Future Work/Life is my newsletter in which I explore ideas focused on the future of work and how to design legendary careers. If you find it interesting, please share it!
It’s been a hectic week with lots going on, so I had to write this one quickly. But I wanted to share something after a great conversation with Allison Baum Gates yesterday got me thinking. By the way, we had to postpone for a few days after the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, but you’ll be able to hear our chat on next week’s pod. It’s a good one!
In the meantime, this week, I reshared my conversation with Daniel Pink on this week’s show. My highlight was our discussion on how future regret can help you reframe your decisions today and motivate you to live with a bias for action. We also covered broader trends related to the future of work, including the pros and cons of remote and the office and whether our work/lives are destined to be defined by independence and autonomy.
Finally, I did an in-depth interview with Authority Magazine, which you can read here. It includes my “Top 5 Trends To Watch In the Future of Work”.
It takes optimism to start a business.
Most start-ups fail, and even those that succeed rarely do so immediately. Yet many people try. Driven by a need to solve a problem, to take control over their future or to create financial security for themselves and their families. Few approach this expecting they won't defy the odds and become one of the success stories. That's the inherent positivity of entrepreneurship.
Until there's a bank run, of course.
If you were following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last weekend, you might have heard it described as an example of the 'prisoner's dilemma'. A thought experiment designed to illustrate the dilemma faced by two people separated and unable to communicate. By cooperating, they can achieve an optimal outcome. But in all other cases, when acting in their own self-interest, their decision leaves both parties worse off.
Here's how it might work for prisoners arrested for a crime committed together and under interrogation:
[Lumen Learning]
If they both stay silent, they'll get four years between them. If only one confesses, they'll only serve a year. If both confess, they'll get a ten-year combined sentence.
So, best to do nothing but can either avoid the temptation?
These were the dynamics behind the run on SVB – do nothing and the bank would have lived to serve another day. Instead, human instinct took over. People acted in their own best interests, withdrawing their money. Rationally, of course, but provoking the events that led to last weekend.
Inherent positivity only goes so far.
I've chosen to share this today because, sadly, I am the sort of dad who tries to introduce ideas like this to the breakfast table. Well, not the prisoner's dilemma necessarily, but certainly the principle of 'zero sum' thinking
Why on earth would you put a 10, 7 and 4-year-old through this?
Because avoiding this way of thinking is, I believe, one of the simplest and greatest lessons we can teach kids (and remind ourselves in the process).
So here's the topline on a zero-sum mindset:
If one person wins, then someone else has to lose.
Your brother may have spent two hours with your mum today, but that doesn't mean you've lost anything.
Your sister has had three digestive biscuits and you've only had two, but the world's not all out of cookies.
Your friend is riding a wave of success in their career, and life's a struggle for you right now, but the two aren't connected, and you're in control of your future.
Ok, ok. Not the strictest application of the economic theory there, and I switched context at the end there too. Sorry about that. But I am getting to the point of this newsletter.
Here's the thing about happiness and fulfilling your potential. You'll never achieve either if you compare yourself to others. And nor will you do so by tracking your progress against a moving target.
Instead, the secret lies in measuring where you are today against where you were in the past.
For example, this time last year:
I was struggling to assemble anything coherent as I wrote my book.
I was full of self-doubt about whether I should even be writing the bloody thing.
I was questioning whether the investment I was making – in time and money – was worthwhile.
A year on, I can see the progress I've made. Not least in how my thinking has evolved and how that's leading to new business opportunities.
I know all this because I wrote it down and reflected on it.
I captured my thought process a year ago and do the same now.
Every day, I log a few highlights. And not just because it improves my memory.
Because while I'm inherently optimistic, maintaining a positive outlook on life isn't always possible.
What helps is continual reflection and acknowledgement of your progress.
Have a nice weekend.
Ollie