Writing

Published writing

1. Some AdviceTake meeting notes. It will keep you engaged, learning (make note of what you don’t understand and ask others after), and positioned to take on more responsibility.May 12, 2022

   In response to the question: What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice would you ignore?

   Take meeting notes. It will keep you engaged, learning (make note of what you don’t understand and ask others after), and positioned to take on more responsibility. Circulate notes and next steps afterward as appropriate. You’ll look smart and on top of your sh*t.

   Screw glamorous industries. Best is one that is growing and profitable — rising tides lift all ships. Beyond meeting basic criteria (e.g., not putting an introverted engineer in inside sales), you can get excited about most jobs. Your first job isn’t your final job, and it will teach you or reinforce what you like and are good at. Also, getting 100% of your bonus and increased responsibilities via company growth should help with misgivings.

   
2. Why I Read What I ReadWhile the content of books may remain fixed, my perspective is dynamic.March 24, 2022

   I spend a lot of time reading, so I figured I’d discuss how I decide what to read.

   Framework

   Reading is a leisure activity for me (even if I choose to read something work-related), and my selections should reflect that. Otherwise, I might considering the following:

   Is it recommended and by whom?

   The easiest way to source a good book is from a trusted source – this could be from a podcast, a blog, or a conversation. Be wary of recommendations from friends, coworkers, and family, as tastes and motivations differ; the expanse of the internet is more effective at surfacing high quality (in the eyes of the reader) books.

   The sweet spot is a book that has been recommended by multiple trusted sources.

   When was it published? Are there copies available at the library?

   Books that are popular well after their publishing are Lindy. For some reason, “top sellers” don’t seem to pass the test of time.

   What has the popular reaction been?

   Goodreads, Amazon, Google, and blogs leverage the wisdom of crowds and are, therefore, less biased relative to the perspective of one journalist.

   Is it relevant to something that I want to learn? Am I generally curious in the top?

   An obvious question, but one that bears articulating. Reading everything is not possible, and tradeoffs must be made. Do not read books because others want you to. Do it for yourself.

   Is it worth a re-read?

   As Nassim Nicholas Taleb says, and I tend to agree with: “Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading.” While you won’t know this up-front, you can still formulate a hypothesis. The exception is what I would call “guilty fiction,” which is purely meant for funsies (reminder: reading is about leisure!).

   Memory Consolidation & Synthesis

   I used to put down books as soon as I finished them. For some books, this is fine. But, for most, extra reflection is beneficial.

   I’m currently iterating through what works for me. Initially I started with Googling to see what else had been written on the subject, which I found too passive and too easy to skip.

   I then took to Twitter. The issue is that even great books can improve; as soon as this is articulated on Twitter, you are becoming critical of another person’s livelihood, potentially unfairly. That’s not within the scope of my remit.

   Re-reading has become my favorite form of reflection. First, repetition leads to memory consolidation. And second, while the content of books may remain fixed, my perspective is dynamic. Catcher in the Rye is a good example. Through the lens of my 16-year-old self, Holden was an annoying, whiney little b*tch. Yet, as I get older, I am more compassionate to and understanding of him; our teenage years were universally challenging.

   A final idea that I got from James Clear is to answer the below questions. Of course, these questions are more tailored to non-fiction books. I’ve decided to do that below for two books that I recently finished:

   1. What are the main ideas?
   2. If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be?
   3. How would I describe the book to a friend?

   Trillion Dollar Coach

   1. An overview of the principles that made Bill Campbell impactful, including: the importance of radical candor, cheerleading, meritocracy, equality and how once the ego, human, and team “stuff” are addressed, the business “stuff” takes care of itself.
   2. This is an abstraction from the book, but: “In any situation, how would your 5-year-old self expect you to act?” (i.e., in any situation, how can you act without ego?)
   3. This book is a common sense set of principles of how to be a leader – it’s a good reminder that common sense is not the same as common practice

   Overall Rating: I’ve now read this twice and will read it again

   Status Anxiety

   1. Status anxiety is a given, but its causes and manifestations evolve as society evolves
   2. Meditate and reflect on if and why status anxiety might be present
   3. A systematic overview of the causes and solutions of status anxiety (i.e., having anxiety about ones’ “place” in society has)

   Overall Rating: Compelling content albeit not very engaging, will probably just read a sparknotes-esque summary if I want to re-visit.

3. I Heart EmailI unabashedly love email. The format slows down my thinking, gives me time and space to write thoughtfully, and allows me to batch process at my convenience.February 23, 2022

   I unabashedly love email. The format slows down my thinking, gives me time and space to write thoughtfully, and allows me to batch process at my convenience.

   But I also spend far too much time in my inbox, both while I’m working and, begrudgingly, while I’m not working – residual inbox brain is the worst. I know the negatives of email too well: it’s (weirdly) a heck of a dopamine rush (read: distraction to flow), it creates stress and inefficiencies, and it stinks at conveying emotion. Yuck!

