There’s no copying, there’s just execution

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It’s easy to think that your ideas are to be tightly controlled so that no one “steals” them, but that’s almost never the case. I shared a few years ago that almost every NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) that I’ve signed has been unnecessary. I’m happy to sign them to appease the other party, but they’re not needed, as knowing an idea is miles away from actually making it happen.

In that post I shared thoughts from Austin Netzley:

“To achieve big success, it’s not about ideas or information. It’s about implementation and execution.“

and from Howard Aiken:

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

This also came up in the book “Masters of Doom“, the story of John Carmack and John Romero and their creation of the legendary video game “Doom”. From the book:

“All of science and technology and culture and learning and academics is built upon using the work that others have done before, Carmack thought. But to take a patenting approach and say it’s like, well, this idea is my idea, you cannot extend this idea in any way, because I own this idea — it just seems so fundamentally wrong.”

And then in a recent podcast episode, Gary Vaynerchuk took it a bit further, saying:

“There’s no copying. There’s execution. I promise whatever anyone who’s watching right now thinks somebody copied them on something, you copied someone else. So I don’t need that.”

I’m not condoning that you steal from others, but ideas often aren’t anything amazing. For example, our website design/build process has been honed over the years and works amazingly well, but it’s not all that unique — it’s our execution of it that makes it work so well.

I spend a lot of time looking for new ideas, but almost all of them involve learning from others. Share what you know so we can all improve, but the real power comes from executing better than anyone else ever has.

The Sunday Summary: Game shows, good notes, loving links, and branded searches

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In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week.

Mon, December 9: It’s not a game show
“Why exactly do we need to produce the answer in real time? It’s not a game show. That in fact, when we go asynchronous, not all at once, but when we have it ready using a system like Slack, it’s easy to show that we could be more productive if we want to be.”

Tue, December 10: Good notes are worth it even if the notes get destroyed
“If you would destroy my Zettelkasten, the work building it would be still worth it.”

Wed, December 11: Bluesky loves links
Unlike other social networks, Bluesky loves when users include links with their content.

Thu, December 12: Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome
Big tech companies tend to do exactly what we think they’re going to do.

Fri, December 13: Branded searches are taking over Google
Users are less-frequently starting their research on journey, but still often finish it there by searching for brands by name.

Sat, December 14: AI is creating a land rush in the worst way possible
AI can be used to spam many people at once, and there are some that are willing to do it.

I hope you found some value in this. If you ever have questions, ideas, or disagreements regarding anything I write, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

AI is creating a land rush in the worst way possible

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There is a lot of good stuff that AI is bringing to us, but a recent luncheon that I attended showcased some of the bad stuff.

During the lunch, they had each table briefly share some things that they were using AI for. Some were fine, some were helpful, and two were flat-out awful:

  1. One guy bragged that he’s now publishing 2,500 articles every week using AI.
  2. Another uses it to connect to folks on LinkedIn, then send them messages and keep up the conversations — all powered by AI.

The big problem with things like that is that they can’t scale. If everyone starting publishing 2,500 articles a week, it’d be chaos. If everyone used AI to run their LinkedIn and send hundreds of messages, the platform would become useless.

Both are possible outcomes that we’ll see in the near future.

The bigger problem is that it’s likely working for them. There are companies churning out AI garbage that can rank fairly well in Google, and if you use AI to cold message tons of people on LinkedIn you’ll probably pick up a few leads. This is similar to the guy I shared earlier this year that was happy to bug 25,000 people if it meant that he might pick up 10 new customers.

It’s becoming a land rush to use AI to flood the market before others do. These guys are maybe going to pick up a few small wins, and then we’re all going to lose.

Branded searches are taking over Google

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As time has gone on, and our search engine patterns have changed, a big new trend is beginning to emerge: people are using Google for branded searches more than ever before.

Put another way, people are searching for “Nike” instead of “best running shoes”, or “GreenMellen” instead of “web design companies in Atlanta”. People are doing their research elsewhere, generally on social media or in AI tools, and then using Google to take them to the company site.

