Jab, Jab, Jab

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12 years ago, Gary Vaynerchuk wrote an excellent book called “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook“. The idea was pretty simple: your social media content should consist primarily of “jabs”, where you’re sharing value-added content to make life better for your followers, with just the occasional “right hook” thrown in with your call-to-action.

Lately, it seems most people are either all jabs or all right hooks.

All Jabs

All jabs isn’t a bad place to be. If you’re solely providing great content to your followers, you’ll end up in a great place. That’s essentially how we ended up as clients of the CPA firm that we use, and we essentially produce content the same way.

All Right Hooks

The problem I’m seeing is too many right hooks. No jabs, just sales. There are the pure spammers of course, but that’s not what I’m referring to here. These are all people I know, that have chosen not to engage in any meaningful way online, and only show up when they need something.

For example, here’s I guy I know that I hadn’t talked to in a while. I reached out to see how he was doing, and he never replied, but four months later he reached out to me with a direct pitch.

Another friend has literally never posted on LinkedIn, and their first (and only!) post was looking for a job. That’s understandable, but should be followed up with other content that might be useful for potential employers. Instead, it’s just the one post on their feed and nothing else. I suspect it won’t go well.

A different friend has taken a similar tact. I know they’ve been struggling to get clients for their solo practice, and yet his last two posts have been:

  • 5 months ago: “I’m looking for work”
  • 1 year ago: “Here’s why you should hire me”

There are no posts showing his viewpoints, or tech stories that interest him, or resources for others to use. There is nothing that shows anyone why you would actually want to hire him.

Jabs Win

Social media isn’t the answer for everything, for sure, but if you’re going to spend a little time to post on there, throw a few jabs while you’re logged in.

I point people to the CPA firm that we use quite often because they do it right. Here are Jason’s last six posts on LinkedIn as of the time I’m building this post:

  • Shared a recent podcast episode of theirs.
  • Shared an episode from a different podcast of theirs.
  • Shared a recent post from Gary Vaynerchuk about having purpose in your work.
  • Shared a bit about their firm.
  • Shared a tax reminder for small businesses.
  • Shared a helpful product that one of their clients is offering to litigators.

He throws in some soft Right Hooks from time to time, but I love following his content because of the great insights and resources that he shares.

Throw an occasional Right Hook from time to time if you want, but pepper the internet with Jabs and things will tend to work out great for you!

The Meta Ray-Ban Glasses

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The Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses have been out for a while now, and I finally picked up a pair. I needed new glasses anyhow, and I tend to like bold frames, so I figured I’d give them a shot.

If you’re not familiar with them, they’re standard glasses/sunglasses, but with a lot of tech built in. They have a camera on the front, a variety of microphones, and small speakers above each ear. There are other glasses coming later this year that project content (like notifications or directions) onto the displays, but these don’t have that tech yet.

Camera

The camera is the star of the show. You can take photos as well as videos up to three minutes long. The quality isn’t great, but it’s quite good considering the form factor.

It’s surprised me how much I’ve used it already. Your phone takes better quality photos and videos, for sure, but being able to take them with a quick tap is awesome. I’m finding a lot of situation where hands-free video to capture a moment (toasting, playing with the dog, swinging a golf club, etc) is ideal.

AI

They glasses also have a lot of AI baked in, but that’s the least exciting thing for me (at least for now). There are three main things it can do:

  • Respond to questions that you ask, similar to Siri or ChatGPT.
  • Ask it “what am I looking at” and it’ll use the camera to capture a photo and then explain what it sees. This could be somewhat useful at times.
  • It can do real-time language translation. That feature hasn’t rolled out to mine yet, but we’re going to Italy this summer and I could see it being very useful!

Audio

A surprising benefit I’ve found is the audio. The little speakers are directional and just above your ears, so it sounds clear but others around can’t really hear much (it’s similar to hearing a little bit from someone wearing headphones).

There are two things that I like here:

  • It lets me know when I get a text message. I don’t text a lot, and so I often miss them, so this helps with that.
  • You can tap to continue playing whatever bluetooth audio you had going. For example, I often listen to podcasts in the car through the car sound system. When I turn off the car and get out, that audio stops but I can just tap my glasses to keep the podcast going in my ear. It’s amazingly helpful.

