Striatum Andon

This is a blog of my thoughts - of bad photographs when I can't help myself, of memory logs in pictures and textual format. A veritable weblog, if you may, because the internet is documented in virtual ink and will outlive us all.

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Startups are experiments in Group Psychology

Let’s face it. Unless you’re really incompetent or trying to solve an unreal, very unique problem, running a startup is largely people management.

As we say sometimes - “I’m CEO. I’m Head Chef and Chief Bottlewasher, at your service”. 

Every real problem in a startup is not the tech, not the software, not the investment, but the people. 

How much is too much when it comes to retaining stellar employees? How do you deal with them especially when they’re genius, hence, difficult? How do you actually scale culture? Or is it really impossible a thing to do? How do you establish meritorious systems? How do you lead from the front without really leading at all? What’s the formula for teams to go on auto-pilot? How can you do away with long meetings entirely? Questions with different answers. There is no right and wrong. There is only survival for tomorrow. Either you survive, or you don’t. It’s that simple. Or that complicated. 

Startups are a people. They’re intangible before the tangible is formed.

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Are you Capable of Changing your Mind?

Marc Andreesen’s popular opinion:

A state of mind. 

Views, opinions, beliefs, faith, information, trivia, academia, philosophy, morality. 

Some people go through life flowing with the status quo, the mainstream. Conforming, they don’t question, they don’t bother, they accept things for how they are, because society has, or a larger subset has. Loose views, loosely held. 

Some others absolutely hate changing their mind. Their beliefs, based on their research is the end of it all. They turn a blind eye to conflicting opinions, and they don’t bother to ask why. Strong views, strongly held. 

Very few others will vehemently state an opinion, listen to the others, begrudgingly agree or even instantly change sides ‘cause the ‘logic’ won and say ‘I didn’t see it like that.’ Strong views, loosely held.

We’re all but an inconsequential speck on a tiny planet in the multiverse. There is enough and more that we don’t know. And it’s ok to change your mind. In fact, in today’s world, it’s almost a superpower. 

[writingprompts]

#838

“You never get the dystopia you expect.” — Priyanka Aribindi

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Choose to work Harder, work Smarter

This is true.

In a similar thread, your experience can be that bereft of an MBA degree, management school, formal education and you could’ve completely learned something on the job. Those years you invested, OTJ, no one can take those away from you.

And no Ivy League college can ever come close to the real-world, hands on, get-your-hands-dirty experience.  Your Ivy League counterparts may draw a higher salary, and largely seem like they’re leading a better life but they’re chained up in formats you don’t see or understand. To each his own. Make your own learning. No one can make yours but you. 

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The road to Exhaustion is often paved with Good Intentions - How much is too much?

An apt article on HBS about boundless and selfless giving is doing the rounds, making you wonder how you never thought of this and how this is actually a thing. As a victim of never knowing where to draw the line myself, I wonder how much is too much? How dependent do you make them and when they lean too heavily, where do you put your foot down? 

Make them realize:

I am not a charity 

This is not my KPI

Ask them/yourself:

Will they pay me for this?

Where does my contribution in this item end?

Will this cycle repeat itself and am I to blame for that?

Take steps:

Draw the line - verbally and anointed

Draw up a rate card - mentally tally the given, the taken, the value accrued and therefore, any points for future discussions/arguments. 

Start saying ‘No’ even when they ask nicely - reverse the extreme dependence you’ve knowingly or unknowingly set. 

How this helps:

Less bitterness at work - if you don’t do so much, you won’t expect much - sometimes not expecting is hard.

More time to concentrate on actual KPIs - doing a good, doing a better job of what you’re actually paid for.

More paid time to invest in more paid projects so you feel rightfully remuneration in money and mental effort - makes you happier. 

Don't lose friends to favours that turn out to involve a lot of leg work, background work and no remuneration. No favours, no bitterness.

Nice to write, good to be told, but if not applied, do yourself a scold. #NoteToSelf

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Pull that Andon Cord. Often. More often.

The automobile manufacturing industry got lucky with the concept of the Andon Cord, but moving beyond Toyota, the concept has so many more derivatives to it.

