Why It’s Fine To Embrace Moments Of Unproductivity

Edition #146

Nov 27, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to The ContraMind Code.

The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.

The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.

The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.

Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.

Smart Productivity Vs Wisdom Productivity

This is a very thoughtful and reflective note from Sajit Pai. He provides a nuanced perspective on the difference between smart productivity and wisdom productivity.

Here’s his perspective that can make you think and appreciate the difference:

“Smart productivity asks how you can be better, faster, and do more. It profers advice such as calendaring instead of to-do lists, eating the frog, removing notifications / reducing distractions, scheduling time for deep work, using templated reply lists etc.
“Wisdom productivity operates above the actual actions of becoming productive, and instead discusses the costs and consequences of trying to be productive all the time. It asks if you really need to do all of that in all this time.”
“Smart productivity is about how you can win/play better. Wisdom productivity asks where should you play, if at all.”
“Smart productivity seems more correct.. but it is an unending treadmill.”
“Wisdom productivity on the surface can seem lazy..but lay down ground rules of response.”
“…time is finite….And whatever you do, it doesn’t seem to be enough. This is when you start acknowledging the futility of smart productivity…. and embrace wisdom productivity.”

Read the entire article here.

When Will AI Change The World?

In this episode of Forrester’s What It Means Podcast, a compelling perspective on AI is raised and answered, not just from a short-term perspective but a longer-term perspective, regarding the effect and impact of AI Computing, which is slowly taking centre stage.

Here are some takeaways from this conversation:

Generative AI enables, for the first time, a fundamental protocol change in how we ask for and receive information, which will be transformational for many industries.
This technology is trying to understand humans using a context, which is what will unlock value going forward.
AI is not just an interface design change but a linguistic design change. This is what makes it disruptive and transformational.
This will unleash a new architecture of applications where smart, intuitive interfaces communicate with humans in natural language and coordinate with a set of agents to get the work done.
Each of us may have our own personal agents trained for our wants and needs, like how to shop, invest, etc. Each brand will have an agent who will negotiate with consumer agents.
How will enterprises leverage AI? They need to capture the knowledge, learn to deploy it, use it, and identify more sources of knowledge.
There will be AI agents that represent that consumer. For example, hypothetically, Amazon could turn that on for 100 million people tomorrow.

Listen to the entire episode here:

Spotify | YouTube

How To Enter Flow State

People like sports stars and musicians often get into a flow state. So, what is a flow state, and what does it do to your learning and achievements? What does it take for us to reach a flow state? This TEDEd video explains this very well.

Flow is an altered state of consciousness.
When people are in flow, people tend to feel they are effortlessly engaged in a task. They feel a sense of oneness with what they are doing.
Flow tends to diminish feelings of worry and self-judgement.
When you do things that are ‘intrinsically motivating’ and have meaning and purpose in what you do, you tend to enter into a flow state.
Flow cannot happen when you do tasks because you ‘have to’ rather than ‘want to’.
How to get into a flow state:
- Find a quiet environment free of noise and distraction.
- Break your tasks into small bundles that are easy to track.
- Set tasks that are challenging but not frustrating to you.

You can click the above video and watch it.

Why It’s Fine To Embrace Moments Of Unproductivity

The idea of ‘wisdom productivity’ conjured many conflicting thoughts around what we have come to believe and perceive as productivity.

One of the questions it threw up was, how do we measure productivity in human beings, and can we afford to stay in the ‘high productivity zone’ all the time?

The study, methods, and tools used to manage and measure human productivity are very similar to those used to calculate the productivity of machines. But humans are not machines.

It will be worthwhile to examine the evolution of measuring efficiency and productivity and see if there are any lessons we could learn or unlearn.

Perhaps the early study of business efficiency started with Fredrick Taylor's now famous Time-Motion Study. The emphasis here was more around the content of work. It sought to fix and maximize productivity irrespective of the physiological cost to the worker.

