学习英语：每日一篇英文---源于Seth's Blog

女汉子

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Justice and dignity, the endless shortage

You will never regret offering dignity to others.

We rarely get into trouble because we overdo our sense of justice and fairness. Not just us, but where we work, the others we influence. Organizations and governments are nothing but people, and every day we get a chance to become better versions of ourselves.

And yet... in the moments when we think no one is looking, when the stakes are high, we often forget. It's worth remembering that justice and dignity aren't only offered on behalf of others.

Offering people the chance to be treated the way we'd like to be treated benefits us too. It goes around.

The false scarcity is this: we believe that shutting out others, keeping them out of our orbit, our country, our competitive space—that this somehow makes things more easier for us.

And this used to be true. When there are 10 jobs for dockworkers, having 30 dockworkers in the hall DOEsn't make it better for anyone but the bosses.

But today, value isn't created by filling a slot, it's created by connection. By the combinations created by people. By the magic that comes from diversity of opinion, background and motivation. Connection leads to ideas, to solutions, to breakthroughs.

The false scarcity stated as, "I don't have enough, you can't have any," is more truthfully, "together, we can create something better."

We know it's the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing.

女汉子

The beat goes on

That's what makes it the beat.

There are other things that stop. That start. That go faster or slower.

But don't worry about the beat. We can't change the beat. The beat continues.

When we're watching it, it continues, and when we're distracted, it continues. Beat by beat, day by day, it continues.

Awareness of our forward motion, of the tick and tock as we move from yesterday to tomorrow... it gives us perspective and patience if we let it. Or it can stress us out. Up to us.

Look, there goes another one.

What will you do with the next one?

女汉子

"Direct feedback is never poison. What's toxic is the fact that the individual refuses to accept it, improve on it and grow moving forward. If you brew coffee for the whole on a daily basis out of sheer goodwill, then one day someone had the courage to speak up and say your recipe sucks, would you stop your 'goodwill routine,' harbor bitterness and cry like a child? OR, would you listen to that person's feedback, take notes and ask how you can improve?" - my morning thoughts

女汉子

Yes, there's a free lunch

In a physical economy in which scarcity is the fundamental driver, eating lunch means someone else gets less.

But in a society where ideas lead to trust and connection and productivity, where working together is better than working apart, where exchange creates value for both sides...

Then the efficient sharing of ideas is its own free lunch.

All of us are smarter than any of us, so the value to all goes up when you share.

女汉子

The big hill

There's a commuter shortcut near my house.

To make it work, you need to accelerate the SUV up a really big hill, breaking the speed limit by ten or twenty mph. Then roll a stop sign, avoid a few kids walking to school and gun it on the downhill.

All to save three minutes.

Meanwhile, the other commuters arrive at work with their psychic energy saved for the real work. The hard work of confronting the status quo.

The first shortcut is selfish. It wastes resources and engages in risk to help no one but the driver.

The other work, though, is priceless. Those are the hills worth taking.

女汉子

Your kitchen table

You open the door and the vacuum cleaner salesperson comes in, and dumps a bag of trash in your living room.

Or a neighbor sneaks in the back door and uses a knife to put gouges on the kitchen table.

Or, through the window, someone starts spraying acid all over your bookshelf...

Why are you letting these folks into your house?

Your laptop and your phone work the same way. The reviews and the comments and the breaking news and the texts that you read are all coming directly into the place you live. If they're not making things better, why let them in?

No need to do it to yourself, no need to let others do it either.

女汉子

Where are the movie stars?

I'm sitting in a crowded lobby in Los Angeles, surrounded by 100 or so people. Not one of them looks like a movie star. No one has perfect hair, a perfect family, a perfect life.

I'm at a fancy conference in Boulder. There are a thousand CEOs and founders here. Not one is gliding through her day the way the folks on magazine covers are. Not one has a glitch-free project and the clear sailing that the articles imply.

And here, at the gym in Yonkers, I'm not seeing a single person who looks like he could be on the cover of Men's Health.

Role models are fine. But not when they get in the way of embracing our reality. The reality of not enough time, not enough information, not enough resources. The reality of imperfection and vulnerability.

There are no movie stars. Merely people who portray them now and then.

女汉子

The Bannister Method

Roger Bannister did something that many people had said was impossible.

He ran a mile in four minutes.

The thing is, he didn't accomplish this by running a mile as fast as he could.

He did it by setting out to run a mile in four minutes.

Bannister analyzed the run, stride by stride. He knew how long each split needed to be. He had colleagues work in a relay, pacing him on each and every section of the mile.

He did something impossible, but he did it by creating a series of possible steps.

It's easy to get hung up on, "as possible." As fast, as big, as much, as cheap, as small...

The Bannister Method is to obsess about "enough" instead.

女汉子

Ignore sunk clowns

Yes there was supposed to be a clown at your birthday party. No, he didn’t show up. That’s a bummer.

But! But your friends are all here, and the sun is shining and you’ve got cake and a game of pin the tail on the donkey ready to go.

The question is: how long should you mourn the loss of the clown? How much more of your party are you ready to sacrifice?

The same question confronts the pro golfer who three-putted on the third hole.

Or the accountant who forgot an obvious deduction, one that can’t be recovered.

Or the salesperson who missed a key meeting, or the speaker who got let down because the tech crew screwed up her first three slides.

If it doesn’t help, why bathe in it?

When we can see these glitches as clowns, as temporary glitches that are unrelated to the cosmic harmony of the universe or even the next thing that’s going to happen to us, they’re easier to compartmentalize.

That happened.

Okay, now what?

女汉子

The Super Bowl is for losers

[But selling projects well isn't. There are five things every project organizer can learn from the stadium builders...]
The Times reports that the people of Minnesota spent half a billion dollars (more accurately written as $500,000,000.00) to build a stadium and make concessions that led to being able to host the big game today. And, like every other city that has invested heavily in the NFL over the last decade or more, they will certainly lose money, probably a lot of money. More money than we can easily visualize.

So why does it keep happening?

Why, despite volumes of documented evidence, do well-intentioned people spearhead new projects like this? There's a valuable set of lessons here about human behavior:

• The project is now. It's imminent. It's yes or no. You can't study it for a year or a decade and come back to it. The team creates a forcing function, one that turns apathy into support or opposition.
• The project is specific. Are there other ways that Minneapolis could have effectively invested five hundred million dollars? Could they have created access, improved education, invested in technology, primed the job market? Without a doubt. But there's an infinite number of alternatives vs. just one specific.
• The end is in sight. When you build a stadium, you get a stadium. When you host a game, you get a game. That's rarely true for the more important (but less visually urgent) alternatives.
• People in power and people with power will benefit. High profile projects attract vendors, businesses and politicians that seek high profile outcomes. And these folks often have experience doing this, which means that they're better at pulling levers that lead to forward motion.
• There's a tribal patriotism at work. "What do you mean you don't support our city?"
  

For me, the biggest takeaway is to realize that in the face of human emotions and energy, a loose-leaf binder from an economist has no chance. If you want to get something done, you can learn a lot the power of the stadium builders. They win a lot.