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Practicing scales

2023-07-24

I think about this Tyler Cowen question a lot:

What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?

I'm a product manager by trade and, until recently, never really been satisfied with the answers I've come up with. However, I've found one I really like.

I try to come up with two tweet length product ideas per day. I don't judge the ideas. They can be big or small. They just have to be plausible product pitches. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now and it has been a small enough exercise that I can commit to doing it daily but big enough that I can feel myself stretching. Most importantly, I've noticed more, better ideas coming to me at other parts of the day.

Somewhat related: I really enjoyed this Range Widely post about "pouring out your lesser ideas to get to the great ones."

Where trust comes from

2023-07-21

I found this video to be a helpful distillation of concepts I'd heard before with a couple things that were new to me.

I'd known that trust is a combination of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self interest, but I hadn't heard the sub components before:

Credibility

  • The words we use
  • The skills / credentials we bring
  • How other people experience our expertise

Reliability

  • Actions we take
  • Our predictability
  • Will others find us dependable

Intimacy

  • Empathy
  • Discretion

Self interest (destroys trust)

  • Do you seem to be prioritizing yourself over the group / others

The longevity of infrastructure

2023-07-20

The Whiting hydroelectric power plant was built in 1891 and still operates today, and the 2018 Camp Fire in California was caused by a PG&E transmission line built in 1921.

From The Grid part IV by Brian Potter