In another thought-provoking article about the ‘productivity paradox’ in IT investments, the findings and thoughts here are interesting:

‘Output value cannot be determined solely from the quantity of "widgets coming out of a factory", but requires the consideration of various other intangibles, ranging from quality, timeliness, customization, and variety.’
‘Perhaps the most common example of productivity lagging behind investments is the case of the electric dynamo. The time needed before productivity benefits were realized in the technological sector (especially since software is still a relatively new field) was about 40 years if we are to believe the studies of the 1990s that show significant productivity achievements.’

Hence, one common theme that seems to emerge is that no direct formula can improve productivity, especially when it comes to cognitive work. We must factor in the physiological cost of human effort and attention, which is not easy to control through tools alone. One interesting fact we need to understand is that productivity also has a lag effect. We usually measure productivity in a cycle that is too short, such as having a productive day, week, month, quarter, etc.

This is really where ‘wisdom productivity’ has a lot of meaning. There are moments in a day or a week when you don’t have to be busy and active instead of always being active. It is a conscious attempt to stay unproductive for a while. Some people take pride in being a ‘busy bee’ with back-to-back meetings and respond quickly to everything. However, it makes a lot of sense to block chunks of time to do nothing but think, reflect and iterate on projects or ideas that you have not been able to give enough time. It allows you to deep dive into ideas without the pressure of the next project or meeting. It will enable you to explore many areas without the constraints of time and deadlines.

In a study by the University of Warwick on lessons learnt from artists about productivity -‘Models of creativity acknowledge the need for periods of incubation and reflection in the creative process. With a few exceptions, most writers, musicians or artists do not follow a conventional working day. Most…..will devise their own routines and structures which will inevitably include some fallow periods.’

Being unproductive makes up the foundation for hyper-productivity.

Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:

Decide whether you want to follow ‘smart productivity’ or ‘wisdom productivity’.
AI is not just an interface design change but a linguistic design change.
Flow cannot happen when you do tasks because you ‘have to’ rather than ‘want to’.

How Forced Negativity And Induced Positivity Impact Handling Reality

Edition #145

ContraMinds Labs

Nov 20, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to The ContraMind Code.

The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.

The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.

It Literally Pays to Love Your Work

Here’s a very insightful article that raises a lot of curious questions.

This article was published in Kellogg Insights by Dylan Walsh. It features Jacob D. Teeny, Assistant Professor of Marketing, and the research work done by the team Paley, Anna, Robert W. Smith, and Daniel M. Zane.

The research attempts to understand the link between how much someone enjoys making a product and people’s perception of its value. The one research question the study was trying to address was - ‘How much someone enjoys making a product or providing a service—or their “production enjoyment”—….. affect how we view the quality of that product or service.’

Here are some interesting research findings from the study:

Studies showed that buyers associated production enjoyment with greater product quality and value, consequently increasing their willingness to pay for it.
Buyers associate production enjoyment with intrinsic motivation—the way people derive value from a process itself rather than its outcome or external rewards.
The research study showed that ‘whereas buyers were willing to pay more for high production enjoyment, sellers were willing to charge less.’
‘…When someone enjoys the work, they may view the emotional satisfaction as part of their compensation and therefore charge a lower price.’
“One way to signal you have a great product is to show that you enjoy the work,”

Read the full article here.

The Trends Around News Fatigue and Avoidance

Thomas Baekdal is a Founder, media analyst, author, and publisher. In this podcast, he discusses the growing trend of news fatigue and news avoidance.

In this podcast, Thomas talks about an experiment he did where he decided to test by not reading news for a week, which then turned into a month. According to him, “This was both scary and quite interesting. Because while some assumptions people have aren't true(about news consumption), it also helped me see things I hadn't noticed before.”

