Clarified Systems

Excerpt from Atomic Habits by James Clear. On the first day of class, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups. Everyone on the left side of the classroom, he explained, would be in the “quantity” group. They would be graded solely on the amount of…

Before customers exchange money for our product or service, they must see that exchange as one that benefits them. How do we understand their needs and goals to bring that about? One way is to look at demographics, and then try to figure out what middle-class 37-year-old females on the East Coast have in common…

Many empathic people struggle with low self-confidence. Jay Shetty points out an ancient insight: it’s actually ego. This feels counterintuitive at first, until we see that egotism has two sides. An egotistical person thinks they always have to be the best, and if they don’t do well they have to see themselves as the super…

How can we tackle making improvements to a complex process? He notes that he’s done these backwards and it doesn’t work. Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head. Donald Knuth

We all get stuck at times, and it’s not always clear how to get un-stuck. One key place to look is within ourselves. As embarrassing and humbling as it can be, our emotions can be a major limiting factor to our success. So let’s look at a framework for making progress on emotional challenges. There…

This excerpt is a wonderful little article buried inside a larger article by Andy Warfield of Amazon. I’ve spent a lot of time at Amazon thinking about how important and effective the focus on ownership is to the business, but also about how effective an individual tool it is when I work with engineers and…

This article discusses several aspects of system design, including “late-binding on designs.” Insights on how to keep system design discussions as productive as possible by committing to decisions at the right moment and not before.