What I’ve Learned, 2006

I recently read that on average we spend about twelve percent of our daily thoughts on the future. That’s almost an eighth of our waking moments pondering things that have yet to occur. I think what makes this time of the year so special isn’t necessarily that it lets us spend even more time thinking about the future, but rather that it affords us a moment to reflect on the year that has passed, and use this as guidance for our lives from this point forward.

I guess that’s a more eloquent way of saying that instead of listing a bunch of new year’s resolutions that I probably won’t keep, I based my goals for 2007 on some lessons I’ve learned through personal experience in 2006.

Don’t underestimate people and their ideas.

Be water my friend. (via brtsergio)

I think one of the toughest things to do is to approach ideas with a mind like water, no matter who or where they come from. It’s hard to break free from, for instance, the mindset that comes with knowing if someone’s had years of experience versus no experience at all. It’s a temporary blindness that absolutely influences the way we behave, and it’s unavoidable, especially in the moment.

One of my goals for 2007 is to do a better job of recognizing when and why I’m not taking someone as serious as I should be, and also to review these same ideas and suggestions at a later time. Saying hmm… interesting is a great way of circumventing a faulty snap-judgement.

Act quicker, be more decisive.

Last year I realized how much I worried about making the right choices. Sometimes I’d postpone a decision for fear of not making the right one. I kept wanting to “think about it some more” when in reality, the only real way to know if something was a mistake was to try it out and see if it worked. It’s natural to run through the trial and error process in your head or even on paper, but if other people are depending on your decisions, there’s comes a point when saying you’ll “think about it some more” does nothing but harm to the group’s confidence. A while back, Noah wrote some excellent thoughts on decision-making. I strongly encourage you to check those out.

Seek out ways to improve my ability to change.

One of the reasons we tend to postpone decision-making is that sometimes these decisions are difficult to change. But, if we have systems in place that make it easier for us to act swiftly and do multiple iterations, we’ll feel more comfortable about experimentation. I started learning Ruby on Rails this past year, and I’m constantly amazed by the way it’s designed with agility and adaptability to change in mind. If you’re considering looking into RoR, you won’t regret picking up this book.

Let free time be free time.

This pup gets it. (via Cute Overload)

I used to think that having free time meant getting to work on my side projects. Wrong. Free time means lounging around and just being idle. I’ve found that when I’m stuck or bored with something, the best action to take is to stop doing it and find something else to get stuck on. It’s okay to lounge around and be lazy. In fact, the sooner you do it, the sooner you’ll get sick of being idle, and the sooner you’ll be inspired to jump back into your work.

Eat my own dog food.

Think different. (via Roberto Garcia)

If you’re not familiar with the term, eating your own dog food is when you use the products you make. When I think about all the companies I admire – the ones that excel in their respective fields – they tend to have one thing in common: they build things that they themselves use. Not only that, they build products that they themselves want to use. Realizing this was the main reason I left my previous job – I was working on developing something primarily for other people. Once I was done, it wouldn’t help me personally in my day-to-day life simply because I wasn’t part of the target audience. Imagine trying to design an electric drill when every piece of furniture you own came pre-assembled.

Now imagine instead that you’re known among your friends as the furniture-putter-together-guy. You have a drawrer full of L-shaped hex pieces and you eat particleboard for breakfast. When you build something you use yourself, you’re more aware of its strengths and faults. You can come up with interesting solutions that an outsider might not be able to, and you’re more motivated to keep working on it and improving it because if you do, it’ll make another part of your life easier. I’ve realized that there are enough ideas and opportunities floating around that I can turn down the ones that don’t pass this lithmus test.

And last, but obviously not least…

Use more pictures when I blog.

Because long text is a lot easier (and more fun) to read when it has plenty of pictures. Being 4 years old should’ve taught me that. :)