Great communication is built on trust

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In his book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things“, author Ben Horowitz shares simple yet powerful way to speed up communication: trust. Ben simply says:

“In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.”

The more you trust someone, the easier the communication. If you know their motivations, skills, and goals, you don’t need to babysit them as much and things can run much more smoothly.

On the other side, you can look at folks such as cashiers at fast food restaurants. Because those positions tend to turn over quite a lot, trust is never established and the workers have to follow a ton of very specific rules because they’re not trusted to make their own decisions.

Let them break the rules

It’s like I shared earlier this year with the policies that companies like Zappos and the Ritz-Carlton have where they specifically encourage their employees to break the rules. As Simon Sinek has said, “that’s what trust is”.

This is why we generally prefer full-time employees at our firm instead of contractors. We have some fantastic contractors, no doubt, but full-time employees allow us to build that trust. Our developer has been with us for years, and she knows she has the complete ability to make decisions on client needs, pricing, or whatever may come up. The reason is simple; I trust her to do what’s in the best interest of both parties, and she will. Her solution may be different than mine, but that’s fine because it’s based on the right priorities (and honestly, her solutions are very likely to be better than mine).

As a result, our communication is much easier. If you have employees that you don’t need to micromanage, it’s a beautiful thing. Trust takes some, but building it will make everything run better.

The Bible at my fingertips

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A few years ago, I started loading the Bible into my note-taking system. I did it a little bit at a time, adding chapters as needed along the way. Here is a video I created a couple of years ago to show how I was approaching it:

I may have eventually built it all out by doing it that way, but I spent this year focusing on really building it and just finished this morning. Big thanks to my friend Tim for inviting me to the “49-Week Challenge” this year, which walked through the entire Bible in a year.

Each morning when I’d read the 4-6 chapters for the day, I’d manually paste and format them in my system (currently Tana) as well. It added more work each day, but breaking it into just an extra 5-10 minutes each day was manageable and let to great results.

The 49-Week Challenge was excellent, but didn’t really add much context to the reading for each day. I’m looking forward to getting back into a more traditional daily devotional that focuses on less scripture but goes a bit deeper. I’ll likely dig back into Tony Dungy’s daily devotional, which I had started briefly but set aside for the year-long challenge.

This is where the payoff will come in. As I’m working through Dungy’s devotional, I’ll already have the entire Bible in Tana. It’ll be quite easy to reference scripture and slowly build up a network of linked thoughts, ideas, and scripture over time.

Everything together

There’s also the consideration of putting everything in one place: work stuff, books I’m reading, Bible references, blog posts, etc. Some people split those into separate systems, but I love keeping them in one place because I tend to find a lot of overlap between them.

A good example of this is from a few years ago. I was at a business luncheon where Kevin Paul Scott was speaking. In the course of his talk, he referenced some books, some quotes, and some scripture. Here’s a peek at my notes from it:

In this one talk we had:

  • Business (the purpose of the luncheon)
  • Books (him mentioning the quote from Essentialism)
  • Quotes (like John Maxwell and Zig Ziglar)
  • Scripture (from Proverbs 14:4)

I could certainly tuck those into separate systems, but the magic comes from having them together. Because the note system references links in both directions, when I view any of those items in the future (the book, the scripture, the quotes, etc), I’ll see the reference back to this talk to help give additional framing around that text.

It’s been a long 49 weeks getting things built out, but I think the benefits will be fantastic over the coming years.

The Kindle Scribe is great if you love the Kindle

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I alluded to this in my post about the Kindle Scribe a few days ago, but after a few more days of using it I think it’s even more accurate. The title may sound a little silly, but I’m finding it to be absolutely true.

If you are a fan of the Kindle, and can appreciate the size of the Kindle Scribe, you will love it. As a Kindle, with a super-sharp front lit E Ink screen, it’s absolutely fantastic. Hands-down, it’s the best Kindle I’ve ever owned.

However, if your main goal is a note-taking tablet and you won’t really use the Kindle features, you’d be much better off with a reMarkable. reMarkable has more pen options, better file organization, and far superior file syncing with your other devices.

To be honest, I’ve been kind of surprised at how poor the file syncing for notes is on the Kindle Scribe. While I don’t sync them often, the reMarkable had a great desktop and mobile app that would sync all of your notes. For example, if I just had a quick PDF to fill out, I could drop it into the Windows app, open it and fill it out on the reMarkable, and then grab it back from the Windows app again.

