Insights & Thoughts on Product Development, Life Hacks and Team Dynamics — Clips of Logic — T.S. Lim

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The Best in what?

At some point in your life, someone might have told you that, in order to succeed in what ever you're doing, you have to be the best. This is true because the best gets all the attention, profits and customers. Obviously it's hard and most often impossible for us to be the best in the world at what we do, but we should also realize that the world is a lot bigger than we think. Unless you run a multi-national company or spent 200 million to make a movie, your target doesn't have to be the world. You can be the best in your town, your niche or your price-range.

By right, the customer buys only the best products. The reality is that the customer buy the best products that he's familiar with, the one he has access to and the one he believes in. There is a best for everyone and they can be very different from each other. Mac fans will tell you that Apple makes the best computer but I'm sure not everyone agrees with that.

You can sell the cheapest steak in town, be the most responsive online drug store or the closest mart in the area. All of these can make you the best choice for someone and as long as there's enough people who consider you as their best, your business will thrive.

You should make it your goal to strive for the best in the world title if you can. Start by being the best in your town and work your way up from there.

Think smart to be smart

Do you believe that intelligence is a fixed or malleable trait? It turns out that what you think about intelligence can effect your own intelligence. Jennifer Mangels (a neuroscientist) ran a test on 2 groups of students that have their own concept of intelligence. Those who thinks that you only have a certain amount of  intelligence and you can't change it subscribed to the entity theory of intelligence. The other group sided with the incremental theory of intelligence where they believe intelligence is malleable.

They took a test and were given the answers for the error they made. Both groups of student were just as confident about their ability.

Something amazing happened when they were given a second chance on the test to correct their errors. Those who think that intelligence is malleable was able to perform better. They responded better to errors and seem to be able to learn better from mistakes.

The students that believed intelligence is fixed seems to be more uptight about failures. Since intelligence is fixed, why is there a need to improve?

If you think you are only born with a certain amount of intelligence, it's time to change that mindset. Studies show that we are born believing that intelligence is malleable. All you need to do is think that you can get smarter in order to be smarter. It's that easy.

Are you a mapmaker?

In Linchpin, Seth talks about how we are trained and brought up to read maps. We expect our teachers to tell us what to study and our bosses to tell us what to do. We are taught to be map-readers and we are damn good at it. However, if you want to be indispensable, someone that is able to chart your own destiny, you need to learn how to make your own map.

You have to be someone that decides what to do next, not the one who awaits the next instruction. By creating your own map, you can create value. Value that only you can add to the equation.

Following someone's else map won't get you far. The map to success can only be drawn by you alone.

Must-know vs Nice-to-know

After being disconnected from the internet for a week, I have hundreds of unread emails and RSS feed items waiting for me. Some of you might even have thousands of them. While working my way through it, I can't help to think if there's a simpler way. A way to tell if an email or article is something you must read or something you can ignore.

A lot of things can happen in the span of a week. But most of them are really just things that are nice-to-know. These are things that you feel you should know but it don't really matter if you don't.

What you should focus on are the must-knows. The biggest thing that happened that week. Obviously, this will vary for different people so we need to categorize them.

How do you reduce the information clutter in your life? What kind of tools or filtering strategies that you apply to keep things more manageable?

Want more? Wait

In the 60s, Walter Mischel conducted the well known marshmallow experiment to study the effects of delayed gratification. He gathered a bunch of 4 year olds and gave them a marshmallow while promising to give another if they waited 20 minutes before eating the first. He then tracked their progress till adolescence and discovered that those who were able to wait were better adjusted, more dependable and scored higher in tests. The results seem to support the conventional wisdom that willpower and good impulse control are important to succeed in life.

Good things do in fact come to those who wait. Maybe if I wait long enough, I can get an iPad?

What would you do if there is no speed limit?

Recently, I read this article by Derek Sivers about an advice given by his music teacher, Kimo Williams. He told Derek that there's no speed limit in life and taught him a few semesters worth of materials within weeks. Derek went on and graduated from college within 2 and half years. Most systems (e.g. education) are designed so that everyone can keep up. And by that definition, meeting expectations simply means you have succeeded in being average. What if you are more motivated and driven than the average person?

The good news is, you don't have to follow the expected pace and speed. You can go as fast as you can. There are many shortcuts you can take in life and you should raise your expectations as high as possible.

Now armed with this insight, how would you live your life? Will you start do anything differently?