We've had some challenges at TOA headquarters this week (the whole month, honestly) in terms of finishing posts, so technically there is nothing ready for today. I'm also on a little vacation so the traditional standby of a Saturday writing surge wasn't available to me this week. Given the circumstances, let's lean on our old crutch of Proper Labmin, where I walk through a few of the items in draft stage as an informal preview of coming attractions.
The slow scan
I think there is a general idea that the internet has made things faster, but I don't know if this is actually true for everything. When I scan a QR code for a restaurant menu, for example, I think it takes me twice as long to find my order.
My biggest regret
I find it hard to answer generic-sounding questions like "what is your biggest regret?", but maybe it's because I never figured out the answer. I think for me it has to do with the way I look back on certain situations where others made assumptions about me, with the aspect of regret being my failure to create the right conditions such that someone else might have been willing to start the necessary conversation or ask the important question. I think one of life's most important skills is making sure others are comfortable enough to say the things that need to be said, but I know that in the past I've made it possible for others to feel like they were better off not saying the things that needed to be said. The problem with this is that when the things to say remain unsaid, we make assumptions instead. Of course, I am trying to balance this with the reality that I am not responsible for other people's assumptions.
The Business Bro learns from mistakes
I've been loosely outlining the framework for a short book to help first-time managers make the transition into this new type of role. I think I'm going to focus on areas that aren't acknowledged as managerial skills (or at least, don't seem to be based on my experience with trainings, readings, or conversations with other managers). At the moment I have a shortlist of fifteen or twenty such lessons that I've accumulated over my decade or so in the work. The number one idea is that although success as a manager is unique to each individual, resulting from the application of a manager's specific strengths or skills, failure as a manager can happen in more or less the exact same way for everyone. Therefore, one tactic I would describe is the importance of learning what to avoid doing, which I think works best by observing other managers, noticing their mistakes, and making sure you don't repeat those errors.
The hard work of remote
The news has many stories about companies reverting to some kind of in-office setup despite successfully completing their work in a fully remote configuration over the past two years. I think the untold story in these situations is how much work is involved in a remote setup, and perhaps the truth of these "return to office" stories is about organizations who are incapable (or unwilling) to do the extra work that is necessary for long-term success in a remote workforce.
In the flow of being late
Why are some people always late? I think there is a hidden explanation for a minority of cases - when you are rushing to get somewhere on time, our brains actually reward the experience by entering what psychologists describe as "a flow state".
Another rant about cars?
I mean, does anyone care? Maybe I'll post this on Labor Day so you can take the weekend off from TOA. The short version is that much of the cyclist-driver conflict I see in The Two Cities could be resolved if our roads had more space, which in my mind has some similarities to the way airline passengers fight over shared areas like the armrest or the reclining seat. The problem, I think, is that we have been sold the same space twice, so these conflicts come down to individuals being forced to work out the problem of one location being booked twice (by the city government in the case of the roads, by the airlines in the case of our airborne grievances).
The marshmallow fest
There were many books I read in the past decade whose main ideas drew from experimental results or study findings. In the ensuing years, some of these foundational results or findings have failed to replicate while others have been refuted outright. Despite these developments, such books remain on the shelves and readers continue to cite their ideas as proven fact. What are we supposed to do with these works? And how do we navigate the ways such books propagate this bizarre brand of misinformation?
Tidying up the lab
How do I know when to take TOA from offseason to in-season? It's when I have a lot of ideas. I think it's pretty clear based on the above that we're just about at that point, so hopefully we'll be back to full speed sometime in June.
Until then, thanks for reading!
