LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

 The creator of Ruby on Rails, David Heinemeier in an interview http://bit.ly/2ZWnOtm shares his profound thoughts on the subject of learning:

"You can get really good at most things, even if you start “late”, if you know how to learn..... I’ve realized that the hard part about most books is not reading them but recalling their knowledge or insight when you need it the most."

In today's fast-paced world, Learning is the only constant. 'Learning how to learn' is a skill that is a force-multiplier, yet it doesn't get as much mind-share as it ideally should.

Our learning strategies have to constantly evolve with time for us to be relevant. And at the same time, there are learning strategies that are timeless in nature. One such was suggested by Richard Feynman Nobel Prize winning American physicist.

The Feynman Technique (as it is popularly called) involves 4 key steps:

(1) Identify
(2) ELI5 ("Explain It To Me Like I'm 5")
(3) Reflect & Study
(4) Organize, Convey & Review
(source https://bit.ly/3mhZehr , summary in my sketchnote)

To me, the essence of this technique is in Step 2 i.e. to simplify your learning enough and make it comprehensible to a child.
Un-complexifying something is a super-power.

What are your preferred learning strategies ?

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6783932512935780352/

HOW TO FIND A MENTOR

In a podcast that i listened to recently, Raghu Raman shared an powerful anecdote:

During his early India Army days, once there was a general coming for briefing. The commanding officer (CO) suddenly looked at him and said- "You are going to conduct the briefing." He was stressed as the time was short and the fact that situation could explode if he messed up. He went through the intense preparation cycle and just before the presentation was about to begin CO indicated to him to sit down and instead CO himself started the presentation.

He could have felt "Why the hell did CO put him through that shit?" But that was the mentorship. He actually let Raghu go through the palpitations that are going to happen in the high risk presentation without actually the risk of doing that.

Teaching doesn't mean giving only lectures, it means how can I impart the lessons effectively.

Even if you are a rookie in your field or a successful pro, having the right mentor at right time adds immense value. But often people struggle in finding the right mentor.

"How does one find a mentor". I quite liked simple ideas shared in this tweet on finding a mentor https://bit.ly/2WB6LMB (Catch my sketchnote summary of this thread))

How have you leveraged mentorship in your career ?

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6782847941536313345/

ANTIFRAGILITY AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

 India fast bowler Prasidh Krishna recently made his International cricket debut. He got belted for 37 runs in 3 overs. Everyone thought his career is over before it started but he came back, took 4 wickets in next 5 overs.

Another recent debutant, Suryakumar Yadav was a consistent performer in domestic and IPL circuit for many years but was often ignored for selection. It took a long time before he got his chance.

Both of them faced ups and downs but they didn't let it break them. A trait known as Antifragility binds them.

Being Antifragile helped them to deal with not only failures but also with the situations when they were successful, yet didn't get their due.

From the book "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder":
"Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive & grow when exposed to volatility,randomness,disorder & stressors & love adventure, risk & uncertainty. Anti-fragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the anti-fragile gets better."

Sahil Bloom in his profound thread https://bit.ly/3lTuvr1 calls Antifragility as a competitive advantage and brings to the fore many such traits. Summary in my sketchnote.

What's your take on Antifragility as a differentiating skill ?

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6781033076106637313/

REASONING FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES

When Elon Musk launched SpaceX, his idea was to buy a rocket but he ended up building one. He discovered that the cost of one rocket would pose a serious economic threat. Musk explains his next action:

"So I said, okay, let's look at the first principles. What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys + some titanium, copper & carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around 2% of the typical price."

Ok, all of us don't make rockets for living but 'First Principles Thinking' as a problem solving approach is universally applicable.- break down a complex problem into its foundational elements.

How does one get started here ? Towards this, Loved the way Sahil Bloom articulated (https://bit.ly/30OVXMH) these questions-

What is the problem I am trying to solve?
What do I know to be true about this problem?
Why do I believe these "truths" to be true?
Is there real evidence to support these beliefs?
Are my emotions clouding my judgment & reasoning?
What alternative viewpoints might exist?
What are the consequences of being wrong in my original beliefs?