There are thoughts and experiences that Thomas shares in this conversation:

“Today, the way we publish news online seems to be designed to cause people stress. Every single news story is written in a way to make you feel the news, rather than understand it.”
The first day Thomas stopped reading the news, he noticed an interesting behaviour- “On the first day alone, according to my browser history, I did this 23 times(checking about news items). And every time I had to stop myself and say: "Hey, wait-a-minute. Why am I reading the news? Stop doing this!”
“So, during the first week, I didn't actually learn anything about news fatigue, I only learnt that I was addicted to news. Slowly, over the next couple of weeks, my mental state started to change. I started feeling a big difference in my everyday mood.”
“You are not hearing about the news, you hear about the outrage. I only heard about the topics that drove the most outrage.”
“If we can get people out of that day-to-day outrage, we have something bigger to work with.”
“Instead, it felt as if it was some kind of parallel universe where the journalists were trying to create a type of forced negativity.”
“So, I would encourage every newspaper to think about how to create value over time, for each article. Ask yourself if what you are writing about has any real relevance tomorrow, a week from now, or even next month.”

The Brutal Truth About Startup Success

Giuliano Iacobelli, former Apple's Director of Product Management, shares the reality of his startup experience and shatters some of the myths and principles associated with running a startup.

Here are some of the highlights of his talk, which is laced with brilliant examples and anecdotes:

The startup journey is quite intense, and you experience mood swings, pressure, and disappointments. These make up a larger share of daily life than the moments of positivity, wins, and joy.
Learn to test the demand for something that you trying to build without writing a single line of code!
It is vital to experiment and test as many hypotheses as possible, which can help you learn early and learn often.
Remember, 80% of the business is in sales! You can sell what you haven’t built yet.
First-time founders are obsessed with the product, while second-time founders are obsessed with distribution. The stronger your network, the better it will be.
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence are what win championships.
Communication is vital - to clients, to investors, to employees.
Remember, nothing is as good or as bad as it seems during that moment.
Market dynamics will trump individual performance.
When you pitch to investors, try to hold their attention with known patterns and analogies they can relate to.
Fundraising is a full-time job when you are still running the company. That is really hard.
Plans are useless, but plans are indispensable.
Being stubborn in your followups is vital. Every single ‘NO’ is getting closer to your ‘YES’.
Effort and sacrifice will be a part of the story every day.

You can click and watch the above video.

How Forced Negativity And Induced Positivity Impact Handling Reality

The effects of forced negativity and induced positivity strongly impact one's ability to manage and handle the reality around them.

Forced negativity is a phenomenon that is not restricted to only journalism today. It is also related to any message and conversation around you, whether at the workplace or in a personal setting. This not only creates a lot of stress and anxiety for colleagues but also an unwanted fear that the worst is about to happen. This affects our behaviour because it changes how we assess risk, and pain gets heightened.

When surrounded by people who spread the forced negativity syndrome, there is a lot of exaggeration about the dire consequences rather than an accurate assessment of the situation. Some people inherently can’t handle uncertainty or are unprepared for it. Therefore, in a workplace, if you observe closely, there is constant chatter about the boss, the management, the work environment, the company, clients, etc. In reality, things may not be as bad as they seem, but the negativism is so much in the air that it starts to affect the morale and motivation of people. The same applies to personal settings where only adverse incidents and negative consequences are discussed.

Similarly, induced positivity is at the opposite end of the continuum when there is a false narrative that everything is hunky-dory. One example of an induced positivity narrative is when people are hired for a job. There is a lot of exaggeration about the opportunity, the company’s culture, the role and position, the future, etc. The candidates join with heightened expectations, and if there is a slight deviation, it creates dissatisfaction very quickly. Leaders face the problem of induced positivity by the people surrounding or reporting to them, who only share the good news that the leaders want to hear. Soon, these leaders lose touch with what’s happening on the ground till a crisis hits the company, leading to a client loss or major restructuring or transformation that needs to be done. People with induced positivity carry a false sense of optimism, which starts influencing their perceptions and decisions.

Therefore, when there is a high dose of forced negativity or induced positivity, people’s behaviour swings to their extremities. Hence, facing reality becomes challenging as they live in their own shell. As a result, people become too pessimistic or too optimistic.

