Lenses: Small Problems, Cultural Geology and The Flow of Luck
Three recent quotes that made me think again.
The Lenses series collects thoughts that shift how you see things.
Enjoy today’s lenses:
1. Small Problems Compound
Often we fail to improve our lives simply because things don’t get bad enough. If your new job is hell, you’ll leave it, but if it’s just unsatisfying, you’ll likely grind it out. Thus, small problems often threaten our quality of life more than big ones.
— Gurwinder Bhogal
That’s activation energy. Small problems don’t trigger the threshold required to change, and that’s why they’re dangerous. We stay in the wrong place because there is too much energy required for a change.
Treating small problems as big ones is how quality of life compounds.
What makes a small problem finally cross the threshold?
2. Cultural Geology Shifts
Culture is observational
You cannot install a culture of experimentation. You can only model it.
Culture isn’t what’s written in the employee handbook or posted on the lobby wall. Culture is what people observe — who gets celebrated, who gets promoted, who gets fired, and why. Everything else is decoration.
Geology works this way too. Ninety-nine percent of the change to a landscape happens in one percent of the time — earthquakes, floods, eruptions. The slow steady stuff barely moves anything. Culture is identical. Most of what you do day-to-day barely registers. But a handful of moments — specific, visible, impossible to misread — reshape the terrain completely.
— Marc Randolph, The Real Reason Innovation Dies Inside Big Companies
When it happened, the first round of tech layoffs was a seismic shift. I still vividly remember when the CEO secretly announced the plan among leadership, which was unthinkable even a few minutes before that.
What shapes culture in your surroundings?
3. The Flow of Luck
Luck flows through people and travels by conversation. The people you talk to determine the opportunities you find.
Keep talking to the same people, keep finding the same opportunities. Start talking to new people, start finding new opportunities.
If you want different luck, start walking into different rooms.
— James Clear
This year, I’m committed to improving my public speaking. I’ve already heard that “I’m lucky to present”. Well, maybe it can be defined as lucky, but I also tried to increase my chances. I submitted as many CFPs as I found, talked to people who presented, and tried to improve proposals with each submission.
It’s a great reminder that increasing your surface area can help you, as long as your actions are aligned with your desired direction. It can mean meeting more people, going to new places, or self-distributing your content.
What are you doing to increase the surface area of your luck?
I’m betting on more conversations and more rooms.
Thanks for reading,
— Michał
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