In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey introduces a concept that has the potential to transform lives. There’s a moment that exists between stimulus and response, offering us the freedom to choose how we react. He makes it seem so easy. But in reality, it’s a split second between what happens to us and how we respond, and catching it feels like trying to grasp the wind. As simple and powerful as Covey makes it sound, tapping into this power is no small feat.
This story was inspired by the first episode of Invisibia and written in collaboration with ChatGPT (here’s the link for ChatGPT+ users). It’s about how to take the power out of the negative thoughts in our head.
I’m on a bit of a self-improvement kick these days. Today’s post is about getting rid of those annoying thoughts that pop up and derail you during the day.
In 2018, What Remains of Edith Finch won the BAFTA for Best Game. Here’s my thoughts on how the creator of the game, my friend Ian Dallas, built such an awesome game. The game is now available on many platforms including iOS.
Screenshot from the game
Why are the best and brightest so boring these days? That’s the question that William Deresiewicz asks in his book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite. He writes about the sad state of the Ivy League student, specifically at Yale, where he taught. He decries the students’ inability to take risks, instead putting all their attention into getting into climbing onto the corporate ladder of management consulting or investment banking.
These days, I feel swamped by the internet. Sure, it’s great to have all this information at my fingertips, but I think we lose something in the process. Our brains aren’t meant to hold endless information. They get lazy when we can just Google everything. Why bother remembering? Yet, even though we don’t really need to remember anything anymore, I find real joy in doing it.
There’s something refreshing about living without tools. We think of tools as being central to everything we do. And I don’t mean just iPhone and computers. What about books? How could we acquire knowledge without books? In the ancient world, our ancestors were able to create long and complex thoughts well before writing. They used memory tricks called mnemonic techniques. But these techniques are not just tools from the past; they can be useful today. Using this still is not that hard but it is they’re keys to unlocking a more mindful and empowered way of living in the present. I want to explore the art of memorization with you, transforming it from a lost skill to an everyday superpower.
I was reading the news and noticed that two types of drugs are in short supply these days: ADHD drugs (Ritalin and Adderall) and weight loss drugs (Ozempic). I realized that both of these drugs have something in common. They quiet the Sirens in people’s heads.
When I’m watching television, I see two characters trying to pull people in different directions. The Angel is on one shoulder and the Devil on the other. One urging us to do good and the other with more nefarious intentions. But in real life, there’s often someone else peeking about. This voice isn’t seeking pleasure (like the Devil) or doing good (like the Angel) but about an incessant pull towards something else.
I’ll call this voice the Siren after the mythological creature from Greek mythology. Like its namesake, this Siren voice in our heads is seductive and alluring, often leading us away from our true goals and intentions. Unlike the clear moral dichotomy presented by the Angel and Devil, the Siren operates in a more ambiguous realm. It represents the part of us that seeks distraction, comfort, and immediate gratification, regardless of the long-term consequences.
I got a Quest 3 from my Bubby for Hanukkah. This is a bit odd because Bubby died in 2019. But before she died, in 2017, I told her about how much I wanted a Virtual Reality headset. At the time the Quest was only a prototype, called Santa Cruz. The top of the line device from Meta (then Oculus) was the Oculus Go, which was mainly for viewing media and couldn’t really interact. I told her I didn’t really want it because it wasn’t going to do a whole lot. She said, “I’ll get it for you. And don’t worry, I’ll get you a newer version when the good stuff comes out.”
They all want sharp knives, but I’m nervous about them running around with scissors.
I was having a conversation with my friend Lutz the other day about the differences between the US and Germany. He said, “I don’t understand Americans and driving. On parts of the autobahn we don’t have speed limits. Americans want the speed of the autobahn but don’t want any of the responsibility.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Driving in Germany is a responsibility. I feel like the only time Americans care about driving rules is when they are taking a driving test. For example, you have “guidance” to pass on the left and you do what you want. On the autobahn, passing on the right means a 450 euro fine. Also, there are non-autobahn roads, where speeding can mean 20 days of your salary.”
It made me think about how we view things in the US. We want to have the best and fastest of everything, but we don’t want the rules that come with them. It’s a weird form of American exceptionalism. We love the freedom, sure, but when it comes to following regulations? Not so much. We want to have the best and shiniest things but don’t take care of them. It’s like giving a kid a fancy new toy and finding it broken the next day. And this, my friends, is why we can’t have nice things.
Sharp Tools in Business: The Japanese Influence
In business, I call this sharp tools. I got the idea from Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO. When questioned about the nefarious uses of AWS, Jassy likes to say that AWS is just a tool. It’s like a knife. Knives can be used for good or bad depending on how you use them.
