Insights

No. 1

“There’s a lot of alpha in being willing to do “menial” work (take notes, send out agendas, order pizza, manually inspect raw data, whatever). Beware of over-delegation and being too far from the details." - Nabeel S. Qureshi

Most people want big things but aren’t willing to do the small things, and “menial” work adds up.

No. 2

“The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his (powers) over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.”— Thomas Carlyle

This idea of the slow drip is vivid for me—drip, drip, drip. The stone wears away. Do something long enough and with enough consistency, and you’ll beat the flash flood - every time.

No. 3

“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way we can find progress." -Richard Feynman

It’s hard to prove yourself wrong when you’re focused on proving yourself. Stay focused on finding the correct answer, not your answer.

A Thought

or three, actually.

Wisdom is worth revisiting.

We often look for new things, but revisiting something is often more valuable. Here are two ideas from Jeff Bezos that I'm revisiting.

High-performing organizations (and people) need mechanisms to support truth-telling.

At our core, we're wired for survival, not truth-telling.

This becomes especially apparent when speaking truth might mean challenging those with power over us. Bezos says, "10,000 years ago, you were in a small village. If you go along to get along, you can survive. If you're the village truth-teller, you might get clubbed to death at midnight. Any high-performing organization needs a culture and mechanisms to support truth-telling."

Our evolutionary programming hasn't caught up with what is required for excellence in organizations and ourselves. The smaller the ego, the more truth. The more truth, the better the performance.

Invention requires wandering and comfort with uncertainty.

Innovation rarely follows a straight path. It demands wandering, exploration, and comfort with the unknown.

This hits incredibly close to home when I think about young people today. Too often, they find themselves on rigid career or life paths, believing there's no room to meander, no space to tinker, no permission to fail, no freedom to invent themselves. This rigid thinking is dangerous, leading us down paths of unoriginality, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, mediocrity.

Takeaways:

* We must build better mechanisms for truth-telling, both with ourselves and others.

* Tinker. We need to make room for tinkering.

Progress demands both—the courage to speak the truth and wander.

Be good.

Kelly

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kellyvohs.substack.com

Drip by Drip

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