There needs to be a sense of neutrality in your head when facing or handling reality. The great Charlie Munger believed that people should accept reality, even when it's unpleasant or uncomfortable. He believed that this mindset helps people make better decisions and navigate challenges.

Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:

When you enjoy making your product or doing your work, people's perception of value increases, and they are willing to pay more.
Learn how and what can create value over time as you write and share your thoughts. Don’t get obsessed with immediate impact or response.
Startup journeys are intense and filled with highs and lows. Learning to accept it is vital.

Power Of Iterative Improvement And Contemplative Time When Making Decisions.

Edition #144

ContraMinds Labs

Nov 13, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to The ContraMind Code.

The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.

The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.

YouTube: From Concept to Hypergrowth.

This is a fantastic article and story - history brilliantly written! Thanks, Kevin Gee. It is filled with fascinating nuggets from which we can learn a lot.

Just to set the context:

Earlier this week, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that YouTube LTM revenues had surpassed $50bn for the first time.

This article chronicles Jawed Karim’s account of the business environment and tech trends pre-YouTube days and how some of the earlier killer applications paved the way for the YouTube idea. It also outlines how a disruptive idea proliferates, what it takes to embed and spread it, and some fascinating takeaways on how different investors evaluate such disruptive ideas. It also highlights the importance of secondary technologies that help some disruptive ideas gain adoption and drive hyper-growth. Finally, it’s not a bed of roses to execute the idea with so many naysayers as they don’t see what the founder or the entrepreneur sees in the idea. It requires patience, belief and conviction to see the idea to fruition.

One question that always remains when you look back when such hyper-growth happens is - What’s the right time for the founders to exit?

Read the entire article here.

Is Google’s Reign Over? The Future of AI Search w/Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas

Any search on the web today is dominated by Google. Is the search on the web waiting to be disrupted? Will there be a new way to search for information, not just restricted to the search box that Google has? Is AI expected to transform search with some unique yet transformative experience?

Perplexity, as its CEO Arvind Srinivas puts it, is not a search engine but an answer engine. Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that uses large language models to answer queries. Perplexity was founded in 2022 and has gained significant attention and interest. In this conversation with TED Tech, Arvind talks about how Perplexity is redefining the search language. Here are some quotes from this conversation that can make you think and reflect on this topic:

How is Perplexity different from Google? Google is fundamentally a link engine; however, with Perplexity, it helps you find answers to your questions. Therefore, as Arvind Srinivas puts it, “Google, great, you're the king of links, and I want to be the king of answers.”
“Ideal internet is where there's a thriving ecosystem of good content creation, but more focus on content and adding value, rather than trying to get link click traffic.”
“The way you get the knowledge discovered to people is through their questions, not keywords anymore.”
“The fundamental consumer behaviour of typing in one word to get to a site is a saturated trend. It's over.”
“So I think we're going to have a world where both human and AI content are going to be valued equally, or maybe even more than what it is today.”
“Perplexity's mission is to be the most knowledge-centric company. I think knowledge is infinite, so you can always serve that mission.”

You can also listen to the entire podcast here:

Spotify | Amazon Music

Facts, Fictions And Critical Thinking | The Future of Decision Making | Nobel Prize Dialogue Sydney

This is a part of the Nobel Prize Dialogue Series, and this conversation is with Prof. Saul Perlmutter. Prof.Saul Perlmutter is a Nobel Laureate, sharing the 2011 Physics Prize for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley and a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is the leader of the international Supernova Cosmology Project and the founding director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. Joining him in the conversation is Tim Minchin, comedian, actor, composer, songwriter, pianist and director.

