Stumbled upon this interesting talk by Professor Philip Zimbardo on how our perspective of time affects our health, well-being and work.
Are you past, present or future oriented?
Steve Jobs on Telegraph and Telephone
As you all know, we have lost the greatest inventor of our time. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and creator of the Mac, iPhone and iPad has passed away. Like many, I've been reading a lot about Jobs' inspiring journey. There's a particular interview with him by Playboy that reminds me on how different he sees the world compare to the rest of us.
When answering a question on why would someone take the leap of faith and buy a 3000 dollar Macintosh, he said this.
PB: Then for now, aren't you asking home-computer buyers to invest $3000 in what is essentially an act of faith?
SJ: In the future, it won't be an act of faith. The hard part of what we're up against now is that people ask you about specifics and you can't tell them. A hundred years ago, if somebody had asked Alexander Graham Bell, "What are you cooing to be able to do with a telephone?" he wouldn't have been able to tell him the ways the telephone would affect the world.
He didn't know that people would use the telephone to call up and find out what movies were playing that night or to order some groceries or call a relative on the other side of the globe. But remember that the first public telegraph was inaugurated in 1844. It was an amazing breakthrough in communications. You could actually send messages from New York to San Francisco in an afternoon.
People talked about putting a telegraph on every desk in America to improve productivity. But it wouldn't have worked. It required that people learn from this whole sequence of strange incantations, Morse code, dots and dashes, to use the telegraph. It took about 40 hours to learn. The majority of people would never learn how to use it.
So fortunately, in the 1870s, Bell filed the patents for the telephone. It performed basically the same function as the telegraph but people already knew how to use it. Also, the neatest thing about it was that besides allowing you to communicate with just words, it allowed you to sing.
PB: Meaning what?
SJ: It allowed you to intone your words with meaning beyond the simple linguistics. And we're in the same situation today. Some people are saying that we ought to put an IBM PC on every desk in America to improve productivity. It won't work. The special incantations you have to learn this time are the "slash q-zs" and things like that.
The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel––one that reads like a mystery to most people. They're not going to learn slash q-z any more than they're going to learn Morse code.
That is what Macintosh is all about. It's the first "telephone" of our industry. And, besides that, the neatest thing about it, to me, is that the Macintosh lets you sing the way the telephone did. you don't simply communicate words, you have special print styles and the ability to draw and add pictures to express yourself.
If I were to analyze why telephone is such a big leap forward compared to telegraph, I probably would talk about how it is much more efficient and faster because you are transmitting voice messages instead of just dashes and dots. Or I could say how it's more usable and easily adoptable since there's practically no learning curve.
But Steve Jobs sees the potential of telephone way beyond the specifications (speed) or even the experience of using it. He realized that the fact telephone is able to transmit our voice, not just words but the tone too, changes everything. This means that we are able to express ourselves when transmitting our messages. We are not just sending words over copper wires but also our own interpretation, touch and take on the meaning of our words.
If there's only one thing I could learn from Steve, it would be his insight, vision and foresight on how technology can change our lives. It is sad that such a great visionary had his time here cut short but what he did with it makes all of us feel so insignificant.
Thank you for everything, Steve. I will try to stay hungry and foolish.
Toothbrush Theory
Note: I've recently updated this post and expanded it with methods on how to not fall into the trap of over-valuing our own ideas. Read it here.
I came across this theory on how we tend to value our own creation more than others while reading Dan Ariely's latest book, The Upside of Irrationality.
Toothbrush TheoryEveryone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else's
It is also known as the Not-Invented-Here bias. This applies to things you buy, food you eat and even your ideas.
We tend to overrate and overvalue our own ideas and creations. In fact, we continue to do so even when someone else made it seems as if we came up with it ourselves.
This bias is useful in keeping us motivated and committed to pursue our own work but it could also blind us from better solutions and ideas out there.
On the other hand, it seems quite a number of Malaysians including myself tend to prefer products from other countries. I think we need to strike a balance on this and give some of the local products a chance.
