Beautiful Polished Rocks

“You can’t come up with a formula to change the way you experience the world.” — A Beautiful Mind

rocks

I find myself spending a lot of time thinking as of late about team dynamics, leadership, humans, and what are the traits that comprise the best teams that I have been a part of in my career. These may not have been the most “influential” or ones that made tons of money, but instead I wanted to focus on the teams that have impacted me to be a better human.

As I approach 50 perhaps I am getting a wee-bit sentimental, but was surprised to discover how deeply these gut feelings around what makes teams great have been resonating with people. I’ve been sharing a lot of these ideas on LinkedIn and as blog posts on Medium as a stream of consciousness (such as “carry the fire”). We’ll see where it all leads; like I’ve said before, this is all a work in progress.

Forward Thinking

From 1993, Bill Gates explains the Internet to David Letterman.

Thought of the week

One video that I like to reference when talking with colleagues on psychological safety and differences of opinion as a key factor to elevating a team, is from a 1996 Robert X. Cringely “lost interview” with Steve Jobs.

In it, Jobs tells a story from his youth, and a “metaphor for a team that is working really hard on something they’re passionate about.” .. Take the 5 minutes to watch, it’s worth it.

This weeks “Deep Links”

Here’s a few of the articles and videos that resonated with me over the last week:

• The power of walks is something that I need to work more of into my work interactions, and frankly, my entire life. Walk with me — More
• A long and poignant read from Tim Urban on The Fermi Paradox; the simple question around if there is intelligent life in the universe, where is everybody? — More
• Clubhouse has been a curiosity and I’m not really a fan; but I can why it appeals to some. In Clubhouse Cured My Imposter Syndrome they put into words some of the things I’ve been feeling — More
• Distractions can pull you away from things you want to do, and diversions can be healthy. Life Hack: Understand the Difference Between “Distraction” and “Diversion” — More
• Animagraffs are animated infographics about everything; this is something wonderful about the Internet — More
• I love that there are people that think about this stuff in Why Paper Jams Persist — More
• Ryan Holiday has 100 Very Short Rules for a Better Life — More
• The Cube Rule of Food Identification in which the author provides an answer to the age old question of “Is a HotDog a Sandwich” — More
• File under super creepy. AI ‘Deep Nostalgia’ brings old photos, including very old ones, to life — More
• Do you miss the noise from your local bar? Or looking for some great background noise to pipe into your Zoom calls? Check out imissmybar.com — More
• “True Crime Addict” and the Problem of Internet Sleuths- More

Fin

As WandaVision comes to a close, for me (and a large part of the Internet) this is the scene that the series will be remembered for. I’ll do a deeper review on what I think of the whole 9 episodes, but not yet.