Put the hours in. Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. 90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina.
Archive for July, 2006
Put the hours in
Monday, July 10th, 2006Accidental Innovation
Thursday, July 6th, 2006If you think about it, some accidents are actually important. Some are great for innovation. Examples of great discoveries that were discovered by accident include: anesthesia, cellophane, cornflakes, penicillin, photography, and Teflon. The Archimedes Principle of bouyancy? Archimedes himself discovered while relaxing in his bathtub.
Q: Is there a way innovators can encourage good accidents? In other words, is there anything we can control to foster this process?
A: Great question. Artists think they develop a talent for causing good accidents. Equally or perhaps even more important, they believe they cultivate an ability to notice the value in interesting accidents. This is a non-trivial capability. Pasteur called it the “prepared mind.” There’s an interesting analogy to evolutionary models of creativity here. In 1960, a guy named [Donald] Campbell proposed that we think of creativity as “Random variation + Selective Retention.” That is, we need two processes, one to generate things we can’t think of in advance, and another to figure out which of the things we generate are valuable and are worth keeping and building upon. In science, the arts, and other creative activities, the ability to know what to throw away and what to keep seems to arise from experience, from study, from command of fundamentals, and—interestingly—from being a bit skeptical of preset intentions and plans that commit you too firmly to the endpoints you can envision in advance. Knowing too clearly where you are going, focusing too hard on a predefined objective, can cause you to miss value that might lie in a different direction.
The important points mentioned by Professor Robert D. Austin here are:
- Innovation can’t always be planned — accidents happen (isn’t that true about life in general?)
- Be prepared to recognize serendipitous opportunity
- Understand the nature of breakthrough inventions in your industry and plan accordingly
Read more about The Accidental Innovator at HBS Working Knowledge: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5441.html
Relativism
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006I learned a thing or two about relativism today. The idea behind it is that everything is “relative” (vs. being absolute) e.g. for someone to be described “beautiful”, it is then necessary by definition for someone ugly to exist (because if nobody is ugly and everybody is beautiful, then beautiful is just status quo).
Naive Relativism
Naive Relativism basically holds that nobody may morally judge another. Everyone has their own standards of ethics; if a 10-year old helped out in a family-owned business, outsiders might consider that an act of child slavery, but the family might beg to differ. Where the line is drawn is subject to interpretation and will differ from person to person.
Role Relativism
This one’s my favourite, I see this quite a bit. Essentially, you must play the role your position requires at work and not let your private personal values interfere. E.g. if you were the CEO of a firearms company, your role requires that (at work) you look out for the best interest of your company, even if you personally are against guns because you believe guns kill people.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural Relativism holds that there isn’t a “universal” moral code by which you can use to judge another society’s moral standards. There exist countries outside of the US where it is customary to bribe government officials for preferential treatment. In the US, multinational corporations are barred from adopting this practice — the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 says so.
Congress was forced to legislate ethics in corporate America because of the scandals in late 90′s – 2000 (read: WorldCom, Enron, etc) with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 because self-regulation proved inadequate. As an unintended side-effect to watch the big guys, the Sarbanes-Oxley also proves to be a pretty significant hamper for promising startups, especially when trying to go public.
July 4th, 2006!
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006It’s July 4th, Happy Birthday America!
Definitely an unforgettable July 4th for me — I have the worse sun burn ever, but that’s my fault because I didn’t put enough sunscreen (I’m burned everywhere my springsuit didn’t cover my skin, ouch). I figured I could use some sun since I spent too much time indoors in front of a computer.
But also, my feet are just scalded, walking on coal. Okay, so not literally, but I might as well have been. My buddy showed me his secret surf spot called “New Break” (where the waves “break” for “new”-bies?) in Ocean Beach, Calif. What he conveniently failed to mention is that the path to the spot included walking across a dry hot trail with no grass. The problem is, on our way back after surfing, we had to walk about half a mile on this red hot boiling surface. Needless to say, my feet now hurt with every step I take and I am traumatized by the event.
What did I do to deserve such a punishment?
On a different note, the view was the absolutely breathtaking. Nevermind the fact that I had to lug a surf board and climb treacherous cliffs barefooted. Maybe I’ll bring a camera next time.
