Another inflection point. I asked Nous Research Hermes to use data and insights from Gbrain (from ) and Granola , etc., to draft a PDF for ploy.ai to spin up 2 new sites today that I’ve been wanting to use as experiments to optimise for AEO.

Ploy nailed the build, brand, etc. Super easy to use.

We’ll see what the results show (DATA>OPINION), but this is how we learn rapidly. 6 hours or so of effort to do a few months’ work. I thought I was wasting time/‘learning’ while wrestling with Hermes and gbrain to ingest my IP and data, etc but it paid off big time today.

Rapidly and Exponentially.ai are live as I write this. Incredible.

Just a warning: if you look at them, you’re probably not going to like them. But that’s not the point, right? They’re not designed for you. They’re designed for agents to find and consume. It’s an experiment to see how this works.

There are multiple layers of experiments built into this. Both offers and products are real and live, so that’s not the prototype. The pretotype is whether you can hand off this work to a service that constantly optimises and tweaks—or does it just turn into AI slop?

I’m prepared to experiment and take the risk. I’ll keep you posted on this.

Why do I call it an inflection point?

Surely it’s just another web builder AI tool. Well, not exactly.

You could build scripts and ask Claude to do this, and it would do a reasonable job, but then you’d have to maintain it for the rest of your life. Or you can work with curated experts who’ve taken the time and judgment to optimise for the right things and find that balance. I always prefer the second option.

It’s about using a curated set of knowledge, IP, and skills that already leverage AI, rather than constantly deciding which model to use, how much to spend, and worrying about tokens and the rest.

I’m happy to share more details about how this was set up and, more importantly, what doesn’t work. Ask away…

(zero tokens were used for this post)

Back then, that obsession helped Microsoft beat Apple and dominate the market.

Today, the stakes are even higher — because "developers" isn't a niche anymore.
Product managers, marketers, ops, founders, analysts. Anyone who can prompt an AI and ship workflows, scripts, and tools is effectively a developer. The developer market is 100–1000x bigger than it was in Ballmer's era.

I was writing code and attending Tech-ed conferences in the early 2000s. What I'm seeing now feels like that same inflection point — except the tent is massively bigger.

And I'm not just observing it — over the past 8 weeks, Claude Code has become my dev team. I've shipped more working tools and platform updates this month than we did in the last year.

That's why Claude Code is winning right now:

• Removes friction from making things that actually work

• Opinionated about real workflows, not generic chat

• Built for people who ship, not people who "explore AI"
  
  OpenAI is still very much in the game, but it's currently too general-purpose. Codex is fine, but Claude Code feels built for the new reality where everything is code and everyone is writing it — whether they realise it or not.
  

  The next platform winners won't just serve developers. They'll create them.
  

For the past two years, I've been using Fireflies.ai to transcribe my MS Team's, Google Meet and Zoom calls. I have hundreds of transcripts BUT Fireflies has no bulk download capability. I often run these transcripts through ChatGPT to summarise project discussions or mine them for workshop improvements that I can make. My solution was to ask my VA to download the files manually and work from there.

I’m working on a project that requires 40 to 50 files, so I needed an alternative to my VA.

Enter Claude.AI

To solve this problem, I asked Claude to suggest options. Claude suggested a Python script 👀 (despite having zero Python experience). Working on my Mac, Claude guided me through multiple iterations over about 45 minutes until we had a working solution for automatic bulk downloads. While this automation has made my virtual assistant's transcription management role redundant, it's solved my problem, saved me money and paid for my Claude, ChatGPT and Fireflies subscription!

The script has been performing excellently, and I wanted to share it with you. Try it out and let me know if you discover any bugs or potential improvements.

Here are the complete step-by-step instructions to download your Fireflies.ai transcripts:

1. Initial Setup (one-time only):

bash
# Create directory 
mkdir fireflies_downloader 
cd fireflies_downloader
 
# Create the Python script 
nano fireflies_downloader.py 

# Get your API key from Fireflies.ai: 
# 1. Log into Fireflies.ai 
# 2. Go to Settings → Developer Settings → API 
# 3. Copy your API key 
# Set your API key in Terminal 
export FIREFLIES_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
 
# Install required Python package 
pip3 install requests

2. Script Content:

• Open fireflies_downloader.py

• Press Control + K repeatedly to clear any existing content

• Paste the full script into fireflies_downloader.py

import requests
import json
import os
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import time

class FirefliesDownloader:
    def __init__(self, api_key):
        self.api_key = api_key
        self.base_url = "https://api.fireflies.ai/graphql"
        self.headers = {
            "Authorization": f"Bearer {self.api_key}",
            "Content-Type": "application/json"
        }
    
    def get_transcript_content(self, transcript_id):
        """
        Fetch detailed content for a specific transcript
        """
        query = """
        query GetTranscriptContent($id: String!) {
            transcript(id: $id) {
                title
                id
                transcript_url
                duration
                date
                participants
                sentences {
                    text
                    speaker_id
                    start_time
                }
                summary {
                    keywords
                    action_items
                }
            }
        }
        """
        
        variables = {
            "id": transcript_id
        }
        
        try:
            print(f"Fetching content for transcript {transcript_id}...")
            response = requests.post(
                self.base_url,
                headers=self.headers,
                json={"query": query, "variables": variables}
            )
            
            if response.status_code != 200:
                print(f"Error getting transcript content: {response.status_code}")
                print(response.text)
                return None
                
            data = response.json()
            if "errors" in data:
                print("API returned errors:", json.dumps(data["errors"], indent=2))
                return None
                
            return data["data"]["transcript"]
            
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
            print(f"Error fetching transcript content: {e}")
            return None

    def get_transcripts(self, limit=25, to_date=None):
        """
        Fetch list of transcripts with date filtering
        """
        query = """
        query GetTranscripts($limit: Int, $toDate: DateTime) {
            transcripts(limit: $limit, toDate: $toDate) {
                title
                id
                transcript_url
                duration
                date
                participants
            }
        }
        """
        
        variables = {
            "limit": min(limit, 25),
            "toDate": to_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000Z") if to_date else None
        }
        
        try:
            print(f"Making API request for transcripts up to date {to_date if to_date else 'now'}...")
            response = requests.post(
                self.base_url,
                headers=self.headers,
                json={"query": query, "variables": variables}
            )
            
            data = response.json()
            if "errors" in data:
                print("API returned errors:", json.dumps(data["errors"], indent=2))
                return None
                
            return data
            
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
            print(f"Error fetching transcripts: {e}")
            return None

    def save_transcripts(self, output_dir="transcripts", to_date=None):
        """
        Save all transcripts with their content
        """
        if not os.path.exists(output_dir):
            os.makedirs(output_dir)
        
