It's a beautiful Autumn here in Finland 🍁 I hope it's also nice wherever you are right now!
Here is a few ideas for you to consider:
"Your email inbox is a to-do list created by other people." - @cdixon
A phone call is even more demanding, because it creates pressure for you to drop whatever you were focused on and act right now, not when you wanted it, but when the other person wanted.
Fundamentally this is about a mechanism for other people to be able to demand your attention and time.
However, it all boils down to who has the control.
It's okay to let other people bother you, as long as you can drop that phone call, swipe out that notification and trash that email.
Because there are also notifications and emails that we actually expect, and we would be disappointed if the they wouldn't come.
How to master complexity and problem solving
First, focus on understanding and learning as much as possible, then apply reductionism.
You can reduce in many ways, some of them:
Divide and conquer - create big impact by solving smaller problems first
Use abstractions to compress complex dynamics and ideas into simple ones. Abstractions are reusable and easy to communicate.
Mental models are 100% abstractions.Quantify things - “what get’s measured, gets managed”. Apply statistics and causal reasoning to guide your thinking process.
The first step towards self-improvement is self-awareness.
It is impossible to get better by doing the same thing. In order to change the outcome you need to change the process.
If you want to break a pattern you need to acknowledge that you’re responsible for it and accept your role in it.
Once do it, you’re free to change it.
Hey, it’s Vlad.
Previously, we had a series of deep philosophical posts: Maps and Tunnels Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 — and we’ll have more of this in the future — but for now I want to switch gears and try a few different formats.
Let me know what would you like to see the most:
Until next time 👋