"Ideas change the world only when they change our behaviour." -Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus)
"'The world is changing faster than ever before, and we are flooded by impossible amounts of data, of ideas, of promises and of threats. Humans relinquish authority to the free market, to crowd wisdom and to external algorithms partly because they cannot deal with the deluge of data. In the past, censorship worked by blocking the flow of information. In the twenty-first century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information. People just don’t know what to pay attention to, and they often spend their time investigating and debating side issues. In ancient times having power meant having access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore." -Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus)
Productivity systems help you get lots of task-oriented work done. The table stakes. The busywork. The stuff you need to do to keep your job. You might move more widgets faster but this isn’t the stuff that really moves the needle for you or your employer.
Productivity systems don’t answer the larger question, which is: What do you do that creates value in your career? And more than that, what are you doing that’s going to have a cumulative effect? What are you doing that’s really going to matter not tomorrow but years down the road?
I see these two concepts as intertwined and incredibly important. Yet, they are ignored by overly task-oriented productivity methods. There is a simple two stage approach that will however work wonders.
If you really want to get ahead, the first thing you need to do is figure out where you’re going to create a massive amount of value in your career. The second thing, is figuring out how you’re going to carve out the time and energy to focus on the first.
The Incredible Shrinking Universe of Stocks: The Causes and Consequences of Fewer U.S. Equities - by Michael Mauboussin, et al. (LINK)
The Behavior of Stock Market Manias - by John Huber (LINK)
Related book: Bull - by Maggie MaharBridgewater report -- Populism: The Phenomenon [H/T @M_C_Klein] (LINK)
Jason & Scot Show Episode 73: Evercore ISI Softlines Analyst Omar Saad (audio) [H/T @rtclark] (LINK)
Episode 73 is an interview with Evercore ISI Softlines Analyst Omar Saad, about his recent report “Softline wholesale channel must evolve or die.”Andrew Haldane at the LSE: The Productivity Puzzle (video/audio) (LINK)
A 130-Year-Old Fact About Dinosaurs Might Be Wrong - by Ed Yong (LINK)
Book of the day [H/T Jim O’Shaughnessy]: Adventures of a Bystander - by Peter F. Drucker