        # Get existing transcripts to avoid duplicates
        existing_files = set()
        existing_ids = set()
        for filename in os.listdir(output_dir):
            if filename.endswith('.json'):
                existing_files.add(filename)
                try:
                    with open(os.path.join(output_dir, filename)) as f:
                        data = json.load(f)
                        existing_ids.add(data['id'])
                except:
                    pass
        
        last_date = to_date or datetime.now()
        while True:
            result = self.get_transcripts(limit=25, to_date=last_date)
            if not result or "data" not in result or "transcripts" not in result["data"]:
                print("No more transcripts found or error in API response")
                break
                
            transcripts = result["data"]["transcripts"]
            if not transcripts:
                print("No more transcripts found")
                break
                
            print(f"\nFound {len(transcripts)} transcripts")
            
            earliest_date = None
            for transcript in transcripts:
                # Skip if we already have this transcript
                if transcript['id'] in existing_ids:
                    print(f"Skipping existing transcript: {transcript['title']}")
                    continue
                
                print(f"\nProcessing: {transcript['title']}")
                
                # Get detailed content
                content = self.get_transcript_content(transcript['id'])
                if content:
                    transcript = content  # Replace with full content
                
                # Save the file
                date_obj = datetime.fromtimestamp(int(transcript["date"]) / 1000)
                safe_title = ''.join(c for c in transcript['title'] if c.isalnum() or c in (' ', '-', '_', '.'))
                filename = f"{date_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')}_{safe_title[:50]}.json"
                
                filepath = os.path.join(output_dir, filename)
                
                with open(filepath, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
                    json.dump(transcript, f, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)
                
                print(f"Saved transcript: {filename}")
                
                # Track earliest date we've seen
                if earliest_date is None or date_obj < earliest_date:
                    earliest_date = date_obj
                
                time.sleep(1)  # Be nice to the API
            
            if earliest_date:
                # Subtract 1 second to avoid getting the same transcript again
                last_date = earliest_date - timedelta(seconds=1)
                time.sleep(1)  # Extra pause between batches
            else:
                break

def main():
    api_key = os.getenv("FIREFLIES_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        print("Please set your FIREFLIES_API_KEY environment variable")
        return
    
    print(f"Using API key: {api_key[:5]}...{api_key[-5:]}")
    
    # Find the earliest date from existing files
    earliest_date = None
    if os.path.exists("transcripts"):
        files = os.listdir("transcripts")
        if files:
            try:
                for file in files:
                    if file.endswith('.json'):
                        with open(os.path.join("transcripts", file)) as f:
                            data = json.load(f)
                            date = datetime.fromtimestamp(int(data["date"]) / 1000)
                            if earliest_date is None or date < earliest_date:
                                earliest_date = date
                
                if earliest_date:
                    print(f"Starting from before date: {earliest_date}")
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Error reading files: {e}")
    
    downloader = FirefliesDownloader(api_key)
    downloader.save_transcripts(to_date=earliest_date)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

4. Save with Control + X, then Y, then Enter

3. Running the Script:

bash
# Navigate to the directory (if you're not already there) 
cd fireflies_downloader 

# Run the script 
python3 fireflies_downloader.py

4. What to Expect:

• First run will download the most recent transcripts

• Each subsequent run will fetch older transcripts

• Script will automatically:

  • Skip duplicates

  • Show progress

  • Create a 'transcripts' folder

  • Save each transcript as a JSON file named with date and title

5. To Get More Transcripts:

• Just run the script again

• Keep running until you see "No more transcripts found"

• Each run will go further back in time

6. Files Location:

• All transcripts are saved in the transcripts folder

• Files are named like: YYYY-MM-DD_Title.json

• Each file contains:

  • Full conversation text

  • Speaker information

  • Summary and keywords

  • Meeting metadata

7. Troubleshooting:

• If you get "API key not found" error:

bash
export FIREFLIES_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

• If you close Terminal and come back later:

bash
cd fireflies_downloader 
export FIREFLIES_API_KEY="your_api_key_here" 
python3 fireflies_downloader.py

8. Best Practices:

• Run during off-peak hours

• Let each run complete

• Keep the script and files for future use

• Make backups of your transcripts folder

The script is designed to be safe to run multiple times - it won't duplicate downloads and will automatically continue where it left off.

Less Productivity Hacks

The internet is awash with productivity hacks, but it's time to trust that I've learned enough. I've absorbed, considered, and implemented the tips that work for me. It's time to rely on my own judgment and let go of the constant search for new hacks.

Less Software to Solve the Thinking Problem

NoCode platforms have their place, but sometimes they add unnecessary complexity. This year, I'm embracing simplicity and recognizing that not every problem needs a software solution.

Less Investing Time in Future Proofing the Process

While it's important to be prepared for the future, obsessively future-proofing every process is a form of procrastination. I'll be selective in my efforts, focusing on what's truly valuable.

Less Opinions and News from the World and More Trust in My Own

It's easy to get caught up in the echo chamber of news and opinions. This year, I'm choosing to trust my own experiences and knowledge more, challenging my thinking to find truth rather than validation.

Less Reading

Reading is part of my identity, but it's become a form of procrastination. I plan to read less but more intentionally, choosing books that help me learn, grow, or unwind.

Less Relentless Growing

Growth is good, but relentless pursuit of it can be exhausting. I'm taking time to consolidate my knowledge and discard what's not useful.

Less News

The news is filled with negativity and violence. I'm choosing to engage where I can make a difference and accept that my influence is limited.

Less Work, More Play

Post-Covid, I've realized the importance of play. Moving to the ocean has reenergized me, and I'm committed to maintaining a balance between work and leisure.

More Endless Hobbies and Starting to Learn from Scratch

I'm embracing hobbies like guitar and surfing without the pressure of mastery. It's about enjoying the process and the freedom to learn at my own pace.

Less Sitting

After years of working from home, I'm prioritizing movement. More walking, standing, and engaging with people in real life.

Less Control

I'm opening myself up to spontaneity. Random encounters with strangers or friends can be soul-enriching and mentally stimulating.

Less Safety

Predictability can be stifling. I'm choosing the excitement of the unknown over the comfort of the familiar.

Less Thinking

Action trumps overthinking. I'm committed to being more proactive and back to my 'just F do it' philosophy.

Less New Stuff

I'm returning to the basics that work for me: meditation, exercise, good food, and sleep. These are the pillars of my contentment.

Less Measuring

While trackers can be useful, constant monitoring is overkill. I'm focusing on how I feel rather than obsessing over stats.

Less To-Dos

It's time to face reality and trim my to-do lists. I'm focusing on actions that have a positive impact on my life and letting go of the rest.

In essence, this list is not about doing more; it's about doing better. It's about asking the simple questions: Does it make my life better? Is it the simplest solution? Can I do less and get the same outcome? Do I get good energy from this?

Wishing you a year of less, but also, so much more.

I upgraded my Razor Core X eGPU and replaced my Macbook Pro with a Mac Mini for the perfect silent setup. No more noisy, annoying fans spinning up while recording audio.

Working from home for an extended period has made me hyper-aware of everything I can ‘optimise’ in my study. It’s optimised to within an inch of its life, but the final victory was getting my Mac setup silent. I’m using this COVID time to create our first online Pretotyping course, so a quiet environment for recording is a must.

