Wrote, Read, Listened, Watched #2
30 Nov 2017Wrote, Read, Listened, Watched #2
Anti-patterns describe common paths to failure that are well-disguised as productive and effective. For example, Bob find that whenever he sits down to write for 20-minutes, he tends to first scan his environment and make a judgment about its tidiness. It’s never quite up to his standard, at least when juxtaposed against the activity of writing, and so he dedicates the rest of the afternoon to cleaning, not writing. In this case, Bob seeks distraction in the anti-pattern of tidying up.
He has a few options once he’s identified an anti-pattern:
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Minimize it. Deny the role of distraction-seeking behavior as an anti-pattern and feel the pangs of guilt, shame, and disappointment as he fails to do what he set out to: write.
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Monitor it. Accept the role of distraction-seeking behavior as an anti-pattern, acknowledge that he may need to do something about it – but not quite yet – and then feel the pangs of guilt, shame, and disappointment as he fails to do what he set out to: write.
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Refuse it. Acknowledge that he has an urge to scan his environment for distractions or things to be cleaned, try to let it pass, and continue writing.
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Relocate. Avoid writing from spaces where he’s able to clean or organize, such as a public library or lobby.
Options (1,2) are irrational choices. If Bob were a character we selected in a video game, we’d simply use the joystick to avoid these options, assume the game developers were taunting our intelligence, and hope for challenges with more nuance, unknowns, and tradeoffs in subsequent levels.
Yet, we rarely act rationally.
And that’s an important factor when setting intentions and improving decision-making processes, for it will determine how well we execute our plan. That’s why (4) is far and above the optimal solution among this solution set. Unlike (3), it does not rely on sheer power of will and impulse control, which might work every now and again, but shouldn’t be relied upon if they needn’t be. Sure, the act of relocating requires willpower, but this can be done before the exercise of writing even begins, which is the real catalyst for the distraction-seeking behavior.
Surely, Bob will find new methods of distraction – checking email, comparing the features of top-selling water bottles on Amazon, or deciding he really needs a new mechanical pencil if he’s really going to be serious about this whole writing thing.
The optimal solution would be multi-pronged, of which (4) would be just one part.
Read
Reducing Hours by Focusing Your Job
To become more efficient and effective, one must understand how they plan to spend their time and how they actually spend their time. As part of a team, this means clearly understanding your role: your areas of focus, what you strive to achieve, how you achieve it, and what your day-to-day looks like. Natalie provides a really helpful template for completing this exercise:
My job is a __. I focus on __, __, and __. I do this by __, __ and, __. Daily, these are the tasks that make up my job: ____.
Why Truly Sociable People Hate Parties
Firstly, true sociability – that is a real connection between two people – is almost never built up via anything cheerful. It is the result of making ourselves vulnerable before another person, by revealing some of is broken, lost, confused, lonely and in pain within us. We build genuine connections when we dare to exchange thoughts that might leave us open to humiliation and judgement; we make real friends through sharing in an uncensored and frank way a little of the agony and confusion of being alive … The mark of a truly sociable person might, in many situations, simply be a strong desire to stay at home.
In the Future We Will All Fall Madly in Love with Our Toasters
The Internet of Things, or the networking all of our devices, may not evolve through more integration, data collection, and anticipation of needs, but rather by developing the quality of ‘cuteness’ that appeals to our empathy.
Porcelain: A Memoir
Moby wrote a memoir about his teenage years and rise (and fall) as a musician. You might wonder how a memoir differs from an auto-biography, as I did. A memoir depicts an epoch or dimension of one’s life, whereas an autobiography tells the entire story of one’s life. So, a memoir fits within an autobiography, but an autobiography does not fit within a memoir.
Prebid Adds Support for Mobile App Header Bidding
Prebid is now an open-source project providing a header bidding solution for mobile app publishers.
Observations:
- Improves end-user mobile experience through lower latency by using a single server-side integration point, reducing the number of mediation partners involved in the bidding waterfall, and by pre-caching creatives in the background.
- Configurations are managed server-side, allowing publishers to create and remove demand partners without updating native app code and having to push a new release to the app store.
- Supports mobile banner and interstitial ads, but does not yet support interstitial video, rewarded video, and native ads
Listened
Smashing Pumpkins - Cupid de Locke
Establishing Secure Connection in the Age of Tinder & Facebook
Watched
Nothing this week.