Prof. Saul and Tim share their thoughts about decision-making and the importance of facts, fiction and critical thinking in daily life. Here are some key takeaways:

When making decisions, Prof.Saul talks about how to learn from scientists who approach any problem with the understanding that they almost never know whether something is absolutely true or absolutely false.
Scientists absorb vast amounts of information and still claim to be only 90% right. They set aside their ego and accept that they may be wrong ten times out of ninety. Eventually, they can change your mind, which puts them in a better position when they are 90% confident.
Prof. Saul and Tim talk about why humility is needed while making decisions, as it allows you to admit you are wrong and understand when to ask questions.
Both of them talk about taking time to be contemplative when making decisions. In the fast-paced world, taking time allows you to think critically when making decisions.
There is a thing or two to learn about decision-making from ‘scientific optimism’. Most scientific problems do not take hours or days but decades to solve, as long as there is an ‘iterative improvement’ in their quest for discovery.
When making decisions, it is vital to look at the people you disagree with and understand what they are thinking and the issues in their minds.

You can watch the entire video by clicking the above link.

Power Of Iterative Improvement And Contemplative Time When Making Decisions.

When you want to make decisions, there is an adrenaline rush to quickly come to conclusions. These conclusions may not necessarily be correct, however in the rush to take the decision, you tend to ignore some facts and the inherent biases that you may have. Also, you get into a ‘confidence trap’ which blinds you from seeing the easily observable patterns. Finally, your ego comes in the way as you don’t want to go back on the decision you have already made, while along the way, you see and sense some deviation or mistakes in your assumptions, but you tend to get stuck and fixated about the decision. This needs to be avoided when you make decisions.

How do you avoid this when making a decision?

When you practice and deploy iterative improvement while you make decisions, it stops you from quickly jumping to conclusions. You become more aware of some facts or findings that fall into your ‘not-so-confident zone’. You also develop ‘cautious optimism’ and humility, allowing you to tweak and improve your decision. It makes you more adaptable and flexible, which helps you make mid-way course corrections about your decisions.

With ‘contemplative time’, you make some space in your mind to think about your decisions. Contemplative time allows you to look at the pros and cons, simulate multiple scenarios in your mind, and consider alternative viewpoints before making a decision. Giving a ‘time break’ between ‘ your findings and the final decision’ will throw up new perspectives which you may have ignored or missed.

How do you find contemplative time for yourself? You may take a break, take a walk in the park, shut yourself off from the current problem or issue, read a book, engage in a sports activity, shut your devices etc., but the core idea here is to break the set patterns or algorithms in your brain when making decisions.

Here are some challenges you have to prepare yourself for:

Overcome the narrative that you have been repeatedly told over time about being a decisive leader and how decisive leaders are successful. Decisive does not mean not being flexible or, adaptable, or iterative as more facts come your way.
Learn to ignore the opinions of people who express that you are unsure about your approach to solving the problem or issue. They may also say you constantly keep changing your mind and cannot set a concrete path for action. When facts show contrary trends, it is best not to ignore them after you have made the decision.
People extol leaders who are quick and act on things at speed. However, contemplative time is not an antithesis of speed. So, contemplative time is like giving yourself ‘periods of silence’ that allow you time to reflect on the issue and revisit your assumptions, findings and conclusion. Hence, ‘moments of inaction’ could be seen as slowing down, but letting others’ opinions not affect you during this phase is vital.
Iterative improvement and contemplative time ‘stretch’ your attention span between a problem and a decision. You must overcome any ‘attention deficit’ you may experience during this period. Attention requires increased intensity and focus and saps your energy, and you must build mental resilience to stay the course.

Keep iterating and improving, and take time to contemplate when you make decisions.

Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:

Disruptive ideas require patience, belief and conviction against all odds.
AI has the ability to transform search engines into answer engines.
Learn how to make the right decisions from the way scientists do.

How To Turn Facts Into Factographics

Edition #143

ContraMinds Labs

Nov 06, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to The ContraMind Code.

The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.

The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.

What's So Special About The Human Brain?

This article in Nature is a brilliant immersive experience about the various detailed aspects of the human brain and how it differs from other animals. The article is written by Kerri Smith, and the infographics are done by Nik Spencer.

