Posts

The 4 Pillars of Integrity (Jim Dethmer via The Knowledge Project)

Integrity : (from integer) to be whole or complete. In Jim Dethmer's meaning the word drops its ethical connotations and assumes the meaning of energetic wholeness and being fully alive . radical responsibility : we move from blaming others and external circumstances to taking full responsibility for our actions and emotions feel your feelings : sweeping emotions under the rug is a sure way of not being whole with ourselves and will eventually move us from being in control to being controlled by the amazing amount of energy that it takes us to suppress those emotions candor : when we hold back we detach, and when we detach can't feel energetic wholeness be impeccable in your agreements : in Charlie Munger's words be dependable. When you cannot keep your agreements, say so as early as you can Sources: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/jim-dethmer-2/ https://conscious.is/concepts/the-four-pillars-of-integrity   Addendum: on Rituals A ritual is an invitation to somet...
Read more

"AI is commoditizing expertise"

We are essentially taking expertise and making it a commodity, and I think that as generally democratizing, I think many of the things I mentioned, if you have wealth, you have a lot of access to, and if you don't, you don't . What a cool thing that we've made this like universally accessible. From: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/how-is-ai-different-than-other-technology-waves-with-bret-taylor-and-clay-bavor  (slightly edited)
Read more

Refactoring podcast with Martin Fowler: dosage and context

A while back I listened to this conversation between Martin Fowler and Luca Rossi on the refactoring podcast. Since then I made a note to write down the most important things I learned (or re-discovered), but always postponed until today I was able to make some time for it. Here's my take on the two most important things in that one hour long conversation. Dosage The concept of dosage is very familiar and very important to me. I've already written about it, under the name quantity . I appreciate how Martin Fowler was able to find a better (and fancier) name for it. Context Software engineering, being as elusive as it is as a proper engineering discipline, is perhaps one of the most studied and written about fields of engineering . And yet, we struggle to come up with truly universal practices that work everywhere. One way to understand why some things work sometimes and don't work or fail miserably other times is by considering the context that was present when the solu...
Read more

Opportunity/cost: lessons from a plumber

My uncle taught me this thing when I was a teenager about how he used to price his business. He ran a plumbing company. What he did was basically the first 75% of hours were priced at 100%, so the regular rate, but at 75 to 80% [of hours], he would increase the rate; at 80 to 100% [of hours], he’d increase it, and at over 100% of a normal work week, he’d increase the rate even more . And he was super transparent with people about this, like, “I’m really busy right now. I hate to give you this quote, but to do the job properly, here’s what we’d have to price it at.” From  Ryan Holiday: How to Win the War with Yourself [The Knowledge Project Ep. #208]  
Read more

Perception is other people's reality

What we call perception is other people's reality Have you ever heard somebody say: yes, but we are perceived as <adjective>? as a way to say we're not quite like that, it's their fault for not seeing us differently, etc. In other words we're not taking responsibility. Stop right there and remember that how we are perceived is other people's reality. And it's our responsibility to change it , should we not be ok with it. And it's our fault if we don't. As the saying goes: we have to deal with world as it is, not as we wish it it would be
Read more

What happens to our ideas

A wise man said: Our ideas can be either ignored or misunderstood. And we don't get to choose. After a certain point it does not matter how much we refine our communication, it will never mean exactly what we think it does. And that's why it's more important to listen, than to talk: so that we can correct what must be corrected and ignore the rest because it will be distracting.
Read more

Accuracy vs Precision

Accuracy is more important than precision! Let me illustrate that with an example: I need to measure the length of a piece of wood, let's say its real length is 10cm. Accuracy is how close I am to 10cm in the measurement, and precision is the number of decimal places (or error range, if you want) you can read out. If I measured with an extremely precise instrument and it said the piece of wood is 9.855 cm (3 decimal places) and another one that gave me 9.9, the first one would be very precise than the second but less accurate. Ultimately the second measurement is just more useful for practical purposes. Same happens with planning and estimates. An estimate of 18.55 man days for a piece of work is only as good as it is close the real value. If the work happens to take 21 days, then just saying three weeks is more accurate (but less precise). So let's say you make a year-long plan: it's more important that the plan is accurate than it is precise because that will mean that wh...
Read more

Common sense AI playbook [Gartner]

Via The Register : He cited a use case at US healthcare company Vizient where the CTO asked employees what tasks bother them on a regular basis – the sort of thing everyone dreads having to do when they arrive at work on Monday morning. Armed with feedback from thousands of employees, the company automated the most-complained-about chores. The result? “Instant adoption, zero change management problems,” Brethenoux said. Employees then bought in to AI and started to make good suggestions for further AI-enabled automation.
Read more