Let’s talk about tools in business. In the 1980s when American businesses were obsessed with Japan. No, not the tech gadgets or cars – I’m talking about leading edge business practices from Toyota. Post World War Two, these folks weren’t just rebuilding; they were redefining efficiency. These practices made it into the US with names like Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
Toyota’s tools? They were like the Ginzu knives of the business world. We’re talking about methodologies that cut through waste like butter. One of the key tools from Toyota was the Andon cord. This was a cord in the middle of the production line. If anyone sees a quality issue on the line, they yank that Andon Cord, and bam – the entire production line grinds to a halt.
This little cord was a game-changer. It wasn’t just about catching mistakes; it was about empowering everyone on that floor to be a guardian of quality. Pulling the cord could cost big bucks in the short term, but it led to greatly increased quality and efficiency.
Naturally, American companies saw the power of these Japanese processes and wanted to bring it to the US. They saw the Andon Cord and wanted to implement it. See something off? Pull a cord, stop the line. It was a clear process that would help them boost quality.
Misusing the Tools: The Dangers of Incomplete Adoption
But it’s not so easy. While companies like Netflix and Amazon have successfully implemented this process, the Andon Cord isn’t a cure all. The Andon Cord isn’t just a fancy break-the-glass-in-case-of-emergency tool. It’s a symbol, a philosophy, a whole new way of thinking about quality and responsibility.
Many people look at the Andon Cord as a shortcut to quality, a quick-fix solution. But it’s more than just a cord; it’s a commitment. It requires an environment where quality is king, where every employee, from the CEO to the floor worker, is aligned in a relentless pursuit of excellence.
Implementing the Andon Cord without changing the culture makes causes more problems than it selves. Imagine this: production lines stopping left and right, because there are large problems in quality beforehand. The Andon Cord is a final quality check before things go out to the market. There’s a huge got to pulling it but that’s the point. When used correctly, everyone is signing up for superior quality. When used incorrectly it’s just a big, giant “I told you so” that “someone else” messed up.
Conclusion
We need to be careful with sharp tools. Adopting tools without a deep understanding of their purpose and without laying the necessary groundwork is like handing over a Formula 1 car to someone who’s only ever driven in a school zone. It’s not just about the tool; it’s about the readiness to use it effectively and responsibly.
So, what have we learned? It boils down to this: with great power comes great responsibility. Whether it’s the freedom of a no-speed-limit road, the prowess of cutting-edge technology, or the precision of an Andon Cord, the underlying message is crystal clear – respect the tool, understand its power, and use it wisely.
This took about 40 minutes to edit. It’s hard to find the right tone that doesn’t sound too overconfident. The ideas tend to be pretty on point which is what’s fun. I had an interesting problem with this one because I told it that companies implemented the Andon Cord and failed so it created that fictional history and I needed to correct that. Also, for this one I spent another 20 minutes editing it. Here’s the chat.
I’m getting to this point where I want to just have an idea and write it out and get it to a point where the bones show well enough. Can people understand what I’m trying to say. Likely, I need to get ChatGPT to flesh out the idea without being too clever.
Look at the bottom of the post for the real answer to this.
In my book, there’s a bit where I talk about the importance of an Oxford comma. You can read more about it here:
An Oxford comma is the comma before the conjunction in a string three or more parallel phrases joined by a conjunction. Using the Oxford comma clarifies certain statements like “My heroes are my parents, Superman and Wonder Woman,” which could imply that you are the child of superhero parents vs. “My heroes are my parents, Superman, and Wonder Woman,” which clarifies that you aren’t.
So I tried to get DALL-E to create an image of that. Eventually we got to this. But it took a while:
something very strange about people writing bullet points, having ChatGPT expand it to a polite email, sending it, and the sender using ChatGPT to condense it into the key bullet points
Sam Altman on Twitter,
Reading Sam Altman’s, OpenAI’s CEO’s, tweet got me thinking about the impact of AI, like ChatGPT, on our communication. It’s not just about changing how we work or interact, but also how we think. Communication is fundamental to our humanity. While using AI might boost our productivity, I’m curious about what we might lose along the way. It’s a significant shift to ponder, so I turned to ChatGPT to explore this further. The rest is a lightly edited version of ChatGPT’s response.
Imagine you’ve got some simple thoughts or ideas, right? Just your everyday, hanging-at-home-in-your-pajamas kind of thoughts. Nothing fancy, just chill and comfortable. Now, let’s say you need to send these thoughts in an email, but you want to sound all professional and polished – like, you’re going to a fancy party and need to dress up. So, you use ChatGPT to spruce up your plain thoughts into this elegant, well-crafted email. It’s like putting on a fancy suit or a glamorous dress over your pajamas.
I once had a friend whose office door bore a curious sign: “Any question answered in 2 minutes.” It seemed ambitious, if not outright impossible, at first glance. He was a smart guy but that wasn’t his trick. He solved these problems by getting his questioner to repeatedly refine their question. This process let him answer the question in 2 minutes. Once the question was crystallized, the answer frequently became self-evident or trivial.
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