   

   Cal Newport’s A World Without Email systematically demonstrates email’s negative impact on knowledge workers (illustrative: one study showed that workers couldn’t go more than six (!) minutes (!!) without checking their inboxes/IM).

   Time to Face the Music

   Despite impacting productivity, it’s difficult seeing email’s (or any other communication platform that facilitates written communication, like Slack) prevalence diminishing. First, the core issue (outside of siloing information, potentially solved via IM platforms or internal Wikis) seems to be with how the product is used, rather than the product itself; this is an opportunity for product and cultural evolution. Second, the urgency of the problem is not as observable as others (e.g., becoming operationally effective to deliver x% revenue growth). In fact, I imagine that email volume will continue to increase, specifically driven by wider CRM adoption and more asynchronous and non-co-located work environments.

   Declaring inbox infinity or email bankruptcy is a smart tactic for some, but it’s not tenable for individuals who work collaboratively with others. As Eric Schmidt puts it in How Google Works, part of his job is to be a living, breathing “information router”; assuming that you plan to take action in some form, not processing each email that comes through your inbox in a time-appropriate (yes, this is subjective) fashion (Schmidt aimed for <24 hours) means you could possibly be the bottleneck.

   

   Of course, that remit can create distraction and anxiety. The “information router” mentality, however, is probably most relevant to senior managers and executives at the top of the pyramid. As a junior employee whose responsibility is centered on output rather than decision-making, I’ve concluded that this anxiety is unnecessary (how well I’ve internalized that is another story!).

   Here are some interventions that I’ve implemented in an effort to shield myself from distraction and anxiety:

   • I use Freedom almost every day to block myself from email (and specific websites); it’s the only productivity app that, to my knowledge, lets you block specific applications without hamstringing your entire computer. Keeping myself out of email for a few hours not only allows me to focus, but allows me to return to an inbox that has more than 0-1 emails (i.e., the normal number of emails that arrive every 6 minutes, versus a more batch-able number over the course of hours).
   • I’ve moved away from many sub-folders to a three-folder system. Emails come into my Inbox. Once processed, they are moved to “ref,” and if I am unable to process an email in ~2 minutes, I will move it to my “Outstanding” folder. This linear process makes it faster to churn through emails and gives me the permission to circle back to something in the “Outstanding” folder at a more convenient time — I get back to the majority of my emails within 24 hours, but allow myself up to a 1-week SLA on “Outstanding” emails
   • Cut down on what comes into my inbox via unsubscribing from email subscriptions that I don’t read and creating rules to send email to the “ref” folder for non-email subscriptions that are irrelevant (e.g., automated reports or University communications)

   These interventions work for me today as a junior employee, however I expect that I’ll need to adapt as I get more senior or move into different organizations.

   Waiting on the [email client] to change

   Hank-driven interventions are effective, but technology improvements might be even more meaningful. Here’s my wish list for Outlook (the client I’m most familiar with):

   • Snooze emails until a specific date. Gmail has this. It’s a harmless feature to hide away emails that don’t need to be processed until a specific day in the future.
   • Automatic and manual tagging of emails for follow up. These would pop up in your inbox or in a follow-up folder at the time chosen. Gmail has a version of this, but it’s imperfect. You could manually do this in Outlook today by creating a folder for follow-ups, but it takes significant willpower from my experience.
   • A cleaner interface – I would hypothesize <10% of Outlook’s buttons are clicked by average users. Instead of starting with every button and a multi-tab ribbon, why not just a few, and allow users to add more if they need it? I’d also love to be able to get rid of the count of unread emails that display on the left pane – currently you can toggle between total and unread.
   • Smarter integration with the calendar to find and schedule times that work to cut down on scheduling back and forth (i.e., a widget that allows you to send specific times to another person that they can click and automatically book a meeting).
   • “CRM lite features” (e.g., templates, auto-fill, engagement information, ability to create workflows). This is a very slippery slope to increasing the number of emails sent, but on a personal basis, I anticipate the benefits outweighing the costs, especially if templates (both off-the-rack and user-generated) and auto-fill are built. Gmail has auto-fill – it’s especially valuable when the words to express a sentiment escape me.
   • Better or easier-to-use search functionality. 99% of the time I know it’s in there, and know when and to whom it was sent, but I can only find the email ~90% of the time with my first search.

   Mr. Nadella, please tear down this email client

   Superhuman seems to be leading the pack on pushing email forward. I can’t wait for the Outlook integration, and will be begging the team to take my money as soon as it is widely available. $30/month is a steep price to pay, however, it is at least worth a try. And, if it’s not a silver bullet, it’s not a silver bullet, and I’ll reassess other options to better manage email.

   Microsoft is not going to let Superhuman win without a fight; Microsoft is rarely the first to market, but it always shows up. Under Nadella, Microsoft has made tangible UI/UX improvements to the Microsoft Office suite (who knew moving from cell-to-cell in Excel could be so joyful?), for example.

   It’s a matter of time before the incumbents benchmark Superhuman’s innovations (or just buy them outright) and make the world a better place to email.