Learning from observation
Since you were a baby, you learn from observation. You'll mimic behaviors of your parents or siblings. You'll start to realize that if you cry, you get food. We learn all these patterns and behaviors from observing others and the environment around us. This is a vital skill and many great discoveries started from an observation. It is however extremely dangerous and rather stupid to rely solely on observation to find out about something. Take a look at these examples.
Assuming you have no knowledge of the mathematical symbols addition (+) and multiplication (x), what can you conclude from observing these 2 equations
2 + 2 = 4
2 x 2 = 4
From these 2 equations, you can conclude that + and x are the same and some might even go a step further and argue that x is just + written differently or wrongly
Now another similar example. What can you conclude from these 2 equations
4 - 2 = 2
4 ÷ 2 = 2
Similarly, you can observe from these 2 equations that - and ÷ gives the same result
Some of you might say, well those are rather simple and dumb examples. No one will conclude something simply based on a small observation sample. But sad to say, in my limited 20+ years of observation, there ARE people who draw conclusion from 1 or 2 observations.
Do you know anyone who decided not to buy something simply because they heard their friend's friend had some issue with it? Did they check if it's the same model? Was the issue due to faulty manufacturing or a user's mistake?
It becomes scarier when people start to use past observation to predict the future. Your observation is simply 1 possibility and there could be millions or billions of others. When you start to assume, you need to be aware of the possibility of being wrong.
Sometimes you try to draw a better conclusion by asking more people. But what if your friends all have similar demographics? Just because all your friends think something is good doesn't guarantee that it is. After all, peer pressure will tend to make individuals conform to their social norm.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't learn from observation but rather to not so easily conclude something based solely on observations. It's not enough to just increase the sample size. You need to consider different scenarios and always be open to other possibilities. You need to conduct experiments.
When someone tell you something is faulty, ask him exactly what is wrong. Ask other friends. Go online and do some research. If you can, get yourself a sample to test if the problem is an isolated case. Having done all that, you still must account for the possibility that it could be something else you missed.
An observation is merely the beginning of the learning process. You need to test and experiment your observation before you can conclude anything from it. Start by observing and make no assumptions. Test and experiment your findings. Then conclude but be ready to go through the entire process again.
Learning is a life-long process because a new observation can change what you already know. So start observing but don't forget to experiment.
Ideas and Insights
Ideas are usually born from some insights. Google founders' insight was their PageRank algorithm. They realized they could sort the web by their link popularity. The more incoming links a page has, the higher it ranks. For Showtimes.my, the simple insight we had was to deliver what the user wants (showtimes) in the fastest possible manner. This meant showing all the movies that are shown in your area at once and format the showtimes nicely so it's easier to read.
Obviously, the better the insight, the better idea will be. So far, most of our ideas are developed from rather simple and common insight. Hopefully, one day we'll have some rare insight to a problem and build a solution for it.
Seeing it through
Every time I start working on a fresh new idea, I get really excited and motivated. The first few weeks will be extremely productive as you have momentum and optimism on your side. It's similar to the feeling when you first got a book. You'll go through the first few chapters really quickly. If you're fast, you might even finish it on the same day.
But unlike reading a book, working on an idea and developing it can't be done in a day or two. It's a marathon not a sprint. So what happens when your initial enthusiasm and motivation wears off?
You'll start to be less productive and suddenly everything seems hard. At times, you might even ask if you should continue working on it. You'll start to notice all the flaws and problems with your idea.
My advice is that you have to see it through somehow. Nothing great and worth doing has ever been easy. You'll learn more from finishing it and fail than abandoning it half way.
It is said that failure is the best teacher. I think success is a better one but to get to either, you actually have to reach the finish line. Whether you succeed or fail, you win. You lose when you give up half way.
The only other reason you lose is that you didn't even start. So get started and make sure you persevere till the end.