SparkToro‘s Rand Fishkin recently shared some amazing data in this LinkedIn post, culminating in this image:

So what does this mean?

More than ever before your company needs to be the answer, not an answer. You need to be active in social media, you need to be showing up in AI answers, and you need to be showing your expertise to your prospective clients. Once they see how great you are, then they’ll head over to Google and find your website.

(and make sure your website doesn’t disappoint)

There are certainly still some people that search for “best running shoes” and “web design companies in Atlanta” on Google, but those numbers are fading. If you rely on that kind of traffic, the next few years could get pretty rough for you. Take the time now to build your entire presence, and reap the rewards when people head over to Google to find you by name.

Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome

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Digital marketing is changing quickly, and there are two big reasons behind it.

  1. AI
  2. Tech company incentives

I’ve talked a lot about the first one, but lately I’m noticing much more of the second.

In short, tech companies are becoming increasingly incentivized to keep users on their site, which is making things a little bit worse for all of us. The implications of this include:

Years ago, Charlie Munger shared this exact idea when he said the title of this post:

“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome”

Tech companies are incentivized to keep users on their sites, and now we’re seeing more and more of the outcome of that incentive. We can’t change how those sites operate, but we can change our mindset and behaviors around it. You should still spend time on social media so people can discover you, but just realize that your actions there will be harder to track than ever. If you do well, people will Google for your company later and that’s the win that you’re really looking for.

Bluesky loves links

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The social app “Bluesky” is having a bit of a moment lately, with traffic soaring as people leave Twitter/X to come over there instead. There are a variety of reasons for that, but one that I love is their idea of federation and how it can potentially lead to a truly open social media platform (which I shared a bit about earlier this year).

However, I also love a recent comment from Jay Graber, their CEO, where she showed support for links in posts (at a time when most social networks give more exposure to posts that don’t include links) when she said: “We love links because we love the open web“.

Here is a screenshot of what lead her to say that:

Links allow for better discussion, and links are always better than screenshots when it comes to sharing information. The incentives that Bluesky has are different than the other networks, so it allows them to do things that are better for their users and not just focus on what’s better for their shareholders.

It remains to be seen if Bluesky can continue to grow and become a major player in the long run, but I love what they’re doing so far. If you’re on there, come connect with me.

Good notes are worth it even if the notes get destroyed

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I spend a lot of time working on my note-taking system, as it contains thoughts on future blog posts here, podcasts, books to read, and much more. It’s taken a long time to put together, but it’s become an amazing tool for me.

I create regular backups of it just in case, but what would happen if it were to get completely deleted? I’d be super upset, of course, but I still would have found the time that I put in to be worth it. The act of processing my notes is where a huge amount of my learning comes from, so losing the final result (while very painful) would still have been worth the effort.

Zettelkasten

I’ve mentioned a few times (such as here) that I loosely follow the “zettelkasten” method of note-taking. If you’re not familiar with it, here is what that is:

The basic idea of a Zettelkasten is a system where every idea/note is a separate card in a slip-box, and all of those cards are linked to one another. It was popularized by German sociologist Nicklas Luhmann, who had roughly 90,000 cards in his system when he passed away in 1998.

As such, I follow a number of zettlekasten-focused sites, and a recent post from Sascha Fast on zettelkasten.de opened up my thoughts on this topic. It was a long post, but here was his key line:

“If you would destroy my Zettelkasten, the work building it would be still worth it.”

I’m going to continue to back up my notes diligently, as losing them would be awful. However, the effort I’ve put in has been worth it for the learning alone, and being able to use the notes every day for additional research is just icing on the cake.

It’s not a game show

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The need to have instant answers, particularly in a business setting, is a strange thing. While companies need to move forward, taking a few minutes to find the right solution shouldn’t be a problem.

I see similar with political candidates. While I expect them to be well-informed on various aspects of their role, if they need to ponder a question and get back with an answer later, that should be perfectly fine.

Seth Godin summed this up in a recent podcast, where he said:

“Well, why exactly do we need to produce the answer in real time? It’s not a game show. That in fact, when we go asynchronous, not all at once, but when we have it ready using a system like Slack, it’s easy to show that we could be more productive if we want to be.”