Granted, ear buds can do the same thing (and ear buds are better in many ways), but similar to the camera the benefit here is that they’re always ready — just tap and listen.

Phone calls are similar; if I get a call, they’re instantly in my ears and I don’t have to hold up the phone or fumble with ear buds. It’s fantastic.

Battery

I knew going in that the battery was problematic. Batteries are bulky, and they’ve made these as slim as they could, so it’s a tough balance of weight versus battery life.

If I turn off the “Hey Meta” listening feature (and instead tap to summon the Meta AI), that saves quite a bit of battery. Doing it that way gets me about 10 hours of battery life, which includes a bit of use with phone calls, podcasts, and some photos and videos.

The glasses charge in their case, and seem to gain around 2-3% for every minute of charging, so they get back up to speed quite quickly. When I left work a few days ago they were at 19% and I knew I’d want them in the evening, so I popped them in the case for 15 minutes and they were just over 50%.

Case?

The glasses charge in their case, but this obviously means that you need to take them off to charge them. I keep a cheap pair of glasses in the case so I’m not blind while charging, and it works well enough, but it’s still a minor hassle.

It reminds of the struggles that people have charging their Apple Magic Mouse, where you have to stop using it completely while it charges. I’ve seen other smart glasses coming out soon that allow you to recharge by wearing a neck strap, which seems like a much better solution. We’ll see if Meta changes things for the next version of these glasses.

Cost

The cost is surprisingly low for the frames, but as with many glasses the real cost comes from the lenses. The frames start at just $299, which is comparable to other high-quality (and not smart) frames.

I got mine with progressive lenses as well as transitions, so the total cost moved up a bit higher. Compared to other glasses, though, the total really wasn’t much higher than it otherwise would have been.

So far I’m quite happy with them! This tech will be changing quickly, and the next version will almost certainly have some kind of display on the frames so that you can see notifications and other items. Until those come out, these are proving to be a great purchase.

You can make any kind of art

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I’ve long been thankful for the time in history in which I’ve grown up. We got an early computer when I was young (a Commodore 64), then I got to grow up through an amazing generation of video game systems, and now we have stunningly powerful machines, AI, and so much great stuff.

While I’m sad that I won’t be around to see what things are like hundreds of years from now, being around for these pivotal moments has been amazing.

Growing up, I thought about this a lot in regards to my grandfather Vic (who I shared a bit about here). Given how he worked and thought, I really think he would have loved computing but he was simply too early in history to catch much of it. That said, he was able to take his skills and use them with technology of his time (woodworking and gadgets and such) with great success.

We’re the same way; we’re born with our desires, and then we manifest them through the technology that our place in history allows. From Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin“, he shares the same idea. First, he talks about “art” being potentially many different things. In my case, my “art” is this blog (and not design-related), and I’m pleased with that. From his book:

“You can be an artist who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances. An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”

He also digs into the “time in history” part of this discussion, saying:

“I don’t believe that you are born to do a certain kind of art, mainly because your genes have no idea what technology is going to be available to you. Cave painters, stone carvers, playwrights, chemists, quantum-mechanic mechanics—people do their art where they find it, not the other way around.”

You may love the power you get with a tool like Photoshop, but you also likely would have loved painting by hand a century ago, or would love the crazy new AI/AR/VR/Whatever tools that will come along decades from now.

As Seth said, art can be about many different things, but it’s really about intent and not substances. Use what you have the best you can, because we’re all lucky to be around at this moment in time.

If you can write it down, AI will be able to do it

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Writing down your processes is the key to effective work, but it’s increasingly becoming a sign that your job might not be AI-proof.

In some ways it’s been trending this way for years, well before AI even took off. Seth Godin wrote the book “Linchpin” back in 2010, but even then he said:

“There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.”

