The Weekly Minute - October 20, 2023
Fall is here.
The trees are red, orange and yellow out here in Michigan – and it’s a beautiful site. Cozy season is upon us.
Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for reading.
What I Read This Week
100 Tips For a Better Life (via Less Wrong)
A few of my favorites:
Things you use for a significant fraction of your life (bed: 1/3rd, office-chair: 1/4th) are worth investing in.
Done is better than perfect.
Explaining problems is good. Often in the process of laying out a problem, a solution will present itself.
Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out.
Human mood and well-being are heavily influenced by simple things: Exercise, good sleep, light, being in nature. It’s cheap to experiment with these.
Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule (via Paul Graham)
One of my all-time favorites, and not a terribly long write-up. This is one I routinely read, every since I first discovered it about 10 years ago.
This piece highlights the fundamental clash between two distinct schedules in the workplace: the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule. It's quite relevant in today’s business world.
So, the manager's schedule, which dominates the corporate world, is all about hourly blocks and frequent meetings, ideal for those in authoritative roles. On the other hand, the maker's schedule, often favored by creative minds like programmers and writers, thrives on longer periods of uninterrupted time, such as half-day blocks, for deep work and innovation.
Paul Graham talks about how meetings are a huge disruption for makers, slicing their time into fragments too small to accomplish substantial tasks. A single meeting can throw off an entire afternoon and dampen the creative spirit for the rest of the day.
The World of AI
The combination of Bing Chat vision with DALL•E 3 is amazing.
The combination of Bing Chat vision with DALL•E 3 is amazing.
— Alvaro Cintas (@dr_cintas) October 2, 2023
Bing not only understood my image but also brought my logo sketch to life using DALL•E 3.
Here is how you can do it too in a couple of minutes: pic.twitter.com/tby9IcqEd8
Some Thoughts on Leadership
“Leadership is the the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it, not because your position of power can compel him to do it, or your position of authority.” - Eisenhower
What do great leaders do? They…
1) Focus on what they can control
2) Never act rashly
3) Always look for teachable moments
4) Have range
5) Read to lead
A Parting Thought
Watching a young child when they are playing or absorbed in painting or some other activity is a true lesson in mindfulness.
I saw my 5-year old daughter painting a couple days ago (it’s becoming a daily habit!) and she was just entrenched for 30 minutes focusing on her work. It truly is magical to see her engrossed in a creative activity like that. Plus, we only had a few spills! ;)
