Attempt perfection

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A recent episode of the excellent “How to Take Over the World” podcast was a bit of a recap episode, with Ben’s “Top 10 Lessons from 100 Episodes“. It’s a great episode and well worth listening to, but one area that stood out to me were some of his thoughts that he shared about perfection.

Being a perfectionist can be problematic, but being almost a perfectionist can be good. More specifically, we should strive for perfection but be happy with however close we get.

He shared two quotes that emphasized this point. First, from legendary basketball coach John Wooden:

“Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.”

He also shared a bit from Benjamin Franklin:

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”

I see this in my life with our house. We’re doing a lot of work on it right now to improve things for a possible sale or refinance, and the list of improvements that we’re making is quite large. The vision in our heads is of a “perfect” house, but we know that’s impossible. Still, that’s the vision we’re pushing toward and we’ll see how close we can get.

This kind of attitude can apply to your fitness and nutrition, education, or even things like improving your website or front lawn. Strive for perfection, do the best you can, and you’ll likely end up “happier than you otherwise should have been if you hadn’t attempted it”.

The Sunday Summary: Unsolicited responses, winging it, curiosity, and slack

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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, February 17: Unsolicited Response Rate
Are your ideas valuable enough, original enough, high-impact enough to compel an unsolicited response?

Tue, February 18: I know I’m winging it
“In both the art and the business worlds, the difference between the amateurs and the professionals is simple: The professionals know they’re winging it. The amateurs pretend they’re not.”

Wed, February 19: Is curiosity selfish?
“I’ll meet friends and I’m so touched when they actually care enough to ask like more than two or three questions about my day.”

Thu, February 20: Keeping Some Slack is Valuable
“Is slack necessary to be able to function well in uncertainty?”

Fri, February 21: Principles before methods
“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Sat, February 22: Calendly versus Google Calendar Appointments
The “appointments” feature in Google Calendar has improved a lot, but it still can’t touch Calendly.

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.

Calendly versus Google Calendar Appointments

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We’ve used Calendly for years at GreenMellen to help schedule appointments with clients and leads and partners and anyone that we need to meet with. It’s an easy way to share your availability without having to do the back-and-forth dance of figuring out when both parties are available.

Last summer, Google added the ability to schedule appointments directly inside of Google Calendar. The feature was a bit lacking at first, but has improved a bit over time. I thought it was likely good enough for us to use instead of Calendly, but after some testing we’ve decided to stick with Calendly for now.

The tools are quite similar at a high level, and Google would have saved us some money (it’s included as part of our Google Workspace plan), but it had one big missing feature — buffers.

Buffers

My calendar stays rather full, so I love the ability to set a “buffer” between events when scheduling. I typically set a 15-minute buffer in Calendly, so if I have a scheduled meeting that ends at 10am, the first available slot will be at 10:15. It’s great!

Google Calendar has a similar feature, but it only looks at events scheduled through their tool when applying the buffer, which is super weird and not especially helpful. I noticed this when someone scheduled a meeting recently from 9:00 – 9:30, but I already had a meeting that started at 9:30. Why didn’t the buffer work? Some digging showed that Google doesn’t look at your existing appointments to buffer around, and that’s problematic for me.

Other than that, Google’s system is pretty solid. If you don’t have a tool like this and you’re already a Google Workspace user, it might be worth giving it a shot. However, if you’re looking to move from a system like Calendly, beware of this hidden gremlin that might show up at the wrong time.

Principles before methods

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There are a lot of easy ways to put things in the wrong order. For example, if you start working on tactics before you unpack the overall strategy, you’re likely to have a bad time. Similarly, Josh Kaufman shares a quote in “The Personal MBA” from Ralph Waldo Emerson that compares methods and principles:

“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

I see principles and methods being very similar to strategies and tactics. If a principle is your fundamental belief about something, it makes perfect sense to sort it out before you get into specific methods. Like the rush to tactics, though, it’s easy to jump to methods and get to work because the strategies and principles don’t show immediate results.

Move the dirt

It reminds me a bit of when I was moving dirt in my backyard a few years ago. I had two options:

  • Get out there with a shovel and wheelbarrow and get to work.
  • Research, call, and schedule a time for a guy with a bobcat to come out and do it for me.

The first option shows immediate results but with a subpar outcome, like jumping straight to tactics.

The second option will take more time, and show no results for a day or two, but ultimately led to a faster and better outcome.

Keeping a high level view on principles before methods may seem slower, but will actually open up a world of possibilities. It’s like how our website development process, which can feel a bit constraining at times, is actually the key to wider creativity and better outcomes.

Keep the first things first, and then rest will fall into place much more smoothly.

Keeping Some Slack is Valuable

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One of the best things you can do with your schedule is leave some slack in it. I tell you this a reminder to myself, because I find that my calendar is often packed just a little too tight. I do little things like throw a jacket over some events, which helps, but consistency in slack is key.

In a recent episode of “The Long and The Short Of It” podcast, Pete and Jen were talking about dealing with uncertainty. Jen posed a very simple question that really stood out to me, saying:

“Is slack necessary to be able to function well in uncertainty?”

I think the answer is a clear “yes”. If there is any uncertainty in your day, which we all tend to have, slack is the easiest way to deal with it. If your schedule is 100% packed and something unexpected comes up (good or bad), it will be very difficult to deal with it. Slack is key.

As Pete points out in the show, the other big key to dealing with uncertainty is the ability to show grace. While slack will help for things that impact you, showing grace is the best way to help for the uncertainty that hits others.

How do you build slack into your day? It’s easier said than done, but I have two thoughts:

  • Calendar blocking can help. If you intentionally leave white space in your calendar (and block it off from meetings), that will give you a time to focus on some deep work while also leaving slack for any uncertainty that arises.
  • Similarly, leaving time for things like clarity breaks will have a similar benefit. Most of the time you should be able to take those breaks, but if the day goes sideways it can be some easy time to reclaim.