That was less about your job being taken than it was about a job where you could really stand out, but those are quickly becoming one and the same. The key is being able to respond to issues and solve problems in a way that simply can’t be written down. Seth gives this example:

“Your restaurant has four waiters, and tough times require you to lay someone off. Three of the waiters work hard. The other one is good, but is also a master at solving problems. He can placate an angry customer, finesse the balky computer system, and mollify the chef when he’s had too much to drink. Any idea who has the most secure job?”

Being the troubleshooter wins. Again from Linchpin:

“Troubleshooting is never part of a job description, because if you could describe the steps needed to shoot trouble, there wouldn’t be trouble in the first place, right? Troubleshooting is an art, and it’s a gift from the troubleshooter to the person in trouble. The troubleshooter steps in when everyone else has given up, puts himself on the line, and donates the energy and the risk to the cause.”

We’ve all worked with people like that, and they’re amazing! Following processes for your job is very important, but those that can go off-script to solve unexpected problems that appear will always be the most valuable in any organization.

Early lies are an easy red flag

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Honesty and helpfulness are two virtues that are key to any great relationship, so it’s easy to spot long-term trouble if either of those are weak early on.

I personally look for this when evaluating new tools or technology for our company; if it’s difficult to talk to educated sales folks when I’m actively wanting to spend money, I can be pretty confident that getting post-purchase support will be even worse.

Chris Do explained this well in a recent podcast episode of his, sharing:

“When you lied to me on the call, theoretically, this is the best our relationships ever going to be. We’re still in the pre-honeymoon phase. It’s courtship right now. And if you’re gonna lie to me during the courtship, what’s gonna happen when I give you money and I have no more leverage over you and now you are going to do whatever. So you have to be really aware of this. And this is true in all relationships in life.”

As with many things, there are lessons in both sides.

If you’re on the receiving end of this, treat it as the red flag that it is and don’t enter that type of relationship (whether personal or business).

If you’re on the sales side of things, know that people are looking at this. You certainly want to back your sale with an amazing product and stellar support, but you won’t get a chance to show off either of those if you’re lackluster in the early days.

Connectors require facts

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The state of learning (particularly memorization) is at a weird place in time. Since the launch of Google 25 years ago, and steadily increasing as things like Wikipedia, smartphones, and AI came along, the need to memorize information has become less important. However, it’s becoming increasing important to develop the ability to connect information to make new insights.

In a recent podcast from Adam Grant, where he spoke with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Grant seemed to somewhat disagree, saying:

“And if you were a fact collector, that made you smart and respected. And now I think it’s much more valuable to be a connector of dots than a collector of facts that if you can synthesize and recognize patterns, you have an edge.”

Between Adam and myself, I think we see “connectors” in a few different ways:

  • Connecting facts and ideas. For example, this could be learning systems like “Traction” but also learning systems like “The 12 Week Year” and pulling the best pieces from each. You can’t notice those differences unless you understand both systems.
  • Recognizing patterns, such as various mental models that you can learn and apply, which relies less on facts stored in our heads.

Related is another concept from “The 12 Week Year” regarding knowledge and making use of it, where they shared:

“You’ve no doubt heard the saying knowledge is power. I disagree. Knowledge is only powerful if you use it, if you act on it. People spend lifetimes acquiring knowledge, but to what purpose? Knowledge alone benefits no one unless the person acquiring it does something with it.”

Regardless of the way you acquire knowledge, whether it’s learning and memorizing up front or making efficient use of technology to find answers as needed, the application of that knowledge is where the true value lives. Becoming a “connector of dots” will make you indispensable to any organization that you wish to serve, and you can only connect the dots that you already know.

The Sunday Summary: Early thrashing, quality from quantity, and offering pain

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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, January 13: Thrash early, not late
“The point of getting everyone involved early is simple: thrash late and you won’t ship. Thrash late and you introduce bugs. Professional creators thrash early. The closer the project gets to completion, the fewer people see it and the fewer changes are permitted.”

Tue, January 14: Quality comes from quantity
“So what was his (John Williams) process for coming up with this perfect five note sequence? He didn’t sit and meditate until inspiration from God struck him from heaven while he was sitting there. No, he wrote down dozens of five note sequences and then sat down and went through all of them with Steven Spielberg and picked the one that worked best. So get your reps in. Quantity leads to quality.”