I’ve had a fun time learning all about mics, cameras, recording, lighting, etc., but, as we know, the most important of all is limiting background noise for excellent quality audio.

Enter my trusty Macbook Pro 2018 and Razor Core X eGPU. 
Recording course content is an exercise in patience and clarity, and as you think you’ve nailed it — WHHHHHRRRRR — up spins a fan somewhere. Not happy.

So the journey begins.

Suspect #1: Razor Core X eGPU

The Razor Core X eGPU has two fans, one for extracting air from the case and another on the power supply. After much googling (thanks Reddit and eGPU Forum) I discovered that the main culprit is the power supply fan.

I replaced the power supply with the Corsair 750W SF750 Platinum High Performance SFX Power Supply and the Case Fan with the Noctua NF-F12-PWM 120mm Fan.

Voila! Silence. The PSU fan doesn’t spin up unless under at least 30% load and the case fan is silent. This is important as the eGPU is always on if it’s connected to the Mac and unplugging it every night is a pain.

Suspect #2: MacBook Pro

Next up, my overheating Macbook Pro. I considered an upgrade to the latest one, but — and it’s a big but — I’m an occasional gamer, so I need Bootcamp running, and the latest Macbooks are Intel based but moving over to ARM next year, so it’s wasted money for an end of life technology.

Mac Mini to the rescue!

Enter the Mac Mini. If you compare performance, drive size and memory this is a no brainer. Much better value than an about to be redundant Macbook Pro, the Mac Mini runs Intel for Bootcamp so is future-proofed, and practically a ‘desktop’ so I’ll get 3 to 4 years usage out of it for my use case.

“But Leslie, that’s dumb. It’s not a laptop”. We’re working from home, so all laptops are now desktops.

And, I still have my trusty 2018 MacBook Pro for when we’re out and about again so win-win.

And the result?

Absolute silence. This combo very rarely spins up the fan for work and works beautifully for gaming on Bootcamp.

And as a bonus, it’s neat, simple and tucked away, as good technology should be. Almost invisible.

I like the distinction. When an event like Coronavirus (COVID-19) happens, I grasp for control.

But you can’t control the unknown, so the best alternative is to create order.

Order in our case is an agreed schedule given we’re sharing the same apartment space for a few months without leaving. This was a very good move!

During the week we make sure that we have some time together in the day, but maintain our focus on work and use the time well.

This is an opportunity to “Choose Alive Time or Dead Time. — Robert Greene’.

One of the things we’re doing well is to make space for each other. Two hours of personal time per day. No explanations, no interruptions, no negotiating. Watch TV, work, play, whatever.

We’re also lucky to have a balcony, so the two camping chairs come out quickly when the sun peeks in. We go outside every single day regardless of the weather. First time in twelve years we’ve used the balcony so much!

Also exercise. I have cycled 20 minutes and worked out with over-door exercise cables daily. Who knew I would exercise more being locked up?

The order has been a rock to ensure we communicate well and respect each other’s space. There’s time for play and flexibility, of course, this isn’t the military or prison, but it’s a nice base to work from.

I’m not sure how long this will all go on, but so far we’re not losing it (often) and appreciating the small things we do have. I realise we’re very fortunate and a lot of people are having a really tough time right now, but if you’re grasping for control, try creating some order and relinquishing control for a while. You may be surprised how manageable this can be.

Subscribe now

Books come find me at precisely the moment I need them most.

The good thing about life is someone has been here before us and done most things. And it always helps to go to the source. We only need to open our eyes and ears and listen to their lessons.

I read. A lot. According to Amazon, I’ve averaged 23 days a month this year. It’s my hobby and keeps my mind open to new ideas and thinking. 
Here’s what I read in 2019 and how it’s impacted my thinking. Reading is ok, but it’s also wasteful if you don’t learn from it and apply some of the lessons as you forge your own path and improve.

Seeing this list for the first time, it reflects the tough year that was 2019. Health issues in the close family, year two of growing my business and lots of international and local travel. My go-to place when it’s tough is to slow down, focus on habits that are stable and I know are good for me and read to learn or relax.

I’m a binger, so I find I blast myself with a theme for a while until I’ve had enough then rotate through a few categories I like. Occasionally I throw in something I have no interest in to get out of the echo chamber of awesomeness ( my biased world view). I like self-improvement, science fiction, history, technology, experimentation and entrepreneurship / rapid growth.

Learning from those who have come before

On China — Henry Kissinger

Lesson: By far, one of the most impactful books I’ve read. The West plays win-lose Chess in fiscal quarters. China plays the 1000 year game like water flowing around pebbles, realising there is no absolute win-lose, just a sometimes uncomfortable compromise to live with and tolerate your neighbours, no matter how different.

Watching global maneuvering between the ‘West’ and China, it seems like there is so little effort expended to understand China and how it thinks and operates. Henry Kissinger gives a balanced view and great personal insight over many decades into the massive cultural differences. Politics is like Mars negotiating with Earth right now. Bizarre to watch in real-time.

The Gathering Storm, 1948 (Winston S. Churchill The Second World War Book — Winston Churchill

Who better to tell the story of WW2 than Winston Churchill?
Lesson: It’s shocking how easily we could have prevented this horrific war with a longer-term view, and by simply honouring international agreements from WW1 while not focusing on petty internal politics. Sound familiar?

The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great — Steven Pressfield

The master of history-action writing, Steven Pressfield. History told as a novel.

Upskilling

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It — Chris Voss

Lesson: 50/50 sucks. How to get what both parties want to set up the project for success.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity — David Allen

Lesson: I re-read this annually to reset and remove complexity in my work processes, flow and prioritisation.

Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It — Adam Savage

Lesson: Creation is iteration and that we need to give ourselves the room to try things that might not work in the pursuit of something that will.

Experimentation and Rapid Growth

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber — Mike Isaac

Lesson: Starting a business is hard. Rapid growth is harder. Changing an industry requires a touch of madness.

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries — Safi Bahcall

Lesson: Rethink of ‘disruptive innovation’ and more focus on the incremental change of Strategy vs Product innovation with a focus on how to create teams for loonshot vs franchise business.

A loonshot refers to an idea or project that most scientific or business leaders think won’t work, or if it does, it won’t matter (it won’t make money). It challenges conventional wisdom. Whether a change is “disruptive” or not, on the other hand, refers to the effects of an invention on a market.

Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great — Jim Collins

Lesson: Focus on my flywheel for 2020

The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed — Alberto Savoia

Lesson: Many lessons on how to beat the beast of failure here, but working with Alberto Savoia to build my business, Exponentially, has been a privilege and opened the door to working with hundreds of smart people thinking about how to spend time building the right it!

Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It — Scott Kupor and Eric Ries

Lesson: I was gifted this at a visit to Andreessen Horowitz in July. “It’s not about the money. It’s about the F-ing money.”