One vital aspect that this article can teach you is how to present information interestingly and engagingly, which can aid learning and retention. It’s often said that you must know how to present your data very well. This article will reveal how to present research insights, complex ideas about science, and discoveries in a structured and imaginative manner that can excite the reader.

For example, here’s how you present such facts in an engaging manner:

Fact #1: Did you know the human brain is up to three times larger in volume than the brains of chimpanzees, gorillas and many extinct human relatives?
Fact #2: Did you know brain size is tightly correlated with body size in most animals? But humans break the mould.
Fact #3: Did you know that the Encephalization Quotient(EQ)[an interesting measure of the size of the brain or the neocortex and relative body size] of humans is 7.3-7.4, while that of mice is 0.5 and elephants is 1.3?
Fact #4: Did you know that the cortex area that carries out planning, reasoning, language, and many other behaviours that humans excel at is relatively enlarged than the chimpanzees?
Fact #5: Did you know the human brain takes much longer to grow, mature and refine its connections — about 30 years?

There are many more interesting facts; just click and ‘experience’ the entire article here.

Elena Aniere On The Slow Food Revolution

Elena Aniere, a 20-year veteran at Slow Food, shares profound insights into how the movement is revolutionizing food systems worldwide, from their successful transformation of 1,000 gardens into 10,000 across Africa to preserving 6,000+ endangered food products through their Ark of Taste initiative.

Slow Food is globally championing “good, clean, and fair” food practices. Aniere explains how the movement connects local farmers with consumers, chefs, and communities, building sustainable alternatives to industrial food systems while preserving cultural food heritage and biodiversity.

Here are some of the thoughts that she had shared in her conversation:

People need to start thinking about where the food comes from.
People are moving away from farming to other jobs, which means that fewer people are actually producing food.
We need to take an ecological approach to agriculture and food rather than a monocultural industrial approach, which involves adding chemicals and fertilizers, destroying soil, and mass-producing.
Small-scale farmers produce 45% of the world’s food yet face increasing pressure from industrial agriculture. The solution isn’t “get big or get out” but rather “stay small and get stronger.”
Traditional food varieties and farming methods aren’t just about agriculture but about preserving cultural heritage.
If we're talking about all the food-related diseases at this moment in time, you can take all of them back to what we eat...diabetes and some cancers. So it's all interrelated.

You can listen to the podcast on:

Apple Podcast | Amazon Music | YouTube

Product Management Is Dead, So What Are We Doing Instead?

This was a recent presentation at the Lenny & Friends Summit by Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer of LauchDarkly. What’s intriguing about this presentation is the direction that product management is taking with the advent of AI.

Here are some key insights Claire shares on how product management is transforming and how PMs should prepare for it.

Start to use AI, which can help you get a product strategy doc about 80% ready, and it can take about 45 minutes for you to sharpen it.
PMs must learn to automate their tasks with AI to spend more time with users.
PMs will be more ‘Generalist Specialists’, making it necessary for them to participate in the entire product-building process rather than being handed off from one to another, like design to engineering, etc.
AI will drive the transformation from big teams to small teams to individuals - as individuals can move faster than small teams.
AI will drive PMs to be more commercially oriented rather than just staying within the boundary of requirement gathering, designing and building products only.

While these takeaways are generally for building software products, there are some common learnings for any team-building products beyond software, too. You can ask yourself, ‘How are we using AI in our product development thinking?’

You can click the above video to watch this talk.

How To Turn Facts Into Factographics

Facts are mere pieces of information or data. Facts are indisputable observations of a natural or social phenomenon. Some examples of facts are:

Humans are mammals
1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram on Earth
The pH levels in acids are lower than the pH levels in alkalines.

