer - I remember replacing all spaces “ “ with “FUCK” and watching gloriously as the assignment I had written was slowly turned into curse word gibberish.

I tell myself I still do it because (especially capitalised) it does stand out as an error in a way other placeholders may not. But it’s mostly for the fun and cheap thrill - pretty sure only one client ever got a document that I had left fucked up in this way.

[Edit to add: Nothing pseudonymous about my account name, but I’ll fucking own it.]

Cheers Dan

One of my best client experiences was advising a surf resort in Fiji, and of course we had to go stay there in order to understand the business model.

Part of their community support is organising a welcome ceremony, hosted by the local village (where they also fund the school) and given to every guest. Sadly for us, no other guests overlapped with our visit and we missed out. No doubt watered down for the tourists, but that would have been my kava opportunity.

I keep offering them a Strategy Review! Next time...

I remember where I was at 8.02 pm (2002) on 02/02/2002 - on the phone to my mum, who was in a different timezone so couldn’t enjoy that palindromic minute.

Sadly I slept through 0202 this morning...

I also avoid 3 meals a day - totally unnecessary in my case.

Alas, whether it was my upbringing or boarding school, I’m also a turkey-cum-labrador when it comes to free food and booze: I really, really struggle to stop eating. I can resist everything except temptation and all that.

As a paid speaker who goes to a lot of conferences, I always eat way less than if I’m out at a social gathering.

Partly it’s the professionalism - even in these mixer situations, I’m at work and with a client that’s paying a (comparatively) lot of money for me, and demonstrating my ability to down eight plates then back up for dessert isn’t great brand positioning.

There’s also the volume of food at conferences. If I don’t skip a few meals and eat smaller portions at the others, I could end up having a days worth of calories for all 3 meals, plus snacks, for up to a full week including travel.

I happily share my income and net worth figures online, post here and everywhere using my real name, and I’m even doing a podcast now sharing all the gory details of going through fertility treatment from the male perspective.

There’s no way in the world I would allow a company, or any other person or entity, to voluntarily have my DNA.

Not currently loading for me on iPhone Safari.

That’s what I’m getting at. Airport drives are usually the best, but if you aren’t told the passenger’s destination you could be forced to go all the way out to the airport to accept a tiny fare.

Great for me as a consumer; lousy for the driver’s income; and a reason why (to answer the question asked) some drivers / riders accept loss-making fares: they don’t get told in advance how much the trip is worth.

I was surprised to learn recently - and it may just be one of the rideshare companies in one country, or it may be more widespread - that the driver may not be told the final destination until they have accepted and started the ride.

So you might keep doing loops back to the airport (or a good restaurant precinct) because most of the jobs are OK; but it’s only when I hop in the car for a $10 ride to the next suburb that you discover you’ll lose money on this ride.

But then you have no car to get your kid to school (etc).

Pretty sure this is Keith Richards.

I guess, as a consultant, for me working on multiple projects or with different businesses is just part of life.

To actually be shipping outcomes: that takes focus.

And I’m glad to hear the ‘source’ project is also progressing strongly.

Thanks for sharing Tom. I enjoyed your recent LI post about some of the recent successes you’ve helped create in multiple businesses - it really seemed (with all the social media caveats) that you’ve been focused and continue to create enormous value around you.

You’re a much ‘purer’ coach than I am, in the sense that I provide a lot more business advice and fewer questions [1]. Even so, I wholeheartedly agree with your observation that it is the personal fears and self-work that is most impacting these leaders and their businesses.

I also acknowledge your reference to your own coach. It amazes me (and I’ve been doing this since 2006) how many other business coaches I meet who don’t see the value in having their own coach. That says a lot about a career (I wouldn’t call us a profession) that is loaded with unqualified shonks.

I look forward to re-reading this piece many times. Thanks.

[1] An artefact of my clients, who are generally $2-$20M ARR with limited prior business experience, and my own business model which engages leadership teams more and longer, more regular coaching sessions.

My gaming never really evolved past the golden year of 1998, when Age of Empires was greater than Command and Conquer, and Goldeneye on the N64 with three friends was better than sex (not that anyone gave me that option).

Every time I dip into modern games (usually watching a friend play), the complexity wears me out. So Romero’s point about ‘modern shooters turning into inventory games’ resonated - I’m not sure if I ever completed Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, but both definitely felt like you could just run with them and have fun in a way I don’t feel with today’s AAA options.

Maybe I’m just old. Or having too much sex.