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck — Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (Good to Great Book 5) — Jim Collins

Lesson: “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline”.

What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture — Ben Horowitz and Henry Louis Gates

Lesson: (1)The best idea should always win, and (2) virtues (what we do and how we act when nobody is looking) always trumps values (written down nonsense nobody does or remembers).

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell — Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle

Lesson: Cut the BS and enable your teams to be excellent.

Awaken the Giant Within — Anthony Robbins

Lesson: I was biased towards listening to Anthony Robbins. I thought it’s cheesy nonsense, but there’s a lot of wisdom in radical; self-enquiry and asking the hard questions of myself. And realising how few answers I really have.

Do Better Work: Finding Clarity, Camaraderie, and Progress in Work and Life — Max Yoder

Lesson: Focus on mutual opportunities for benefit.

Self-improvement

Stillness Is the Key — Ryan Holiday

Lesson: Limit your inputs to what is useful and supports what you’re trying to achieve in your life.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams — Matthew Walker, PhD

Lesson: Why did I wait so long to learn about my body and how it really functions? I’ve slept an average of 8 hours a night for the past 10 years, so I’m on the right track. Now I understand why it matters so much.

Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2 Book Series)) — Mark Manson

Lesson: There’s no point to this whole living exercise, so enjoy your brief time here. Summed up best here:

To transcend the transactional realm of hope, one must act unconditionally. You must love someone without expecting anything in return; otherwise it’s not truly love. You must respect someone without expecting anything in return; otherwise you don’t truly respect him. You must speak honestly without expecting a pat on the back or a high-five or a gold star next to your name; otherwise you aren’t truly being honest.

The Meaning of Life — The School of Life

Lesson: I read this while my brother was fighting cancer and it really focused me on what’s important. The right book at the right time.

On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old — Parker J. Palmer

Lesson: At 52, it’s worth understanding how smarter people deal with each new decade or life-phase. My life now is more about being fulfilled than owning shiny things. And trying to avoid this:

“Most of us,” as Merton brilliantly observed, “live lives of self-impersonation.”

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World — Cal Newport

Lesson: Tech isn’t evil, but you need to consciously choose the least amount of technology to do the job that needs doing. You can’t rely on willpower because you’re competing with armies of the smartest, best-paid people on the planet designing experiences to keep you clicking, swiping and browsing.

What makes general-purpose computing powerful is that you don’t need separate devices for separate uses, not that it allows you to do multiple things at the same time.

How to Sit (Mindfulness Essentials Book 1) — Thich Nhat Hanh and Jason DeAntonis

Lesson: Mindfulness has been my number one hack for the last three years. In this turbulent year, mindfulness has helped me ‘settle’ during periods of high stress.

The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life (Stoic Philosophy Book 1) — Epictetus, Ancient Renewal, and Sam Torode

Lesson: Whenever distress or displeasure arises in your mind, remind yourself, “This is only my interpretation, not reality itself.”

“If you wish to improve,” Epictetus once said, “be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.”

Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up — Jerry Colonna

Lesson: Confronting truth bombs end to end. “How are you complicit in creating the conditions of your lives that you say you don’t want?”

The Laws of Lifetime Growth: Always Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past — Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura

Lesson: It’s ok to have a 25-year plan. I love that Dan Sullivan, at 70-something years old, has a 25-year plan. Also comforting to think about my goals over 1 5 or ten year period. Makes it much more achievable. A simple example is: If you want to make 1 Million dollars, it’s almost impossible to do this year, but it’s only 100k a year if you do it over 10.

Escapism

36 Righteous Men: A Novel — Steven Pressfield

Strange book but a fun read.

The Time Travel Chronicles (Future Chronicles Book 7) —

Samuel Peralta, Robert J. Sawyer, Rysa Walker, Lucas Bale, Anthony Vicino, Ernie Lindsey, Carol Davis, Stefan Bolz, Ann Christy, Tracy Banghart, Michael Holden, Daniel Arthur Smith, Ernie Luis, Erik Wecks, and Crystal Watanabe

The A.I. Chronicles (Future Chronicles Book 2) —

Samuel Peralta, David Simpson, Julie Czerneda, Chrystalla Thoma, Pavarti K. Tyler, Susan Kaye Quinn, Peter Cawdron, Angela Cavanaugh, E. E. Giorgi, Alex Albrinck, Sam Best, A.K. Meek, Patrice Fitzgerald, Logan Thomas Snyder, and Ellen Campbell

The End Has Come (The Apocalypse Triptych Book 3) —

John Joseph Adams , Hugh Howey , Seanan McGuire , Jonathan Maberry , Scott Sigler (Author), Ben H. Winters , Carrie Vaughn , Jamie Ford , Elizabeth Bear (Author), Ken Liu

The End is Nigh (Apocalypse Triptych Book 1) —

John Joseph Adams , Hugh Howey , Jamie Ford , Paolo Bacigalupi , Seanan McGuire (Author), Sarah Langan , Nancy Kress , Jonathan Maberry , Tananarive Due , Scott Sigler , Charlie Jane Anders

Wastelands: The New Apocalypse — John Joseph Adams

Good mix of short sci-fi stories to discover new authors.

Change Agent — Daniel Saurez

Daniel Saurez always writes excellent action sci-fi.

My Takeaways

• Stay focused on a healthy body, spirit and mind. The body is the engine that fuels the mind and spirit is relationships that bring the feeling of fulfilment.

• Keep learning

• Keep working hard with purpose

• Don’t succumb to ‘rugged individualism’. Find the multiplier.

• Avoid busyness. It’s ok to do nothing sometimes. It creates space to think.

• Play more. Life doesn’t have to be so serious all the time!

If I zoom out, It’s been a privilege to learn from all these smart people that took the time to capture their thinking and pass on their wisdom. Bring on 2020!

I’ve been using the Sony WH-1000 MX3 headphones since January. After many long haul and local flights, I started wondering if there are lighter headphones out there. I love them, but I started getting a slightly sore neck after a few hours.

After doing some research, it seemed the closest competition is the BOSE QC 35 II. According to multiple reviews, ANC (noise cancelling) and functionality are similar, but the BOSE is 1 ounce lighter and more comfortable. Today I tried them on a flight to Sydney (1.5-hour flight) and wow — was I surprised.

The Sony’s are in a completely different league! The noise-cancelling on the BOSE is ok at best, but aeroplane noise, announcements and fellow passengers chatting come through loud and clear, relative to the Sony. I also noticed the compression and decompression in my ears as we flew and was surprised by how good the Sony’s are in comparison. The BOSE are more comfortable, but marginally so. Not enough to swing me over to BOSE.

The Sony’s are a 10/10 for ANC vs around a 6 out of 10 for the BOSE. I now also appreciate the ear pressure control of the SONY. Super comfortable and better quality all round.

The weak point of the Sony is for making and receiving calls. The outbound call quality is inferior. The Bose wins hands down here.

My verdict: I’m sticking with the Sony.