The challenge with facts is that we are confronted with too many facts daily that we must remember as humans. We just cannot remember facts in isolation. Think back for a minute:

In school or college, we are forced to remember too many facts from many subjects. These facts are just siloed information required to be reproduced for a test or to earn a grade. Independently, these facts don’t make any sense and are incredibly hard to remember. Unfortunately, that is not how facts are taught at school or college.
Again, at work, we are presented with many facts about business, market, customers, systems, research data, etc. These facts, too independently, don’t make much sense. Most of us struggle to piece all these facts or information together to make some meaning out of them.

If you want people to make meaning out of facts, use facts to kindle their thoughts and imagination, and apply facts to decipher or learn about anything better, you must be able to convert facts into factographics.

What are factographics?

Factographics are visual, shareable ways to communicate facts. This is also called infographics, but factographics look more apt and fit. Factographics help us connect to facts that we may already know or remember or have been firmly imprinted in our memory for a long time. This helps us connect new facts to an already-known fact by comparing and contrasting the new fact with an old fact. Hence, we can quickly remember, connect new facts and appreciate the value of new facts.

Learn the art of converting facts to factographics

Therefore, if you are trying to teach somebody a new concept or working with teams who are being exposed to new facts about the business or market or people are sometimes not able to cannot connect to some of the facts you are mentioning, it is best you convert them into factographics.

First, figure out what facts they already know or believe in.
Then, see how the new set of facts can be explained in context to the old facts.
Explain the similarities, and compare and contrast the new fact with what facts they already know or get surprised with.
Keep explaining the new theory or concept or, strategy, or idea by ‘stacking and connecting facts’. Don’t share any facts in isolation.

If you want a fact to trigger imagination and curiosity, add the power of factographics to facts. Facts will be seen in a new light.

Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:

The human brain continues to be a mystery - its shape, structure, and chemical compounds it is made of, and it continues to intrigue scientists. It throws up new discoveries and reasons for why humans have cognitive and reasoning skills, unlike other animals.
There is a need to adopt small-scale farming to produce and consume food locally, And this is the need of the hour to preserve the earth's ecological balance.
AI is transforming product management processes and thinking. Product management professionals who don’t embrace this change are bound to be left behind.

The Art Of Hiring

Edition #142

ContraMinds Labs

Oct 30, 2024

Introduction

Welcome to The ContraMind Code.

The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.

The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.

Machines Of Loving Grace - How AI Could Transform the World for the Better

This is one of the seminal articles on AI written by Dario Amodei, an Italian-American artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, the company behind the large language model series Claude AI. He was previously the vice president of research at OpenAI.

This is a must-read for everybody, irrespective of any field you belong to, as Dario outlines how AI is expected to transform various industries and society at large.

Dario writes about five industries in which he expects AI to have a profound impact:

Biology and physical health
Neuroscience and mental health
Economic development and poverty
Peace and governance
Work and meaning

Read the article here.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang on Virology, COVID-19, and Public Health Policy

Dr. Gagandeep Kang takes us through her journey in clinical research, her inspirations, and the challenges faced in groundbreaking medical studies. From her early work on rotavirus vaccines to her role in India’s fight against COVID-19, Dr. Kang shares invaluable lessons for researchers, policymakers, and healthcare professionals.

Here are some key topics that are a part of this conversation:

On pursuing a career in clinical research
On clinical research and building trust with communities
The Role of Technology in India’s response to COVID-19
Dr. Kang’s new role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
On improving India’s disease surveillance systems
Preparing for the Data Revolution in Life Sciences

You can listen to the entire podcast also on:

Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Brian Chesky - Founder Mode & The Art of Hiring

This is a follow-up to the article in one of the earlier newsletters, the Founder Mode. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, talks about how, as any organisation scales, leaders create an environment where the organisation becomes complacent and loses focus if the leaders at the top of any function don’t manage the work but start managing the people. It’s laced with powerful quotes, and you must listen to this with zero distraction and deep intent.