With the Kindle, it’s essentially email. You email it to the Kindle (or you can use a one-way upload tool), and then you need to email it back out when you’re done. It’s not awful, but it’s much more clumsy than the apps that reMarkable has.

I’m confident that Amazon will catch up in the coming months, but you never know for sure.

At the end of the day, though, the Kindle Scribe is amazing for Kindle users. For me, that’s fantastic.

Innovation is defined by the market

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Bell Labs was a research and scientific development company that Bell (later known as AT&T) founded in 1925. It largely closed in 2007, though bits of it still exist today. Over the years, that group arguably produced more widespread innovations than any other group in the world.

Among other things, they developed:

  • The transistor
  • Early mobile phone networks.
  • UNIX

Just those three things would have been world-changing enough, but they produced thousands of other ideas — some worked out well, some didn’t.

In his book about Bell Labs (“The Idea Factory“), author Jon Gertner shares this excellent quote that helps to distinguish “great ideas” from true innovations:

“if you haven’t found a market to sell the product, you have not innovated.”

If you invent something that you believe to be incredibly innovative, you should be able to get others interested. If people don’t care, it’s likely that what you invented isn’t as special as you thought.

That said, I disagree with the quote a bit. A good example was the Picturephone that Bell Labs developed in the 1960’s, which was essentially a way to do video calls — 60 years ago!

The Picturephone failed miserably, as it was too expensive for home use, and not practical for business. Was it innovative? There’s no doubt that it was a technological marvel, but failure in the marketplace doomed it quickly.

Innovation doesn’t always have to lead to big sales, but it usually does. If something comes along claiming to be wildly innovative but it fails to attract consumers, then the real innovation likely isn’t done yet.

When you’re up, go down, and vice-versa

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Depending on the role in your organization, you may have people above and/or below you in the hierarchy of the company. A good use of your emotions is to remember “when you’re up, go down, and when you’re down, go up“.

If you’re feeling great, that’s a perfect time to chat those lower than you in the company and share the enthusiasm. Get them excited and feeling positive.

On the other side, if you’re stressed or depressed, go up to those above you and seek guidance. If it’s a healthy company, your manager and others higher in the hierarchy should be there to help you and get you back on the the right track.

It’s similar to something that Ben Horowitz shared in “The Hard Thing About Hard Things“, when he said:

“No matter who you are, you need two kinds of friends in your life. The first kind is one you can call when something good happens, and you need someone who will be excited for you. Not a fake excitement veiling envy, but a real excitement. You need someone who will actually be more excited for you than he would be if it had happened to him. The second kind of friend is somebody you can call when things go horribly wrong—when your life is on the line and you only have one phone call.”

Whether it’s your personal life or your business, knowing who to talk to when you’re up or down can help you make the best of either situation.

Start those new habits now

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I wrote the title of this post with another idea in mind, which I’ll get to in a moment, but it reminded me of something else. With the new year coming up, January 1 is a fine time to start a new habit. I wish you well if you do, there’s no reason to wait until then. Start now instead.

I started blogging daily on October 29 a few years ago.

I started regularly exercising 5x/week on May 23 this year.

Both were chosen because it was time to start, not because of some arbitrary date. January 1 might work for you, but don’t wait on it if you don’t have to.

Act As If

This post really comes from an episode of The Long and The Short Of It podcast from a few months back, where they talked about “dressing for the role you want, not the one you have”. In their case, though, it wasn’t about dressing — it was about doing.

Some people think about various life changes they’ll make if something else happens first. In Pete’s words from the podcast:

Too often we put positive habits/positive change behind something that we need to achieve first, like, “I will change, but just first I need to get that role.”

Or, “I will meditate, but first I’ve got to be the CEO of the company, and then I’ll start to meditate.” And it’s like, “You could start to meditate right now.”

It can be taken further, too. Not only can you start those habits now, but learning them now will help when the time comes in the future. To quote Pete again:

The habits that you have when you’re in that dream role are able to be cultivated right now.

Don’t wait. If you want to start meditating daily, start today.

Exercise today.

Blog today.

You can wait until a certain date on the calendar or a particular role to come your way first, but why?

The Kindle Scribe versus the reMarkable 2

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I’ve been a big fan of the reMarkable tablet over the past few years, as I find it an excellent way to take notes in various settings.

Similarly, I’ve been a big fan of the Amazon Kindle for quite a few years now. I still read a good number of printed books, but most of my reading is on the Kindle.

With the Kindle Scribe, Amazon tried to merge the reMarkable with a Kindle. Did it work?