What do you do to leave some slack in your calendar?

Is curiosity selfish?

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I was recently listening to an episode of the “You Are Not So Smart” podcast where they were chatting with Mónica Guzmán (author of the excellent book “I Never Thought of it That Way“), and Mónica got into some interesting thoughts regarding curiosity.

She shared a story of when someone considered her curiosity to be selfish. As she explains, they didn’t mean it in derogatory way, simply stating that “you’re learning because you want to make yourself better“.

While they didn’t mean it in a bad way, she still felt it wasn’t accurate. In her case, she sees curiosity as a gift and a way to make deeper connections with others. From the show:

“And now I know why it bothers me, actually. Now I have realized why it bothers me, because curiosity is a gift. The gift of your interest in somebody else. It’s unexpected. We’re all running around. We’re very busy. You know, I’ll even meet friends and … I’m so touched when they actually care enough to ask like more than two or three questions about my day.”

I’ve never really thought of curiosity that way, and I think that’s an angle of it that I sometimes lack. It’s one thing to be curious about science or politics or whatever, but another to be intentionally curious about those around you. As she says, people tend to be “so touched when they actually care enough to ask like more than two or three questions about my day”.

I suppose curiosity can be selfish, but if you focus it outward it can be an amazing superpower.

I know I’m winging it

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I’ve shared before that having a bit of imposter syndrome can be a good thing. If you fear that you’re not smart enough or good enough, you’ll often work that much harder than those that try to coast through things (like my friend Tim from little league baseball).

In Amanda Palmer’s book “The Art of Asking“, she shares her take on this:

“In both the art and the business worlds, the difference between the amateurs and the professionals is simple: The professionals know they’re winging it. The amateurs pretend they’re not.”

If you know you’re winging it, you’re going to work harder to prepare. The fact that you acknowledge that you’re winging it is key; simply by asking the question, you’re better for it. It’s like the idea I shared a few months ago:

I’ve heard it said about those that ask questions such as “am I a good mother?” — if you care enough to ask, you almost certainly are.

Work hard and be professional, but if you are worried because you feel like you’re winging it I have good news — we all are!

Unsolicited Response Rate

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Jay Acunzo recently shared a great new marketing metric that I want find a way to measure. How often do people reach out to you, unsolicited, because of something that you wrote or said?

Worded a bit better, from Jay:

Without gaming it, without asking for it, once you “get in front of” others, do your ideas COMPEL a response? Not hate or snark, and again, not the gamed approaches I see used here to trigger a reply (“Comment WANT to get my…”). No, the question is, are your ideas valuable enough, original enough, HIGH-IMPACT enough to compel an unsolicited response?

It’s brilliant, and very hard to achieve.

We all see the posts that he’s referring to where people play games to create engagement. That’s not always bad, but it’s not real engagement. What does it look like when people really resonate with and respond to what you put out into the world?

In our case, I often see a lot of this after we host a Meetup. While we usually have time for Q&A during the Meetup, it’s the responses that come in later that are so rewarding. Having people reach out after just to tell us that they found it to be informative and worthwhile is a great sign that we’re doing the right thing.

As more and more people play silly games to try to boost fake engagement, how can you show up in the world today in an authentic way that inspires people to respond?

Jay’s post goes deeper into the details of how he sees this happening, and I encourage you to check out his full post for more.

The Sunday Summary: Repetition, flaws, the labor of ink, and the Miyoo Mini Plus

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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, February 10: Repetition is persuasive
Related to faith, “repetition does not spoil the prayer”.

Tue, February 11: Thinking through your fingers
“I think through my fingers, I have to write to fully understand and arrive at some sort of cohesive point of view on it.”

Wed, February 12: Draw attention to the flaws
“I always tell prospective clients about the chinks in our armor. I have noticed that when an antique dealer draws my attention to flaws in a piece of furniture, he wins my confidence.”

Thu, February 13: Weighing your words against the labor of ink
“If you use machines, you write a hundred letters where one will do, but not if each word is weighed against the labor of spreading out a drop of ink.”

Fri, February 14: The Miyoo Mini Plus
My favorite new toy, and it’s quite inexpensive!

Sat, February 15: Will the Pebble be like Fuller House?
Will the re-release of the Pebble smartwatch really do well, or is it just a bunch of nostalgia that won’t translate into sales?

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.

Will the Pebble be like Fuller House?

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I’m super excited that the Pebble smartwatch is coming back, and I plan to buy one when it does. However, I’m concerned that most of the excitement (including my own?) is mostly just based in nostalgia.

I’ve seen many people post on social media that they’re excited for it to come back out, and many have dug their old Pebble watches out the drawer to start using them again. Why, though? If Pebble was so great, why haven’t people been wearing those watches for the last few years anyhow?

It reminds me of nostalgic TV show reboots like “Saved by the Bell”, “Mad About You”, “Murphy Brown” and “Fuller House”, which have mostly all failed. In every case, people were generally excited to see them coming back out, but most never watched them. For example, our family watched “Full House” quite often when I was young, so I was excited to see the reboot coming but then I never watched a bit of it.

Pebble

Will Pebble be the same way, with lots of people excited to see them giving it another try but ultimately choosing not to buy a device? In the case of Pebble, the world of smartwatches is vastly different than when it first came out. When Pebble launched in 2013, it was a year ahead of Google’s first watch, and two years ahead of the first Apple Watch. Now, both of those sell millions of units per year, so does Pebble have a chance? Or will the nostalgic excitement simply fail to translate into sales?

It’s hard to say for sure. I can tell you right now that I plan to buy one, but we’ll see what actually happens when they ultimately come back onto the market.