Wed, January 15: Offer pain when it’s necessary
“I want you to be like the physician who (hesitantly) hurts patients in pursuit of making them well. I don’t want you to be the money-grubbing, power-loving consultant who wants adoring followers.“

Thu, January 16: Sit in the third chair
“Seeing clearly means being able to look at a business plan from the point of view of the investor, the entrepreneur, and the market. That’s hard. Seeing clearly means being able to do a job interview as though you weren’t the interviewer or the applicant, but someone watching dispassionately from a third chair.”

Fri, January 17: I wish it was more, but at least it’s not less
There are a lot of things in life that I wish were just a little bit better, but when I remind myself that they could have been a little bit worse suddenly everything seems greater than it was before. A positive outlook is generally a good thing, and this little tip helps me see many things in a nicer light.

Sat, January 18: We control the means of production
“The world just gave you control over the means of production. Not to master them is a sin.”

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.

We control the means of production

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For nearly all of human history, a select few controlled the means of production. A handful of people owned the factories, the facilities, and the raw materials, and there wasn’t much that the other people could do about it.

Thankfully, we’re a place now where that’s no longer true. The device that you’re reading this on has all of the capability that anyone else on the planet has; you can can capture images, write content, create videos, and do more than people could have imagined just a few decades ago.

Some people choose not to take advantage of it. From his book “Linchpin“, Seth Godin explains his frustration with folks like that:

“I’m always amazed when I meet a writer who can’t use a computer, or a lawyer who’s uncomfortable with LexisNexis, or an executive who needs a corporate IT person to help him navigate an e-mail system.”

Or put more succinctly:

“The world just gave you control over the means of production. Not to master them is a sin.”

The counter to this idea is to say “No, we don’t. Google controls the search engine, Facebook controls social media, and we’re just cogs in their systems.” It’s not wrong, but it’s a lazy argument.

You can own your content and own the algorithms. There is a good chance that you’re reading this because you’ve subscribed to get these posts by email. There’s no search engine, no social media, and no algorithms involved. I own the site and I own the email list, and it costs essentially nothing for both of them.

You can choose to ignore the technology like Seth shared, or you can give up because “they” control everything, or you can just grab control for yourself. The means of production are in your hands, so use them.

I wish it was more, but at least it’s not less

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In an effort to see the bright side of things, when I wish that something was a little bit better I instead try to feel happy that at least it’s not a little bit worse.

For example, Supernatural (the VR exercise game) just introduced a new multiplayer mode that allows you to work out with friends. It’s fantastic, but it’s limited to a total of three in a room. That’s a bummer, as I wish it could have more, but they very easily could have just created a “workout with a friend” mode that was limited to two. We get three, so it’s a bonus!

Or I could look at the football season for the University of Michigan this year. Coming off of being national champions they lost five games this year and didn’t make the playoff. That was a bummer, but they beat Ohio State and won their bowl game against Alabama, so I’ll take it!

There are a lot of things in life that I wish were just a little bit better, but when I remind myself that they could have been a little bit worse suddenly everything seems greater than it was before. A positive outlook is generally a good thing, and this little tip helps me see many things in a nicer light.

Sit in the third chair

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Being able to see things from another person’s point of view can be powerful. Gaining attunement (to know what they’re thinking) and empathy (to know what they’re feeling) can be a great place to start, and understanding the strengths of the “other side” will give you a massive upper hand.

In Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin” he shares the idea of seeing clearly from the perspective of a “third chair”. From the book:

“Seeing clearly means being able to look at a business plan from the point of view of the investor, the entrepreneur, and the market. That’s hard. Seeing clearly means being able to do a job interview as though you weren’t the interviewer or the applicant, but someone watching dispassionately from a third chair. Seeing clearly means that you’re smart enough to know when a project is doomed, or brave enough to persevere when your colleagues are fleeing for the hills. Abandoning your worldview in order to try on someone else’s is the first step in being able to see things as they are.”

It’s much easier said than done. As Godin shares, you need to abandon your worldview in order to gain this perspective, and many of us have a hard time doing that. If you can, though, the view from that seat will be the most helpful you can ever take.