“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
A confusing lesson on the face of it. Clearly its a reminder that its our duty, to use the talents imbued upon us, a failure to do so, no doubt resulting in misery. But what of those who have failed, continuing to fail, in 2021 this may be on of our great challenges beyond this text.
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia.
Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life;
You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you.
We are programmed to look out for one another, it is in our DNA. If you see someone injured in the street, you stop. But this is also a skill that needs working on, refining. Today we would call this mindfulness, for yourself, for others.
Put on your own oxygen mask first (mind your own business), set an example, then branch out.
One day you won’t be.
This ends.
So play.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Unless you strategy fails while you are playing ping pong. It’s not an either or, its a both. As usual we allow ourselves to become polarized, when the optimum is somewhere in the middle.
Principles define what we are doing when people are not looking. But they also define what the I is doing, when the me stops observing. I.e. we revert to baseline principles when running on monkey brain.
Culture defines the baseline principles how we operate when delivering our strategy. In the same way that our habits define the baseline behaviour and principles we exhibit when doing “life”.
A system’s ability to acknowledge error, course correct and learn, is much more important that a system’s ability to be right on any given day.
Do you want to be right? Or do you want the truth?
Do you want to be cool now, or see others succeed in the future?
Applicable to IT design, applicable to life. https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/01/26/karl-popper-in-search-of-a-better-world-truth-certainty/
The next 5-10 years in tech is going to be, rightfully so, greatly reoriented towards sustainability.
I look forward to a time, perhaps beyond my life, when this is not required.
Sustainability is a thing because we know that there is only a finite supply of hydrocarbons in our planet, which are becoming increasingly hard to extract. On top of this, using these fuels negatively impacts climate.
The closer we get to the source, the better things becoming.
Fossil fuels and hydrocarbons are 3rd-4th order Fusion. Fusion > Solar > Plants/Animals > Lots of time > Mining > Burning > useful.
Hydro is 3rd order Fusion. Fusion > Solar > Heating/cooling oceans > Water flows > Dams > Generator > useful
Solar is 2nd order Fusion. Fusion > Gamma Rays > Solar Panel > useful
Fusion is fusion, with no reliance on the sun. Once we crack Fusion, the game changes.
To be excellent, you need to be wrong. Unique knowledge comes from doing unknown things, and these roads will sometimes fizzle out. The entities that tread these paths will often be individuals and not teams — potential for change is inversely proportional to committee size.
Do not wait until the knock is at the door. If you are running a successful team, product group or company the best time to invite pessimism in, is when you are on top — what is next for you — the best time to give up the crown is when you can see the next diamond in the rough. No trend or product stays on top forever, and when it falls, it takes time — years — to come back. Being able to pivot in this way, is much more important than how high you can jump.
But if you do find yourself in the rough, trust the market, bear times always turn. As will your own situation. When looking for that next thing, try to focus on logic and value, not sentiment and trend.
Success as a niche expert fluctuates more than life as a generalist. In the same way that single stocks fluctuate more than an index fund. Therefore being niche has a greater upside in the long run, as long as you can stay solvent.
Adapted from https://www.franklintempleton.co.uk/investor/resources/investor-education/templeton-maxims