The reason: Sound and noise-cancelling is next level and the reason for buying these headphones in the first place.

I wish more companies would stop the theatre of service,

• cut through their rigid, unhelpful process and

• not implement their internal perception of what they think good service is

and solve the customer problem fast.

The dreaded chat support popup

Yesterday I had an issue creating a complex automation in Pipedrive and pinged the chat window expecting the following:

Hi, I need help with xxxx

(Agent) hi!

Hi

(Agent) hi can we start with your name?

Me 🤔: ‘you know who I am. I typed it in when I started the chat and besides, I’m in your chat window using your service and I’ve authenticated by logging myself in’

….

(Agent) what can I help you with today 😀😀

Me 🤔 : READ.THE.CHAT.SUBJECT.YOU.ASKED.ME.WHEN.I.OPENED.THE.WINDOW!!

….

(Agent) here’s 3 links to a few 500 word articles. Go hunt for the answer yourself again.

Me 🤔: AAAAAARRRGGGH

(Agent) anything else I can help you with today? Remember to rate me 😊😘😍

Me 🤔 :

Fifteen minutes of my life wasted, and I hate this company that I used to love.

This is what great looks like — enter Pipedrive support

1. Open chat window

2. Type in my request for help

3. Agent greets me by name, has my account open and confirms my question with a proposed solution immediately.

4. Agent asks me to hold on for 2 minutes while she records a short personalised video showing me how to solve my specific request.

And done!

That’s 6 star customer support. Nothing fancy, no endless back and forth, just solve the problem and get me back to work.

This says to me as the customer that the company respects my time. They want to solve my problem. The agents are empowered to fix my issue the best way possible, without it being overcomplicated and rigid.

This results in an increase in my loyalty and more importantly in these days of fake, theatre driven everything — increased trust in the brand.

How do you serve your customers online?

If you see the online channel as a way to reduce call-centre headcount and get customers to do your work for you, you’re doing it wrong. Customers have no loyalty for a reason. It’s a two-way relationship like most quality relationships in life and built on trust.

Treat your customers with respect across all channels and they will stick with you.

Well done Pipedrive and thank you.

Anki Vector Robot and Magic Leap are two exponential technologies that have surprised me recently.

Magic Leap

The $2.3 billion startup that has taken four years to get its first product out the door has blown me away. I’m on the board of an Extended Reality startup, Phoria, so have seen multiple iterations of these technologies, from Google Glass through Oculus, Microsoft Hololens to the gold standard of VR, the HTC Vive. They’re all incredible tech, and useful in industry verticals like Real Estate, Training, Design Engineering, etc. but fail to answer the consumer question compellingly:

”What is it for? What can it do 10X better than I can do right now?” 
Without solving this, behaviour does not change.

Then they launched the Magic Leap on 8/8/18. Based on reviews by journalists who tried the Magic Leap, I expected a slightly larger viewport Microsoft Hololens.

I was so wrong.

Image, if you will, a computer slightly bigger than a mobile phone clipped to your belt and a light, comfortable headset. And a small mouse-sized controller. That’s it.

No cables, no pc, no phone.

Absolute freedom. Touching and engaging with the AR rendered world using your hands. Mapping a large room in real-time. This is the future. We have LEAPt across the chasm.

ANKI Vector

I love the idea of robots being useful and how frustratingly challenging this is to get right. I bought the HEXA, as 6-legged, Programmable, Highly Maneuverable Robot a few months ago and, although technically smart, it’s basically a radio control car with six legs. Sure, it’s programmable, but the community is tiny, and the sensors are few. Disappointed.

Enter Vector. “a robot sidekick for your home”.

They nailed it. This little guy roams around the desk, recognises you, gets excited when you’re around, throws tantrums, is not 100% controllable and has heaps of personality — just the right amount of sensors and awareness and randomness. I love the evolution of this tech. ANKI has created a crowdsourced platform of thousands of robots to learn from and the same number of humans to practice on. CEO and co-founder of Anki, Boris Sofman sums it up here on this a16z Podcast.

Anki Vector Meets Magic Leap

What happens when you put a smart little robot in an Augmented Reality world generated by Magic Leap?

Magic Happens

Anki Vector Robot meets Magic Leap Extended Reality

and this is what it looks like in the current / “real” world

My Predictions:

1. Magic Leap has started the exponential curve of mass adoption of useful, unobtrusive Extended Reality. ETA 2020

2. Vector has started the exponential curve of mass adoption for a smart, helpful robot. ETA 2022

Links

ANKI Vector: https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector
Magic Leap: https://www.magicleap.com/

Phoria XR: https://www.phoria.com.au/projects/google-io
Exponential Innovation: https://exponentiali.com

It’s year four of my experiment to figure out how to apply startup and scale-up techniques, tools, and tactics to corporate innovation.

After selling GetViable in 2013, a platform to help founders get from idea to MVP, I wanted to solve a bigger, seemingly obvious problem. How do you connect start-ups to corporate innovators to drive value for both?

Since July 2014 I’ve been running a multi-year experiment, to understand how to plug start-ups into corporates. Start-ups have ideas, entrepreneurial people and freedom of thought and corporates have money, scale, resources, mature processes, and customers.

My thesis is that you can use well-proven techniques, tactics, and tools used by start-ups and scale-ups in a corporate innovation environment to drive real innovation that delivers results.

What are great innovation results anyway?

• An employee engagement program to help staff think about problems in a new way, amplifying the work of the frustrated innovators in the business.

• A training program to teach these techniques to staff, like Lean Startup, Design Thinking, Pretotyping and Pirate Metrics so they have the tools to stop and assess ideas before wasting precious resources on the wrong ideas.

• An experimentation program to rapidly test, learn and prepare for new technologies, services or business models.

• An evangelist to help the organization to understand that the sky is falling right now and we better get off our asses and innovate.

Or the holy grail.

• Creating disruptive, non-organic growth by finding that 10x breakthrough product that customers love and will part with cash to have.

All I needed was a company willing to let me figure it out.

Three years later I’ve worked for two of these companies.

Experiment 1: Outside-in. Consulting with ThoughtWorks

ThoughtWorks is on the edge of self-managed, empowered people/culture. They have a reputation for excellent, smart technical people, are niche and expensive and attract clients that want this. Perfect.

ThoughtWorks attracted this client-base and sent me in whenever someone said ‘disruption’, ‘innovation’, ‘startup’, ‘accelerator’, ‘fail-fast’, ‘lean startup’, etc. 
This allowed me to engage with forward-thinking members of large corporates who wanted to learn more and experiment.
Finding the brave soul driving innovation at these companies is key.

This gave me a good level of insight of what Tier 1 companies in Australia and New Zealand think innovation is, how they approach innovation and the challenges and opportunities executing innovation projects.

What I learned here is:

• Innovation creates strategic advantage. Most clients are happy for short-term engagements but realise very quickly that they need to execute their innovation initiatives themselves for exactly this reason. The challenge is they don’t have the right people, mindset or tools and techniques to do so in most cases.

