It's amazing how much the simple act of writing down your ideas helps you think 🤯

That happened to me this week. I'm writing an article about altruism (you'll see it next week), and I had originally planned to highlight the mindset that's often missing. But as I started writing, and was forced to think about it from more angles, I realized the mindset depends on who you're helping. And why donating $100 to the poor doesn't make you feel as good as offering one homeless person a $10 meal.

I doubt I would've made that connection without putting pen to paper.

What I'm Writing

Hacking the Bureaucracy to Get Stuff Done

The Dangerous Professional finds the seams between the policies and slips inside them. They'll dodge gatekeepers and dance around policies, doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

I share various stories of when I did this myself or saw others do it.

Click here to read the full story

What I'm Reading

How Darwin Thought: The Golden Rule of Thinking

"[Charles Darwin] paid special attention to collecting facts which did not agree with his prior conceptions."

The big lesson: Pay extra attention to anything you find surprising or which hints one of your beliefs is false.  Try tuning your mind to notice those moments.

That's where new insights hide

Personally, I find myself changing my views on some major issue I believed in every ~3 years. I'm now always wondering: what opinions will I have abandoned 3 years from now?

You Had Me at "Hello World" (book)

This is a great book for ramping up in a new team. It's advice on building relationships was simple, yet something easily neglected:

"Building relationships when you’re new is pretty simple. Attend every meeting you’re invited to, and listen. Don’t play with your phone or your laptop. Just pay attention and take notes so you can refer back to things people said later. Do some research and send them an article or a blog related to the topic they talked about after the meeting. They will be flattered there was someone who was listening closely to them."

Nowadays, we can easily take notes on the side while having a Zoom chat. Take advantage of that!

What Every Successful Person Knows, But Never Says

Don't get discouraged if you feel like the creative stuff you make isn't good enough. That's actually a good thing!

The fact that you can tell that you're stuff isn't that good means that you have good taste, you can tell the good from the great. That's where all the "greats" started, and it's your biggest asset.

Now you just need to practice the skill until you get better at it.

What I'm thinking

It's harder to build community ties during covid. But not impossible.

Interacting in small groups seems key. Maybe spending more 1:1 time with each other via Zoom. Nowadays our schedules are more flexible, lets take advantage of that! Try reaching out to someone you haven't met in a while and setup some time to chat.

You won't even have to drive

Have you ever had an epiphany while trying to explain an idea to someone else? Reply back, I'd love to hear your experience 🙂

Till next week

--Zain