Hey folks,
Around this time last year I had started plotting an independent path out of corp tech. By November 1, I had bought a domain and registered the company. I didn’t have to do either of those things since I wouldn’t be able to take on clients till Feb 2024 anyway (gardening leave + notice period etc).
Behavioral economics teaches us the concept called ‘signaling’ - there are two kinds: external and internal. External signals are what we do so others would see us a certain way, like teenage boys who buy Stüssy hoodies. Internal signals are a message to self. An accountability mechanism. Like buying a Volvo because you want to be the parent who puts safety first. And in my case, a reassurance that I’m not going to be starting from scratch on Feb 1st. We often tend to think of life as big dramatic moments and “pivots” - but those are often made of small decisions that we take without overcommitment, and hence, without the panic of risk.
Can you share this post with one other person? Pretty please🫰🏽
Those two small steps were preceded by an even tinier one that I’d taken months earlier - picing a name. In Feb 2023, before I even had a silhouette of an idea of a company, I came across an instagram post by one of my favorite magazines. On slide 3 of the carousel was this word that jumped out and arrested my mind.
I’ve been reading Oliver Burkeman’s latest book where his advice is similar:
“…indecision can feel so oddly comfortable: it’s a from of postponement, a temporary avoidance of the painful sacrifices involved. To make a decision - any decision - is to take ownership of the situation.”
I hope you take a tiny decision this weekend.
Back to urban sketching this week…came across this photo of an old copper facade building in Toranomon area of Tokyo.
Here are the finds for this week:
- MAP / TERRITORY I’m a big fan of Adam Curtis’s take on the state of media and…well…everything. He’s a documentary filmmaker with a precise diagnosis of the world that is hard to ignore. This interview with him gives us a taste: “Have you seen Inside Out 2? It’s all about anxiety. The new character is anxiety; it was trauma last year, anxiety this year. What’s fascinating about Inside Out 2 is that there’s no mention of changing society. This is the modern thing: you deal with it all inside yourself, forget society.”
- 72 SEASONS I’ve written about this before. This came up in a potential partnership conversation for snowbird this week. Rather than lumping every day into one of four seasons, which, lets face it, are rarely accurate these days, the Japanese calendar is split into 72 different sections. We are currently in Crickets chirp around the door (October 18th - 22nd).
- OLD AWARD IN A NEW WORLD The biggest winner at last week’s Nobel laureate announcements was “AI hype”. But it also pointed out how dated the award can feel. “Science is ever more of a team effort, a beautiful, essential reality that the Nobels, with their strict rules and categories, are unable to properly celebrate. It is unfortunate that, due to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the prize has to go to no more than three people, when our marvelous discovery is the work of more than a thousand.”
- AI & WEATHER A four-day weather forecast is as accurate now as a one-day forecast was in 1995. And AI promises to extend those gains days, weeks, and months into the future and at finer and finer geographic scales, even down to the microclimate and neighborhood level.
- DATA POWER As the number of data centers in Ireland grows, with 82 in operation and another 40 slated to be built, so, too, will their energy footprint. The prospect of rolling blackouts has become more and more likely.