• There is an abundance of smart people and great ideas inside each business. They just need to be unleashed and appropriately guided and managed. Finding ideas is not the problem — figuring out which ideas to pursue or discard is the challenge. Pretotyping is ideal for this.

The opposite, however, is true.

• Sticking ideas onto a wall, chatting about them, Lean Startup, Lean Canvas, Pretotyping, etc. seem simple on the surface. Few people put in the effort to understand and execute these correctly or to learn the right way to approach early stage innovation, resulting in poor outcomes, money and time wasted on the wrong ideas and as a result, surprise — poor or no outcomes.

Experiment 1 Complete. It was time to move on.

Experiment 2: Inside-out. Heading Innovation at Sportsbet

I was looking for a high growth, digital e-commerce company that genuinely wanted to experiment and innovate. The company also had to be relatively autonomous with decision making — hard to find in Australia as most larger corporates are sales offices of larger conglomerates, regardless of what they tell you. I wanted to have a platform to figure out what worked, test these techniques at scale and plug early stage start-ups into the process to innovate at pace.

Sportsbet fit the bill perfectly for this phase of the experiment. Sportsbet gave me a decent budget and leeway to mold the team in the best way we could. We settled on three startup techniques to filter out the good ideas from the not-yet-ready ideas:

• Pretotyping by Alberto Savoia from Google / Stanford

• Lean Canvas by Ash Maurya

• 500 Startups Pirate Metrics

We tested hundreds of ideas by combining these three approaches, saving millions of dollars by not building the wrong stuff. Quickly validating ideas to productise them and creating an environment where everyone could participate in innovation.

What I learned here

One the biggest learnings is that innovation is a new discipline for most and tough to execute.

As an Innovation Leader:

• You’re a change agent. And everybody hates change.

• You’re an evangelist.

• You’re a salesperson.

• You’re a technologist.

• You’re a VC.

• You’re a cynical optimist.

• You’re a storyteller.

• You’re a mentor.

• You’re a relentless communicator.

Outside again

At the end of July 2017, I left the Head of Innovation role at Sportsbet.

Every few years I like to step out, assess the landscape and deliberately choose where I focus my energy next. This is that time.

I think of employers as systems I pass through where we exchange value — I bring knowledge, capability, and outcomes and they bring knowledge, resources, customers, and cash. This relationship needs to be in balance, and when it’s not one of us should leave.
 
In both cases, I decided to leave while we still valued and liked each other. The business is in a good state to continue on the innovation path it has chosen, hopefully enhanced in some small way by me being there. My relationship with the people and business remain in place for future engagement.

After three years, I’ve learned that Innovation Leadership needs:

• Unwavering executive support. Test this with Question 1 from McKinsey’s ‘The eight essentials of innovation’,

Do you accept innovation-led growth as absolutely critical, and do you have cascaded targets that reflect this?

which concludes with

‘In our experience, though, CEOs are likely just going through the motions if they don’t use evaluations and remuneration to assess and recognise the contribution that all top managers make to innovation.’

• a three-year horizon at most. Why? This is the tenure of many CEO’s and they’re working for their near-term bonus unless…

• there is an environment of genuine constraint to get traction. Think energy retailers, general retailers under threat from Amazon, the music industry, etc

• an unwavering belief and trust that the ‘process’ will deliver tangible and intangible benefits to the business,

• strategic clarity and alignment,

• the right people. People that don’t fit properly, challenge the norm, have startup or innovation experience and Get Shit Done.

• space and time to experiment,

• a global network of relationships,

• humility,

• being a strong and active node in the local innovation network (see Brad Feld’s thinking).

Experiment 3: Outside-in?

I know it’s time to move on and find the next thing. Right now this looks like working with scale-ups, accelerators, engaging with corporate innovators, venture partnering or innovation consulting.

I want a broader perspective and success looks like this:

When I look back in a few years time I’ve helped to impact entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, and the innovation ecosystem positively, at scale.

As the next step I’ve just returned from spending time with some of the biggest thinkers I know — the Singularity University Global Summit in San Francisco. This conference made a tremendous impact on my thinking last year and this year didn’t disappoint.

More on that to come.

Onwards…

How I moved from Macbook Air to iPad Pro for work and home
Two weeks ago I started an experiment to see if I could move to exclusively using an iPad Pro. To overcome my…insideinnovation.co

Thanks, Brendan Duong for asking how it’s going one year later.

All the apps I mentioned in the initial article are high quality and work well, but I have to make special mention of Microsoft Outlook — who decided that restricting pasting content out of Outlook makes any sense at any level? “Security”, you say? Easy to get around — email it to Evernote or your private email account. Silly and incredibly annoying. Treating Microsoft Office apps as a walled garden defeats the purpose of working on a highly mobile and integrated device.

Another standout is Dropbox. The integration is excellent and serves as the glue binding many of the apps together.

On reflection, I’m probably using the iPad around 30% of the time if I average it out. 100% when I travel.

The reasons are:

• x Gorilla Shoulder is a thing. A few hours use and shoulder pain is an issue, which compounds over a few days. Reaching out and touching a screen in front of you is not a natural motion. An iPad with a mouse would solve this.

• Creating content is painful. A simple blog needs lots of task switching compared to dragging stuff around on the laptop. Spreadsheets are unworkable.

• I love Dashlane for passwords, and it works with the iPad, but it’s still clunky.

• It’s faster for my working style to copy and drag between few windows.

• I’m testing iOS11 Beta, and some of these issues will be solved, but the show-stopper is the Gorilla Shoulder.

I’m going to do the opposite experiment for a month. Use the laptop exclusively and see if I miss the iPad. I love it for travel and meetings for note taking so I’ll miss that. Also, it’s super light and manageable, so it’s always handy.

Steven Sinofsky and Benedict Evans I know you’re heavy users of the iPad. What’s your experience after one year?

Here’s some things I’m playing with.

Facebook Messenger Bot

Beat Elon Musk to Mars. Facebook Messenger bot to learn about chatbot Engagement.

Click to try -> Ride the Dragon Rocket.

Connector Messenger Bot

Slidestorm Messenger Bot

It’s May 2013, and I’m in San Francisco with Dougal Edwards, my co-founder.

We’re a year into building GetViable, a platform that helps startup founders go from idea to product-market fit.

We’re pitching investors, networking and learning like crazy. On a Tuesday morning, I reach out to a VC friend of mine and ask him if he knows Guy Kawasaki.

I wanted to meet Guy and see if we could get him on board.

The first thing the next morning we get a short email from Guy, agreeing to meet the next day in Menlo Park as he had an hour to spare over lunch on the way to the airport.

We’re excited and terrified.

What are we going to ask for? Would he get it? Are we punching above our weight?

We’d had a lukewarm response on the trip so far as our proposition was complicated: Build a platform to gather data that gives a leading indicator of which startups are more likely to make it to a seed round and then use that data to position ourselves for crowdfunding for startups.

