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.
This is the second part of celebrating the 100th Weekly Edition of The ContraMind Code Newsletter.
Here, we share yet another curated selection, celebrating the 100th edition, as it is an excellent time to pause and look back at all the thoughts and ideas we have accumulated over 100 weeks.
It can act as a great foundation to help you pick some of them and apply them in many things you may have wanted to do or start or continue to build your path towards excellence.
Let’s begin a dialogue on ideas learnt - Start contributing your ideas and thoughts here.
The ideas section here encourages the start of a conversation amongst us, and the aim here is to attempt to make this a collective community learning platform by learning from each other’s experiences. So, go ahead and share your ideas, experiences and thoughts. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and seek answers for them.
“….Negative Capability is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason….” - John Keats (Edition #025)
“If everything you do, needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people… Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavours that you could never otherwise pursue.” - Jeff Bezos ( Edition #026)
“Cognitive enhancement is possible only when you can interpret the components of the tool you’re operating.” - Ian Bogost (Edition #028)
“The Customer Bermuda Triangle - Customer is lost in the hand-offs between departments and siloed agenda within companies, making it challenging for companies to practice a ‘customer first’ agenda. - Jeanne Bliss (Edition #029)
“As the company grows, it adds layers, and companies then become bureaucracies.” - Chris Zook and James Allen (Edition #030)
“If you want to write, what is important is the need to read a lot.” - Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature (Edition #035)
“You should be drawn to uncertainty.” - Barry Sharpless, Noble Prize Winner for Chemistry( Edition #035)
“Curiosity instils Curiosity.” - Anton Zeilinger, Nobel Prize Winner for Physics (Edition #035)
“The show was successful because I micromanaged it—every word, every line, every take, every edit, every casting. That’s my way of life.” - Jerry Seinfeld (Edition #036)
“I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to understand how machines work. Then I spent the second 25 years, so far, trying to figure out how people work. It turns out people are a lot more complicated.” - Marc Andreessen. (Edition #037)
The more time you spend refining a skill, the more likely you’ll get into a flow state. (Edition #025)
Behavioural science, Data Science, and User Experience can create immersive User Journeys. Marrying the ‘rational’ with the ‘irrational’ is essential. (Edition #025)
Adopting four mindsets is essential in leaders: Producer Mindset, Investor Mindset, Connector Mindset, and Explorer Mindset. (Edition #027)
Pick the job for the right reasons. Stay true to commitments. (Edition #028)
An interesting study found that perfectionism had a stronger prediction of higher performance at school but not at work! (Edition #030)
There is a difference in approach between entrepreneurs who ‘Plan to Succeed’ and who ‘Plan to Avoid Failure’. (Edition #031)
Academic outcomes are more important than just passing a grade. (Edition #032)
Money is not always the only constraint. Staying invested in the experiment or effort is essential.(Edition #035)
Being a world-class performer requires Confidence, Courage and being harshly critical of oneself. (Edition #036)
Subtract your investment of time in meetings by understanding the effort and outcome of these meetings. (Edition #038)
Conscious Refinement of your skill is not taught or practised at the workplace as much as it is done in professions like medicine, music, art etc. (Edition #025)
When you change the time horizon of your goals, you compete with fewer people. (Edition #026)
You as a leader need not show to others every time how smart you are! You are there because you have, in the past, displayed that you can do things. (Edition #027)
When we allow the algorithms to take over completely, we lose the ‘raw sensibilities’ that we possess and slowly, our intuitive nature fades away. (Edition #028)
Customers don’t deal with departments. (Edition #029)
Imagine an organisation where everyone is working in their comfort zone. There will be zero failure leading to zero innovation, zero learning and zero experimentation. (Edition #030)
All performance management systems in companies are about rewarding successes. Failure is considered bad work in companies and can ruin your career.(Edition #031)
The industrial era was all about ‘Producing more of the Knowns’ while Information or Technology era is all about ‘Making products and solutions from more Unknowns’ (Edition #032)
Businesses need to embed long-term thinking in their operations, make it an agenda in the board rooms, and have it as a mental model for senior leadership in companies (Edition #036)
If an idea needs a breakthrough adoption, fundamental human behaviour understanding is essential. (Edition #037)
Understand the Difference between User Stories and User Outcomes - Share, comment, or start a conversation here if you have ideas on how to differentiate the two. (Edition #025)
Learning agility is the single biggest skill needed at work today. - Share, comment, or start a conversation here if you have ideas on how to develop and grow learning agility in us. (Edition #027)
How to create mini-founder experiences in companies? Share, comment, or start a conversation here if you have ideas on how to develop this culture and a owner’s mindset in companies. (Edition #030)
Learning alone is not enough. You have to convert that learning into an effort. Share, comment, or start a conversation here if you have ideas on how to convert learning into effort. (Edition #033)
Inspire diverse-skilled teams to work in convergence - Share, comment, or start a conversation here if you have ideas on how to do this. (Edition #038)