The Kindle Scribe

In a word, yes. In looking at the two main functions of the Scribe:

  • It’s an amazing Kindle. Super crisp, responsive, and it awesome for reading on.
  • As a writing tablet, it’s good. It’s not as great as the reMarkable yet (particularly when it comes to sharing and exporting your notes), but it does a fine job.

The beauty is in the combination of the two. I can take notes on books while I read them, I can write on it in dimly lit rooms (the reMarkable has no backlight and is tough to read in the evening without great lights), and it’s a fantastic way to combine those two features.

Plus, it comes in a bit cheaper than the reMarkable:

  • Kindle Scribe with pen = $339
  • reMarkable ($299) + pen ($79) = $378

To understand more about the Kindle Scribe, this review (with a video) is a great overview of it.

Good luck, reMarkable

I wish the folks behind the reMarkable well, as I worry that this may kill their business. The reMarkable is an incredibly well-built product, and I’ve enjoyed using it, so I hope they’re able to keep a solid chunk of market share. That said, the convenience of the Kindle Scribe wins easily for many folks.

If you are big into writing tablets and you notice all of the nuances they have, and you don’t need your Kindle library of books on the device, you’ll likely be happier with the reMarkable.

For me, and likely for most of you, the Kindle Scribe is the way to go.

Interstitial journaling is just so powerful

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It was just about two years ago that I first shared the concept of interstitial journaling, and I’ve been at it ever since. If it’s new to you, that old post (which includes a short video) helps explain it.

In short, it’s just taking quick notes (often time-stamped) as you go through your day. If you’re using a linked note system like Roam Research, Obsidian, or Tana, those notes become wildly more powerful. As you take those notes, you begin to build a network of notes about various people, topics, and activities in your life.

While I’ve done it to some degree every day over the past few years, I’m finding that I’d benefit greatly from doing even more. Instead of quick notes as things come to mind, an intentional 30-second recap makes the notes wildly more useful.

These notes are useful to me in two ways:

First, they help me with this blog. By connecting ideas together, I can often find some new insights in there.

Second, they help with future meetings. If I end a call by jotting down a quick recap, it’s easier to get back into that mindspace for the next call with that person.

Looking forward

I’m also trying to build better notes into my outline for the day. I have a day coming next week with calls at the top of each hour for five straight hours — that was poor planning on my part, but now I need to execute. By building better notes into my daily plan (and then simply adding to them after the call), I should be able to jump from call to call more easily. Even better, having those notes to get me in the proper mindset for each one will allow me to be more present, rather than scrambling to remember why this particular call was scheduled in the first place.

As I’ve said before, if you do any kind of daily journaling then you’re doing a great thing. If you can keep up pieces of it throughout the day, I think you’ll find additional value in that, and if you can do it with a system that helps tie pieces together semi-automatically, your own words will become more valuable than you thought they could.

Inspiration is found in work

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It’s easy to sit back and wait for inspiration to strike. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I’d venture to say that most times it won’t.

If you want inspiration to show up, then get to work and you may find that it randomly appears. As I’m writing this, my queue of blog posts was getting very low. I could choose to sit around and hope for inspiration, or I could get to work reading new content and sifting through my notes. I chose the latter and quickly found a handful of new ideas for posts.

Pablo Picasso said it this way:

“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.

And Isabel Allende said this:

” Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too”

There are great times when ideas just pop into my head, and I love when that happens! If I relied on that, though, there is no way I’d be able to publish as often as I do. I choose to work, and that usually causes inspiration to start to work as well.

Watch the seeds more than the harvest

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It’s good to watch the harvest come in. For your business, that likely means seeing new clients sign up and your revenue head in the right direction. This can be a dangerous time, though, as it can cause companies to ease off on sales efforts while they enjoy the fruit of their labor.

In many cases this is what causes “feast & famine” cycles, particularly for small businesses.

  • Things are slow, so you work hard on your marketing
  • Business comes in, so you ease off on your marketing while you work on the new clients
  • Things slow down again (because you got soft on marketing), so you get back to it again

Robert Louis Stevenson put it like this:

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

We certainly take time to celebrate victories, but I also work hard to make sure we never ease off too far. Every day, I make time to plant more seeds: publish content on social media, follow-up with leads we’ve been talking to, reach out to friends that I’ve not seen in a while, etc.

Those things can be difficult to find time for when things are busy, so they may slip a little bit, but I keep them on my radar every day to try to create a smooth flow of work into the future.

The harvest is wonderful, but the seeds are essential.