2025-04-24 17:03:00
Not a lack of power, but feeling as though we have none. Some people have been indoctrinated to prefer a life with no agency, as it also brings no responsibility. At the other extreme, some folks have decided that they have more power than they actually do.
Video games offer people a chance to experience virtual power–an opportunity to feel a lack of powerlessness. Click the mouse, something happens–power is in your grasp. By giving players agency, the games allow users to feel something they might be avoiding in real life.
Everyone is on a spectrum. No one has absolute power, and no one is powerless. But our expectation and experience of power is always a choice.
Choosing the attitude of powerlessness is self-defeating as well as self-negating. The fact that the attitude can be chosen is in itself a form of power. We can find control over our attitude and our actions, gaining priceless power as we do.
No one can change everything, but everyone can change something. If you choose to live a life with impact, it’s in your control to do so.
2025-04-23 17:03:00
On the factory floor, productivity increases are relentlessly implemented, often without regard for worker satisfaction.
For people working with a laptop, though, they are often seen as optional lifestyle choices instead of ways to significantly boost how much we can get done–and the satisfaction that comes with time we control.
If you work on your own, your productivity choices are up to you. But when you involve others in your project, the default should be to honor the habits of the most productive member of the team.
Here are some proven ways to save hours of wasted time. You’re probably doing many of them, but they’re still treated as options by many. In rough order of importance:
We’ve all seen well-meaning people disregard all of these points in a single interaction. Multiply that by the number of people involved and you’re in a time swamp.
2025-04-22 17:03:00
Technical debt is easy to incur. It’s unnecessary added features, undocumented code, support for outmoded interactions and anything that slows down your ability to update and upgrade your work. Tech debt is the combination of doing what feels right at the time, in a hurry, and then having to maintain it and understand it going forward.
Vibe coding, which is a rising trend, pairs a human programmer with an AI like chatGPT. The AI is doing most of what a human used to do, and generating far more lines of code per hour than a person might. The problem is that often, no one knows exactly how the code works, which means it’s going to be difficult to fix when it breaks or needs an upgrade.
And as AI starts to create data sets (by reviewing, for example, response rates to emails or designs), those data sets are going to be so multi-dimensional that only an AI will be able to make sense of them.
The end result will be as the end result often is–the first one now will later be last. The shortcuts might not be the best way to get to where you’re going.
Get the system architecture right first. Document it, streamline it and test it. Then divide the components into small pieces and let AI finish the work. Fixing a defective brick is far more cost effective than re-architecting an entire building.
2025-04-21 16:29:00
Sometimes, in the absence of data or useful experience, we’re left to act on our instincts.
It’s worth noting that other people have instincts as well.
And in a given situation, their instincts might prove to be as right as often as ours.
Just because it’s your instinct doesn’t mean it’s the best instinct.
When in doubt, seek reality and useful experience instead.
2025-04-20 17:03:00
A solid work ethic drives someone to show up, even when they’d rather not. If there’s work on their desk, they’ll take it on.
Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to say ‘no’ to free up focus and resources for the work that’s worth saying ‘yes’ to.
2025-04-19 17:03:00
If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result.
Until the world changes.
Even the tiniest shift in the system will render your memorization useless.
On the other hand, if you understand the concept, you’ll be able to produce the steps whenever you need them.