Here are some interesting insights that Brian shares from his experience of running Airbnb:

“The reason there are too many meetings in a company is that there are too many people. People create meetings.”
“B players hire a lot of C players. Because they are the people who like building empires.”
“You can manage a company (or a function) only if you are an expert.”
“As a head of industrial design at Apple, Jony Ive said, I manage my team's work. It’s crazy having career conversations with people all day long.”
“The health of an organisation is the relationship between engineering and marketing.”
“Founder mode is to be present in the details. Great leadership is about presence, not absence.”
“The less involved I got on a project, the more dysfunctional it got.”
“How do you make people work harder? Have a launch deadline, make them think crazy ambitious and check every week.”
“Leaders get hiring wrong because we hire them at the wrong time. Also, the person we hired was managing and not building business.”
“Start with results and work back to people you need.”
“I prioritise references over interviewing. Hiring should be like network building rather than a sales pipeline.”
“Recruiters want to sell the company as a country club.”

You can click on the above video and watch it.

The Art Of Hiring

This is indeed an art, and the quality of hiring makes or breaks an organisation. It sets the tone for culture, work ethic, performance benchmarks, quality, personal ambition and excellence.

The reason why it is hard is that people join companies for various reasons and purposes. Are those reasons and purposes aligned with what you want to accomplish as an organisation? That is a crucial question to ask yourself every time you hire somebody. Why is this important? Let’s look at some downstream impact when we get the hiring right or wrong:

The intensity of the effort and work can vary across companies' nature and stage. People often underestimate the effort and intensity and get overwhelmed after joining a company.
The ripple effects of the above gap and dissatisfaction not only stay with the person but also start to be passed on to other people in the team. This has a massive bearing on the culture and creates politics in the company.
How you ‘manage work’ philosophy is wildly different in different companies. In some companies, leaders are hands-off, while in others, leaders are hands-on. When people come from opposite environments, leaders often get perceived as micro-managers. In reality, the state and phase of company growth and development may require a leader’s attention to detail to drive clarity and focus. This affects how work gets done every day. Hiring has to reflect this culture and need.
Most people tend to overestimate their capabilities, contribution and their achievements. When they walk into work environments that require a different level of capabilities and contribution, they begin to blame the system or people rather than themselves. Some people who are very intuitive course-correct quickly, but a vast majority find it hard. This affects the quality of the work and creates a sense of insecurity among people who work with them.

Therefore, when hiring, we need to look for people who have gone through successes and failures in the work that they have done. You may want to look for the following attributes and find out more about the people you are about to hire:

How they have recovered from the failure will determine the quality of their resilience and tenacity to bounce back in any condition.
Look for pointers in what they do to skill themselves beyond their work time. This points to their personal and professional ambition, which also tends to show up in the workplace.
If hiring a senior, probe more into the people they have groomed and where they have reached in their careers—it is an excellent way to discuss what they did to help them grow.
When checking for references, check with juniors and colleagues rather than peers or seniors - have a good mix of this. Juniors go through the brunt of the leader’s wrath or outstanding mentorship or guidance. They give you a good insight into the person and how they work.
Try to understand why they left their earlier jobs. This will indicate whether they have the patience to stay or if they press the ‘eject’ button too fast.
‘Talking them out of the job’ is an excellent way to find motivation and purpose why they want to consider this assignment. It gives you a lot of insights to observe and make decisions. This recruitment advertisement by Ernest Shackleton for his Antarctica expedition says it all. The men who joined knew what they were getting into:
Use external advisors - They have an excellent way of identifying blind spots that you may have or points that you may have missed.
Understand the person’s backstory - the family background and the values they have grown with. This often shows up in the workplace in terms of attitude and accountability when they are given any responsibility or during a crisis.
Find out how many people they are in touch with after they leave any company - for professional discussion and input. It’s often a good indicator of respect and the ability to network with good talent and professional expertise.

When you hire, if purpose and attitude are not aligned, no amount of expertise or capability will make a difference to the company.

Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:

AI is expected to transform various industries and society at large. Being ready for it is vital.
Leaders at the top must manage the work rather than the people.
The quality of hiring makes or breaks an organisation.

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