As an enneagram 5, I often feel the need to have the answers to everything, but I know that it’s a fool’s errand. If my team needs an answer to something, taking a few minutes to research the proper solution should never be an issue.

Speed shouldn’t be a measure

It’s similar to what Malcolm Gladwell shared regarding lawyers, and how silly it is that they’re measured on how quickly they can answer questions. Speed should be a factor, sure, but the main thing is getting the answer correct and that’s simply not valued as highly on tests like the LSAT. His main thought from there is that “when we decide who is smart enough to be a lawyer, we use a stopwatch“. Why?

2D vs 3D content

I think much of Seth’s concern, as he alluded to with his comment about Slack, is that we’re holding unnecessary meetings. If we need to talk through deep ideas, a real-time conversation might be valuable. If straight answers are all that is needed, then an asynchronous solution (like Slack or email) is likely a far better way to go.

The Sunday Summary: Guarding potatoes, reacting, and finding notes next to the bleach

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In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week.

Mon, December 2: Guarding the potatoes
Back in the 1700’s, leadership in Paris was trying to get people to be willing to eat more potatoes. Among other challenges, potatoes had once been thought to cause leprosy, so people weren’t wanting to eat them. Antoine-Augustin Parmentier had a tried a number of different techniques to raise their status, including giving bouquets of potato blossoms to the king and queen, but it was the fake “guards” that finally did the trick.

Tue, December 3: My only job is to react
“The point of practice and running all of these drills and studying over and over again is so on gameday my only job is to react.”

Wed, December 4: Metcalfe’s Law for staff?
Does Metcalfe’s Law apply to growing a team (in a bad way)?

Thu, December 5: Word of mouth only matters if people know what they’re sharing
“When trying to generate word of mouth, many people forget one important detail. They focus so much on getting people to talk that they ignore the part that really matters: what people are talking about.”

Fri, December 6: How your brand can grow
“The truth is that most brands that matter, and most organizations that thrive, are primed by advertising but built by good marketing. They grow because users evangelize to their friends. They grow because they are living entities, offering ever more value to the communities they serve. They grow because they find tribes that coalesce around the cultural change they’re able to produce.”

Sat, December 7: Where do you want to find your notes?
“Most students sort their material by topic or even by seminars and semester. From the perspective of someone who writes, that makes as much sense as sorting your errands by purchase date and the store they were bought from. Can’t find your trousers? Maybe they are with the bleach you bought the same day at your department store.”

I hope you found some value in this. If you ever have questions, ideas, or disagreements regarding anything I write, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Where do you want to find your notes?

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Note-taking systems have changed a lot over the years. Like most people, I was a “sort notes by topic in folders” kind of guy for a long time, but back in 2020 I switched to Roam Research and it changed my whole philosophy of how to store notes.

I’ve changed systems a few more times for smaller reasons (to Obsidian, and then to Tana), but the basic idea is still the same. Rather than putting notes in folders, I organize and tag them in a way to make them more easily accessible.

In his book “How to Take Smart Notes“, author Sönke Ahrens explains the difference:

In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again? Most students sort their material by topic or even by seminars and semester. From the perspective of someone who writes, that makes as much sense as sorting your errands by purchase date and the store they were bought from. Can’t find your trousers? Maybe they are with the bleach you bought the same day at your department store.

This is why I make sure to always take the time to process my notes before I tuck them away. It’s easy to just toss them into your system to find them later, but then you end up with your trousers next to the bleach, which makes no sense. Related is the question of “what do you do with those pictures of slides?“, as many people just leave them where they took them, and hope to find them later.

It’s easy to say “take some time to process your notes”, but it’s certainly an additional commitment of time to do that. I’m the kind of person that likes to put in the effort to garden my notes, but not everyone has that kind of time. Thankfully, search features today allow you to find notes wherever you store them, so it’s not as big a deal as it used to be. For best results down the road, though, sorting things out properly will make your future self much happier.