Three years too early. But we didn’t know it then. Clearly, the VC’s did.

We go over our pitch again and again and head down to Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park.

Guy is friendly, engaging and very candid. We pitch our product and ask for feedback, and after some thought, Guy looks at us and says:

“You guys have one big problem — who the fuck are you?”

…and he’s absolutely right.

He’s not being an asshole.

What he’s saying is that we need credibility, a track record, runs on the board and referenceability to build trust.

GetViable traded on trust that we were capable of helping early-stage founders and trust from investors that we could do this. We promptly asked if he would join our advisory board to help with this.

He politely declined (surprise) and said that Google was keeping him pretty busy. He did give us free access to include his excellent ten slides on pitching to investors which we incorporated into the product.

This one insight completely changed our approach to the business. We didn’t pivot completely but started paying careful attention to the small details that build trust. And it worked. BigColors acquired GetViable in October 2013.

Thank you, Guy, for the time and the excellent advice.

This is a fine example of someone who subscribes to the approach of “Give because you received, not give so you can get”.

Guy had zero incentive to take an hour of his time to meet with two guys from Australia with a tiny startup.

This is the second lesson I took from this meeting, and I believe it has made me a better mentor and advisor as I continue to work with startups today.

So have a think about your startup and figure out — Who the F are you?

If you’re looking to clarify your Purpose & Focus, I suggest reading these 3 books in this order. Deep Work, The One Thing and Essentialism.

Over the next few days, I’m listing the top three books I’ve read that have educated and impacted me across many areas of my life. I suggest reading them in the order below to get the most benefit.

Coming up are:

• Habits

• Starting your Startup

• Venture Capital

• Artificial Intelligence

• Human History and the Future

• Science Fiction

• Thinking Exponentially

Let’s start with Purpose and Focus.

Purpose and Focus

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
by Cal Newport

Many modern knowledge workers now spend most of their brain power battling distraction and interruption, whether because of the incessant pinging of devices, noisy open-plan offices or the difficulty of deciding what deserves your attention the most.

Most of us, after all, are excruciatingly familiar with shallow work instead — distractedly skimming the surface of our workload and never getting to the important part. Newport began exploring the methods and mindset that foster a practice of distraction-free productivity at work, and now, in DEEP WORK, he shows how anyone can achieve this elusive state.

I started with Deep Work to understand how to regain focus in my distracting world of technology, bright shiny things and people. I have come to value long blocks of time to think and then do vs reacting to the busyness trap.

Once I had more time, which this discipline creates , I started wondering what I’m doing and if what I’m busy with is valuable to me and those around me.

The One Thing: The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results by Gary Keller

YOU WANT LESS.

You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what’s the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller pay cheques, fewer promotions-and lots of stress.

AND YOU WANT MORE.

You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends.

NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH-LESS AND MORE.

After reading this book I spent two days working through my One Thing. It’s hard to really drill down into what you really want to achieve and the impact you would like to make on the world. This is one of those books that you need to action, not only read. I did and it’s kept me really focused over the last 6 months.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Have you ever found yourself struggling with information overload? Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilized? Do you ever feel busy but not productive? If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is to become an Essentialist.

This book helped me refocus on doing Less, but Better. I find it too easy to get busy with lots of good opportunities which takes my focus away from the great ones. It’s about choosing what I do each day versus someone else choosing for me.

Coming up next are the top 3 books on Habits.

[Place one hippo on the desk in front of each of the Executive Team]

“I do not care who you are, how much or little experience you have, what you have seen work before, what your gut or intuition tell you, what you think and especially not what you feel. I only care about data.”

My risky opening statement to the leadership team set the stage for delivering aggressive innovation, and with it, disruptive results.

I wanted to make the point that a powerful way to sift through hundreds of ideas and experiment with the best ones was to focus on data and only data. Not anyone’s opinion, but facts.

After a few uncomfortable glances around the room, with my point made, they had a good snigger, and I am still here.

Why the Hippo?

The HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion is not what matters. The data you get back from customers matters. 
Data proves that the problem you are trying to solve exists.

Data proves which of the many innovative solutions you test with customers are 10x better than the way they currently solve the problem. If your solution is not significantly better, the customer has zero incentive to switch to your product or service.

I have handed out over a hundred of these Hippo’s over the last 18 months. They are a powerful symbol of a relentless focus on the customer, and using this customer data to make informed decisions.

All Ideas Are Worth One Million Dollars

This is how much we save every time we do not pursue an idea. When you take the HIPPO approach, ideas are attempted based on influence, energy, salesmanship or political will. Using data mostly negates these tendencies.

Ignoring the HIPPO

An example is an idea I pursued to solve the naming problem for websites and startups. At the time we were helping founders turn their ideas into MVP’s, and every founder spent way too much time looking for the perfect name for their startup. 
There was a problem. How do I find a good name that’s no longer than five letters with a .com domain that is available? 
We rushed off and built a beautiful site that would ask your close circle of friends via Facebook messenger for name suggestions with a shared bounty as a prize. It had virality, an existing network and gamified rewards built right in.

We forgot one important step: Asking ourselves “what is the smallest possible version of this we can do that costs little to validate our solution.” We also forgot to measure the customer action vs. their intent. We were the HIPPO!

This idea failed because customer’s friends did not want to be paid for ideas or ‘spammed’ in Facebook messenger. If we had gone with a data-first approach, we would have manually sent messages to a sample of our customers or own friends and measured the results. We could have saved thousands of dollars and got the answer in 2 weeks. 
Data first.

What to measure?

My answer to this question at the early stage of an idea is always the same. Use Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics.

There are very few ideas that cannot be validated or improved by these metrics. The secret is:

• Find the OMTM (One Metric That Matters) that is a clear leading indicator of each stage of the funnel.

• Measure week on week GROWTH for each cohort of users.

At this early stage, absolute numbers do not matter much. What is important is the relationship between A,A,R,R,R, and the growth rate for each metric. This allows you to make rational decisions based on data (facts not feelings or bias) and improve what’s not working or amplify what’s working.

Embracing the PIRATE

An example of data driving the next phase decision is a Facebook Messenger bot. We built the basic bot with minimum functionality to test how customers would engage.

These are the metrics we used:

Acquire — Clicks on the bot

Activate — Start conversation with the bot

Retain — Complete conversation with the bot

Revenue — Call To Action (subscribe or leave email)

Refer — Share

The Pirate Metrics quickly revealed what works and what does not.

What about the Bean Counters?

People trust data. If the data coming back shows no growth week on week, and we are indeed acting on that data and killing ideas which are bad, there’s a level of comfort with people and areas of the business that are looking for those numbers.

This focus on data and week on week growth gives the business a sense of trust in the process, provided these numbers are used for clear decision making.

During this validation phase, you need to stay commercially aware, run as lean as you can and spend the least amount of money possible. Resist having a commercial conversation too early as you will kill potential outlier ideas that have some upside.

HIPPO or PIRATE?

