"Monday" Dispatch – 2023/09/27
A late dispatch with assorted quotes on iteration, strategy, pacing, and self-improvement.
This Monday Dispatch comes late because I’ve been traveling for my day job, which is also why I there won’t be a standard post this week.
In the meantime, and with apologies, here’s a selection of annotated quotes from my library.
On iterating
Over the years, I’ve learned that the first idea you have is irrelevant. It’s just a catalyst for you to get started. Then you figure out what’s wrong with it and you go through phases of denial, panic, regret. And then you finally have a better idea and the second idea is always the important one.
– Arthur van Hoff, entrepreneur and part of the early Java development team, via Founders at Work
Van Hoff thinks the second idea is the important one, but I wouldn’t worry too much if your second idea was also disappointing. The point is, get started, keep going, and course correct.
A crucial step is figuring out what’s wrong. You need to put in the work to refute your assumptions, ideally via objective feedback from the outside world.
On charisma without strategy
Critical thinking is necessary at all levels, from choosing what to tweak in the next iteration to setting a company’s direction. In Good Strategy Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt explains why a company cannot compensate for a lack of strategic thinking through charismatic leadership:
The enormous problem all this creates is that someone who actually wishes to conceive and implement an effective strategy is surrounded by empty rhetoric and bad examples. And the general public is either led astray or puts all such pronouncements into the same mental bin as late-night TV advertising.
A charismatic leader can be effective only when the inspiration they generate can be put into action. Without a strategy any potential that was accumulated through those passionate speeches or polished emails will go to waste.
On finding the right pace
Pacing is a key aspect of implementing a strategy. In In Praise of Slow: Challenging the Cult of Speed, Carl Honoré encourages readers to find the right speed.
Be fast when it makes sense to be fast, and be slow when slowness is called for. Seek to live at what musicians call the tempo giusto—the right speed.
I appreciate how Honoré doesn’t argue against going fast. He explains how both fast and slow have their value and one needs to move along the spectrum as necessary.
The remaining quote selections revolve around self-improvement, starting with one by Roy T. Bennett.
On how to conduct yourself, at work and in life
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