Without a firm grasp of the basics, there is little chance of mastering the details.

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_reasoning-from-first-principles-when-elon-activity-6777968913293692928-7tFQ/

A CASE FOR SILENT MEETINGS

A few weeks back, I was a part of a meeting- Ask Leaders Anything (open to all employees).There was no talk,written chat was the only mode of communication.I was astonished at the rate at which questions were asked by employees.I compared it with pre-Covid times when the All hands were held in person when people rarely came forward to ask questions.

Online meetings are a great equalizer but there is more to it. I learned about the concept of Silent meetings while reading the book- 'Always Day One' which quotes Square's product executive Alyssa Henry

"Lots of research says that minorities, women, remote employees & introverts are talked over in meetings &/or have trouble getting their voice heard in traditional meeting culture."

Silent meetings are inclusive.

My curiosity to find more led me to the David Gasca 's work. Read more here "The Silent Meeting Manifesto.." https://bit.ly/38EAoCX
(summary in my sketchnote)

Silent meetings possibly can't replace 1:1 where you need conversations but most of the meetings which require discussions, cover multiple point of views can benefit.

4 steps:
1 Prepare Agenda + Choose facilitator
2 Create a "Table Read" (doc that is read during the meeting)
3 Read + Comment
4 Facilitator Synthesizes + Leads Discussion

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6777046789905362944/

DISRUPT YOURSELF

In the last few months, we saw the emergence of new talent in Cricketing world. Washington Sundar is one such player. He was selected for Australia tour as a net bowler & in the last 3 months has surprisingly emerged as a serious batting prospect. He was a good T20 bowler but it is his batting that surprised many. Ravi Shastri also started as a bowler & ended his career as an opening batsman. Steven Smith started as a leg spinner & is now a leading test batsman.

Looking at these cases, it appears that these players were ready to disrupt themselves when the opportunity presented itself.

I get reminded of the book "Disrupt Yourself" (refer sketchnote) which applies disruptive innovation's S-Curve theory to career disruption. When talking about personal disruption, you are both Netflix & Blockbuster. You are the disruptor & the incumbent because you are disrupting you.

When considering personal disruption, i quited liked the perspective shared by Deepak Jayaraman in his podcast-
"Think of ourselves as balance sheet & not P&L. More often we think of ourselves as cash flows & expect to grow upwards year on year but sometimes taking a step back and building our assets could temporarily put us back but could create the new stream of cashflows."

What do you think ?

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6775962459850321920/

TWO TYPES OF SCHEDULES

 Bob Iger in his book "The Ride of a Lifetime" rates the ability to compartmentalize the day as one of the highest leverage skills for a CEO, who has to switch context and deal with problems of different scale every hour.

Now consider the daily schedule of famed novelist Haruki Murakami. When he’s working on a novel, he starts his days at 4 am and writes for five or six continuous hours.

For simplicity sake, one can consider Iger as a Manager and Murakami as a Maker & their cases highlight a point-

"different types of work require different types of schedules"

Paul Graham in his timeless essay http://bit.do/fPjqwl talks about the concept of Maker schedule and Manager schedule. An idea further expanded by Shane Parrish in his blog http://bit.do/fPjqx (Catch the summary in my sketchnote)

A manager’s day is sliced up into tiny slots, each with a specific purpose like meetings, calls, emails.
A maker’s schedule is different. It is made up of long blocks of time reserved for focusing on particular tasks, or the entire day might be devoted to one activity.

As Shane says, Awareness is the key. We need to be aware of which schedule the people around us are on so we can be considerate and let them get their best work done.

What is your preferred schedule ?

My Sketchnote:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_two-types-of-schedules-bob-iger-in-his-book-activity-6773782868612251648-9kRc/