I have used this approach working with hundreds of startups and corporate ideas in innovation teams, and it always delivers. Try the HIPPO’s and PIRATE’s — you may be surprised at the results.

Do you choose ideas based on what the HIPPO thinks and feels or on customer data?

After a week at SXSW Interactive 2017, it’s my first and last. 
SXSW seems like the place to be seen rather than be educated and inspired. 
Parties are awesome, music is fantastic, and movies are movies so I’m sure it’s a fun break as a music festival, but

I experienced SXSW as a huge self-promotional event to be seen at vs. a platform for inspiring and learning.

My focus is on technology, startups, and innovation, and I travel to educate myself, do business and build relationships.

Don’t get me wrong, SXSW was fun, and fun is good, but I found the focus of the events and sessions I attended light on content and heavy on famous personalities.

It was interesting to see Tim Ferriss, Chris Sacca, Buzz Aldrin, Mark Cuban and other influential people, but for the same money and time investment, CES is the winner hands down.

The best value of the week

• Kimball Musk is impressive in his quest to bring real food to the mass market at a close-to-fast-food price point. He discussed the strategy, execution and challenge. I hope he succeeds.

• The Andreessen Horowitz event where I met nine amazing people in 2 hours and have some good, actionable outcomes. This is A-level hustling in a shark tank filled with pros. An awesome experience.

Up there with a16z was Stephen Wolfram demo’ing the Wolfram language to make AI accessible to more people. This was really impressive training a quick AI on stage in realtime. Brave!

The Queues

The queues are painful. What’s the point of paying a few thousand dollars for a ticket when you have to wait for hours to see anyone, while missing the opportunity to see someone else speak. I know ‘that’s how it is at SXSW’, but its not ok. I’d rather pay more and get into what I’d like to attend.

The CES difference

CES is different. Loads of quality deep dives by experts doing the doing with insight into the future vs companies pimping their wares at SXSW. As an example, at the last CES, we arrived before the exhibition and attended some quality discussions on the future of Voice by the Amazon Echo team and the CEO of Fitbit discussing the wearables landscape in detail.

If you’re a technology company looking to the future, or an entrepreneur building the next big thing, I‘d spend my money on CES over SXSW to get the most value for your investment.

There’s a lot of information out there about great life habits, morning and daily routines of high performing people and optimising your life. I’ve distilled what works for me down to a simple acronym to keep me on track. I call it MEXS.

Late last year, I found myself in a phase of reading many books on habits, like Tools of Titans, where Tim Ferris captures and distils habits and routines of some very successful people that he’s interviewed on the Tim Ferris Show. I’ve also read Deep Work, Do the Work, The Effective Executive, The One Thing, The Hard Thing about Hard Things, Mastery, ReWork, The Shallows, So Good they can’t Ignore You, The Sublte art of not giving a F*ck and Zero to one. (Book links are here if you’re interested)

These all relate to changing behaviour and optimising output to some extent.

Too Much Information

All this habit information can get overwhelming, much like all the diet and leadership advice out there that often sends conflicting signals.

To keep it simple and actionable, MEXS keeps me focused each day on what’s important to keep my mind, body, and energy levels in good shape.

Let’s break it down.

M is for Meditate. I meditate every day as soon as I wake up. This is a simple 10-minute meditation, and I use the Headspace app for this. I’ve tried other times of the day, but my chattering head-monkey makes it hard to focus. My head is clearest as soon as I wake up, so this works for me.

E is for Eat. My objective is to stay healthy, not win a body contest, so this helps me make (mostly) good choices when I eat. I eat a healthy breakfast, an ok lunch, and healthy dinner. Of course I eat burgers, etc. sometimes but as long as I’m choosing consciously I get this right 5 out of seven days. Good enough for me.

X is for exercise. I head off to the gym directly after the Meditation. Once again, the best time of day for me, as I get it done before the day starts. The morning is the only part of my day I can actually control, as much as I like to think otherwise. Theres’ simply too many moving parts later in the day. The added benefit of this is that it helps me self-regulate when I’m out in the evenings for an event as I know I have to get up for Gym.

S is for sleep. Without a good night’s sleep, all the above is meaningless. I aim for at least 8 hours sleep a night and have been getting this much for the last few years. I’m focused and productive during the day. Quality output is more important than busyness and seeing sleep deprivation as some badge of honor.

I’ve used MEXS for the past 6 months, and it’s been a great way to stay on track.

What works for you?

I’ve been blogging for many years, starting with Blogger, then Wordpress, then Posterous, then Wordpress, then Squarespace, then Wordpress, then Medium with a custom domain.

What I’ve learned is that the trade-off between getting hacked and endless plugins, maintenance and updates (looking at you self-hosted Wordpress), and flexibility, ease of writing and distribution is worth paying for.

Medium has taken away all those irritations. I don’t need to stuff around with hundreds of plugins or get frustrated with the limitations of Squarespace.

With Medium I sign up, I create a publication, I write and I publish. I haven’t once thought about which plugin I need since signing up over a year ago.
The fact that this seems so easy and trivial is the Magic and worth $7.49 AUD a month.

As Mark Twain wrote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

Medium has taken the time to write the short letter with a quality, seamless experience.

My time is worth more than $7.49 a month.

The debate around how much ideas are worth is over.

All ideas are worth One Million Dollars.

One Million Dollars is how much we save for each idea we don’t do. We get hundreds of ideas coming at us in the form of customer feedback, customer service staff, hack days, automation and optimization suggestions, startups, partners, vendors and organically within the business. Deciding which ideas not to pursue saves us money.

Kill the bad ideas quickly.

Our first job, like Google X, is to get the smartest people in the business to help kill as many of those ideas as fast as possible. We do this by asking:

• Is this legal?

• Does the idea already exist in another form?

• Is the idea feasible at the moment given available resources technology and environment?

• What is the effort vs. potential value?

• Does the idea have potential to create a material impact on our business

• Does the idea focus on the customer?

• Does the idea remove friction for the customer and improve the experience?

The balance and secret sauce is avoiding favorites and keeping ‘feasibility’ really broad. We all know that Uber, Snapchat, and AirBnB sounded ridiculous at first.

At this point, we have saved the business millions of dollars in effort, technology, marketing and maintenance costs for each idea we didn’t do. 80% of ideas drop out at this stage.

It’s about the savings.

Thinking about savings is vital as the ongoing attempts to justify Return on Innovation Investment (ROII) are necessary but hard to quantify at this early stage. Framing the innovation framework and approach to finding the next big thing regarding dollars saved works well for us.

This number adds up fast as we move through getting problem-solution fit using Pretotyping, testing product-market fit and finally doubling down on the winners. At this stage, 95% of ideas will drop out. If you have hundreds of ideas coming into your business, think of the millions of dollars you’ve saved the business.

One Million Dollars? Really?

Your number may not be one million, but there is a number that is realistic for your business. When you consider the cost of a full product lifecycle from idea to product retirement and you may be surprised at how much ideas, not done, are worth.