Taking action
Around the same time I started this blog, I also started a brainstorming group with a few close and smart friends. We called it Idearum and met up every fortnight to share ideas and discuss certain issues. Then early this year, we restarted the group and with some new members and started discussing about business ideas and things we can do. We all agreed that instead of just brainstorming ideas, we should try implementing some of them.
Inline with this new direction, I've decided to start an online community that encourages people to take action and work on their ideas. Hopefully, with the support and resources from the community, it will be easier to realize your dreams and bring ventures to life.
At this moment, we are still developing the site itself so hopefully soon we'll be able to launch it and inspire more people to take action and create value. After all, life is too short to not do something that matters.
If you got an idea that's been stuck in your head for a while, it's time to take action and work on it. Start a newsletter or work on that painting you always wanted to do. Lead a movement or build that iPhone app you wanted.
Whatever the idea, nothing will happen unless you start taking action. And maybe, just maybe, with enough of people doing great work and stuff that matters, we might be able to change the world.
Inspire action
Simon Sinek says he found out why some people and organizations are so inspirational. In his book, Start with Why he codifies the method for us to lead better and inspire change. He calls it the Golden Circle.
All organizations and careers function on 3 levels. What you do, How you do it and Why you do it. The problem is, most don’t even know that Why exists.
Influential and inspirational companies like Apple starts from the 'why'. It sells you a story of why they are different. Simon argues that most companies start with a story that tells their customer what they are selling. They should instead focus on telling their customer what they believe in and stand for.
Here's a talk from Simon at TED that you should watch. If you are leader of some sort or want to inspire action and change, do NOT miss this.
Default choice
If I'm returning to a restaurant, usually I'll go for what I like best. This is will be the default choice unless i'm returning more often which I'll then flip flop between a few of my top choices. My reasons are rather simple.
- Saves time - It can take a while to decide on what to eat, so going for the default choice gives me more time enjoying the food and less time deciding.
- Safe choice - Being the best choice usually guarantee that I'll have an enjoyable and tasty meal. Yes, I'm not that adventurous simply because I hate sucky food.
- I get the best they offer - My choices are usually the restaurant's signature dishes. This means I'm ordering something they are really good at, at least to me. No reason to go KFC and have the fish burger. Go for their best meal. (hint: chicken)
The caveat here is obviously I had to go through some of the food before discovering my favourite. But once I found it, it'll be my default choice until something change.
What about you? Do you have default choice or you prefer to try something every time? Or maybe it's dependent on the current alignment of the stars?
Starting out
Flexible working hours, minimal commuting and being in control are just some of the many perks of being self-employed. Increasingly, graduates nowadays are looking at self-employment as their first career of choice. Based on my personal experience, I believe you should try to spend a few years in your industry working for others before venturing to start your own business. Here's why:
- Connections - Working for others means you have colleagues, bosses and those working next door. It expands your social circle and creates new connections that might allow you do open doors that you never thought possible. Remember to never ever burn bridges.
- Knowledge of your industry - Get yourself involve in the entire process and be familiar with all the processes, practices and taboos of the industry. Nothing beats first hand experience. You might not like how certain things are done but you can't change something that you don't know. So understand it first before you attempt to improve anything.
- Understand the business model - The business model of the company determines what type of clients they have, how much they charge them and the amount they pay you. If their model is to treat you as a cog in a machine, you are getting minimal wage. This is important when you start your own company. Your business model determines the path your company takes.
- Realize the value of everyone and everything - Once you are familiar with who does what and why certain things are the way they are, you realize that everyone has a value to the company. There's always a mis-match between the value you think you have compared to the value your boss perceive from you. It's a matter of perception and knowing how to better portray your actual value is very important. Always know your own value.
You could start your own company and learn all this as you go along. But not everyone have that luxury and being in employment even for a while makes you a better boss.
It could takes years or decades before you think you have learned everything you need to know. And even then, the industry changes all the time and there's always something new. Learning is a life-long process after all.
Which ever path you choose to start with, make sure it's one that you will be able to learn from.