The Andon Cord is representative of Asking for Help. Of signalling an Anomaly. Of not being satisfied with what’s done. Of feeling confident you want a redo. Of requesting expertise. Of Stopping the line. Of fixing the broken. Of not being looked down upon for wanting to fix something. Of asking the hierarchy or chain of command to step in. Of documenting. Of building that ever-dynamic FAQ of things that can go wrong. Of adding permutations. Of brainwaves. Of innovation. Of communal understanding of all of the above. 

Pull that cord often in every way you can imagine. There is no shame in wanting to fix. In fact, it is half the battle won already. 

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The best thing about you. The worst thing about you. There’s no escape. 

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Craving a Fix

There’s different types of fixes we crave as we move along. Intellectual, satisfactory, consumption, sedate, mindless, humour, validation, giving, taking, malice, valour - the list goes on. 

There’s ways to get these with minimal effort if we can only view them that way. 

For Example:

Intellectual Fix: No one at work will have a meaningful conversation with you? Read a blog that pushes that striatum. Takes 2 mins, no excuses. 

Mindless Fix: Aimlessly walking through lanes on the street, visiting a section of your house you don’t frequent, a floor in your workplace you don’t have anything to do at or a mindless sitcom you’ve watched many times over. Get that fix.

Olfactory Fix: Walk past a waft of bakeries and flowers on your way to lunch. Makes skipping dessert or caffeine for the day easier. If you’re trying, that is. 

Valour Fix: Walking down a hot street? Shade a lesser-abled from the sun with an umbrella or yourself for even a few seconds on your way by. The perception of valour need not always be shallow. 

Humour Fix: Attempt to find humour in general conversation. A different language, a pun you mentally made up and enjoyed with your multiple split personalities, scrolling through pictures of funny memes, floofs or videos, depending on your thing. 

Validation Fix: You’re cut a check for a reason. Stated validation is neither necessary, nor frequently possible. Do your job, that’s validation enough for your existence sometimes. 

Malice Fix: They say you shouldn’t stop negative thoughts from flowing in. So don’t. Think of the worst possible scenarios, calamities and avenge your malice mentally, so that you don’t have to let it flow out. Delay an email, a task, do what it takes to get over the feeling, not stifle it. 

Get your fix. Then you’ll be happy. 

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You are paid to think it first, do it first, get to it first. You are not paid for consensus.

Unknown, or easier to say, I don’t remember.

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This is not my crowd

A general excuse I’m all too familiar with, having used it too many times. Let's me be the domestic nerd that I am, rather than the social butterfly I'm perceived to be.

I recently read that everyone is interesting. If you can’t see that, there’s something wrong with you. Not them. Time to practice this, even if I fail spectacularly. 

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Happiness is a choice you make, and a skill you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work on it - it's just like building muscle.

Naval Ravikant, Angelist

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The Five Chimps Theory

In zoology, you can predict the mood and the behaviour of any chimp by which five chimps they hang out with the most - Choose your five chimps wisely. 

~ Naval Ravikant, Angelist. 

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Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You'll avoid the tough decisions, and you'll avoid confronting those that need to be confronted.

Colin Powell 

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Train your Dragon - your Brain is a great place to Start

Start with shutting a few tabs. Decide which to keep, which to incorrectly and abruptly shut down with the knowledge that they may open up the next time you switch on. Decide which to close and which to save to Bookmark for a better day. Decide which to delete even the Cookies out of. Trust me, going Cold Turkey on Brain Tabs helps.

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Striatum Andon

What a weird name, you think. Be that as it may, this is one of those attempts at mutating concepts to make one of your own. 

The name is, literally, ‘made-up’ of the:

Striatum: A part of the human brain responsible for facilitating voluntary movement and inducing motivation.

Andon Cords: Are an adaptive Japanese technique - a fixture in modern auto factories, draped over lines like Christmas tinsel. Workers pull the cord to alert co-workers when a problem crops up so they can get help.

This blog is an attempt at inducing motivation, by trying to help - help you see my thoughts, the world around me, induce you into my warped theories, my learnings, my musings and more.  It’s a memo-log at best. You can expect a dump of pictures from a place I’ve visited, making place for those memories on the internet in questionable quality and long format copy on attempting to understanding, state, vehemently deliberate on the flavour-of-the-day.  

#Days #VirtualDiary #Striatum #AndonCords #AskForHelp #HelpMeUnderstand #Solidarity