What Is It About You That I Like So Much?
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If you’re searching the swamps of social media to find people who agree with you while ignoring those who don’t (bias confirmation), why don’t you save the work and simply talk into a mirror where you can be sure everyone looks like you, sounds like you, and believes what you believe. It’s no more of a “time dump” than what you’re doing now and requires less searching.

 

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Possibility vs. certainty
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It is impossible to make a perpetual motion machine, you’ll waste your time if you try.

It is possible to write a book of poetry that will sell 10 million copies.

It is unlikely, it probably won’t happen, but it is possible.

Science and innovation and creativity engage with the possible. Possible means “might.” It takes persistence to stick it out when we’re not sure.

Once certainty arrives, it becomes an engineering problem.

After the first fusion reactor is shown to work at any scale, we’ll know it can be done. Now the hard work is simply making it work better. Most organizations do this sort of work. Chipping, filing, refining.

Before you get to work, it’s worth deciding which hat you’re being asked to wear… pursuing the possible or optimizing the certain.

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Food bonus post
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It’s been awhile…

Coconut Cult is a new sort of probiotic magic that’s actually delicious (the chocolate is great, the strawberry is magnificent). A tablespoon a day, try it for a week. You have 38 trillion gut bacteria (!) so you might as well make them happy.

This is the best gluten-free ramen I’ve ever had.

Peanut butter is more than a staple. The best I’ve had is only in the UK, the second-best is homemade. This is the third best, which is so much better than all the other options, I needed to share. You can probably find it locally, or buy a case from Zingermans.

I’m really enjoying the new botanicals and herbal teas from Rishi. And the Jimmy Nardello flakes from Burlap & Barrel. And Le Grand pesto is my favorite vegan pesto–but not easy to find.

And, by request, the homemade honey-oatmeal vodka recipe, as well as a breakthrough on my homemade dosa.

PS Two years later, this is still my favorite rice cooker.

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Sometimes I Don’t Need to Know “Why?”
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About once a month or so my otherwise excellent printer won’t print first thing in the morning. I’ve found that by turning off the wireless connection and then turning it back on, it works just fine for another month or so. The intervention takes me about 20 seconds. Sometimes one of the many lights in the bathroom doesn’t go on but then the next time does. It’s hard to replace, so I do nothing unless it’s out for a day or two, which is very seldom.

I don’t seek perfection, I seek success. I won’t allow a minor discomfort to create a major discomfort because something isn’t perfect.

This philosophy was reinforced by my dermatologist who, hearing that what I was concerned about was a skin lesion that was minor, had appeared the day before, and was fading, told me never to return unless something lasted at least a week and was clearly getting worse (and he gave me the indicators for “worse”!}

Don’t be a business hypochondriac.

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Brittle systems
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Large organizations are purpose-built to do what they do, under prevailing conditions.

People are hired, assets are acquired, measurements are put in place–all to optimize what’s happening right here and right now.

In 1929, 200 million telegrams were sent. The wiring, technology, staffing, real estate holdings and marketing of Western Union were all optimized around delivering these telegrams profitably and with quality.

By most external measures, it was working, brilliantly. There weren’t too many things you could do to make the telegram system dramatically better.

When the change agent appears, the optimized organization stumbles. It takes heroic work to shift it for a new reality. Short-run efficiency rarely aligns with long-term resilience.

More often than not, it’s the insurgent that takes the lead. All they need to do is optimize for the new reality, they can skip the part about restructuring what they already have.

This is sort of obvious, but worth saying out loud. And while these shifts used to take decades, now they happen far more quickly. It hardly pays to be the dominant maker of fax machines in 2025.

If you’re an insurgent with a small team and fixed asset base, be on the hunt for a change agent that is going to swamp existing systems. When the change comes, you’re ready for new rules and the competition is hoping for stability.

And if you’re part of a dominant incumbent organization, perhaps it’s time to start looking for a new gig instead of hoping to wait out the shift. Because the new normal is rarely a return to the old normal.

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