Learning, Effort and Wealth
Edition #033
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.
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.
What I’ve learned from Users
by Paul Graham
In this thought-provoking long-form essay, which we have now come to expect from Paul Graham, Co-founder of Y Combinator, the well-known startup accelerator, he writes about the incredible learning users can provide.
Here are our takeaways from the article:
Most start-ups have the same problems. This insight was not something that YC started with but discovered as they began funding 100s of start-ups.
There is no substitute for spending individual hours with start-up companies or founders. Advice like this cannot be automated!
How bad founders can be at realising what their problems are. Most importantly, as he helped them begin to dig deep, he helped them discover the apparent problem expressed had a root cause somewhere else.
Founders know the problems but cannot often decipher the relative importance of these problems that they create for their start-up.
Why do start-up founders don’t listen? It’s not stubbornness but the nature of the start-up mindset itself being counterintuitive. It requires experience to teach them otherwise.
Why focus is such an essential tenet of a start-up. The outcome of such a focus is speed.
However good you are, colleagues make you better.
Read the entire article here.
Mark Cuban doesn’t believe in following your passions.
by Adam Grant
In this conversation with Adam Grant, Mark Cuban talks about some disruptive ideas he is pursuing and his views on companies, leaders, employees and customers.
Here is the broad range of topics that he talks about:
Questioning long-held beliefs and practices in the Pharma Industry like - Why is there such a discrepancy in the cost of healthcare in two cities?
The importance of having radical transparency
Why do leaders still not treat their people well, knowing the long-term implications of their short-term behaviour
His views of capitalism
How the future of work is arbitrage of your time
On why it is essential to follow your effort, not your passion
STOP Chasing Money -- Chase WEALTH.
by Garry Tan
Garry Tan is the founder of Initialized Capital. He previously co-founded Posterous and Posthaven. He was also an early employee at Palantir Technologies and a partner at Y Combinator.
In this video, he breaks some widely held beliefs:
Around Money and Wealth
Importance of Skills and Craftsmanship
How to build a wealth engine not just by trading your time for money alone
And there is a lot more. Just click and watch the video.
Learning, Effort and Wealth
Sometimes you can underestimate what you are doing and its impact. Like what Paul Graham wrote, Y Combinator did not realise that most start-ups had similar problems till they started working with 100s of start-ups. So, what is essential is to think back every time you are doing something and see if you have been able to learn anything from it.
It is not uncommon to see people do something mindlessly and do it as a routine without their heart in it. There is no involvement, no sense of purpose, no commitment, and no excitement in doing it, and it shows. It shows up when the same mistakes are repeated, and there is no interest to do it better or optimise the effort, get an average outcome and no burning desire to excel. Currently, it may not be the job you like but look for the ‘Learning Nuggets’ out of it every time. It can create new opportunities that you had never envisaged.
Learning alone is not enough. You have to convert that learning into an effort. This effort requires incredible hard work, discipline, daily practice and pain than you may have ever imagined. Sometimes it will also make you think it is not paying enough for the effort that you are putting in. Unfortunately, efforts and results are not linear. There is a power of compounding of effort. So, apply the learning and convert that into an effort every day. Look back every day and honestly assess your effort, but ask yourself if you embedded yesterday’s learning into your efforts the next day. That is how you build the skills no one can match.
Remember, Learning, Effort and Wealth have a non-linear function. It takes years of practice for a player to win a title or years of research to win a Nobel prize. We often look at results and success in too short a time lens. Also, some people have all the learning and put in all the effort but have no clear vision or absolute clarity of what wealth means to them. Despite being great learners and putting in all the hard work, they remain dissatisfied throughout life. Leaving money aside for sustenance, for some, wealth may be an infallible reputation and recognition within their professional community; for some, it is a catalyst for creating great economic activity through their business; for some, it is building great institutions etc.
The truth is you may not have all the answers when you start, but it is essential to be deeply mindful of what you enjoy and value. Remember, you are like the tuning fork, and only when learning, effort and wealth are perfectly interconnected can you see a resonance of the vibrations for yourself first and then for others.