#38 – On all the things people wish they had known sooner – or at the beginning of a new year
Hello and happy new year,
(Yes, I just said that.)
Welcome back to Strategy Bites. This is our first edition in 2024 and while everyone has spent their January going full steam after their big plans for the year, I’ve taken a breather and lots of short (interrupted) naps: I am on paternity leave.
How it feels to drowsily lollop around the house with a newborn in arms while the world grinds away at their ambitions is probably a post for another day. Today, though, is all about focusing on the things that people have learned throughout their lives. Whether that is in their personal or in professional lives. It’s a curation of intentions, lessons, rules of thumb, creativity, patience, and respect. But mostly patience. With ourselves and others. And toddlers. Mostly toddlers.
Enjoy the links.
This week’s Six Links of Inspiration:
25 Things About Life I Wish I Had Known 10 Years Ago. I’ve seen this shared on Wallstreet Oasis (which you should follow, if you don’t already.) Some of the points that kept coming back into my mind long after I read this thing: “Pick an industry, not a job”, “Rest before you are tired”, and “Create Something.” As with all good advice, it feels too obvious when you say it out loud. And if it’s delivered in simple, plain English even better. Go have a read.
11 Principles. In a recent post on Linkedin, Brian Collins shares eleven principles that guide how he approaches work. Lots of good stuff in there, but an absolute gem is to “have the courage to be disliked”. I know I struggle with this and I wish I gave less of a fuck. There have been a few social experiments that ultimately show that most people don’t even remember the stupid little things we do around them. In other words: most people don’t pay as much attention to us as we think they do – and therefore we should probably stop craving their affection. Doesn’t mean people should be dickheads.
Leslie’s Razors. Ian Leslie shares nine rules of thumb to live by. Not included in his list is probably my favourite one: Ockham’s razor (the correct solution is probably the simplest one, with the fewest number of moving parts.) The one of Leslie which resonated particularly: “Compare yourself to the median person.” We all compare ourselves to the people around us. Something we probably should do less. But we still keep doing it. So we might as well do it better. That way we might avoid all sorts of (mental) issues.
What to Read If You Want to Reinvent Yourself. On 1st January the Atlantic published a list of books (of course they did) one ought to read should one want to reinvent oneself. Because that’s what we all do at the beginning of a year: we contemplate change and reinvention.
Why Toddlers Deserve More Respect. This article I include purely as a pat on my own back slash pep talk to myself. Unless, of course, you have children or are dealing with them frequently, then this article might interest you, too. So very often I need to remind myself when getting impatient with my almost three year old son that whatever he is doing (or not doing) right now he is doing for maybe the first or second or third time in his entire life – while I had the benefit of being bad at the very same thing for more than 37 years.
Do Schools Kill Creativity. Apparently the most popular TED talk of all time. And soon you will find out why. Inspiring stuff from Sir Ken Robinson on how to improve our education system.
That’s all the links for this week. I’ll go back to my last day of paternity leave, carrying around a three week old through the freezing cold London.
Read you all next week,
Maximilian