This week’s Commonplace Chronicle outlines the power of time boxing, the rapid rise of AI’s IQ, and why building the right habits is the key to getting things done. Let’s get into it.
What’s Interesting
+ Iceland embraced a shorter work week. Here’s how it turned out - “In two large trials between 2015 and 2019, public sector employees in Iceland worked 35-36 hours per week, with no reduction in pay. Many participants had previously worked 40 hours a week.
The trials involved 2,500 people — more than 1% of Iceland’s working population at the time — and were aimed at maintaining or increasing productivity while improving work-life balance. Researchers found that productivity stayed the same or improved in most workplaces, while workers’ well-being increased “dramatically” on a range of measures, from perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance.” (Editor’s note: Parkinson’s Law at work here? See this week’s Mental Model for more.)
+ AI IQ - “#AI is now "Gifted" and fast approaching "Genius" level (140 IQ). For $20 a month folks you can have a "gifted IQ" assistant.” h/t Jim Lecinski via LinkedIn
Source: https://trackingai.org/home
+ ‘AI is already eating its own’: Prompt engineering is quickly going extinct - “The decline of prompt engineering serves as a cautionary tale for the AI job market. The flashy, niche roles that emerged with ChatGPT’s rise may prove to be short-lived. While AI is reshaping roles across industries, it may not be creating entirely new ones.” (Editor’s note: This was inevitable and actually took a bit longer than I thought it would.)
Meditations
“Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running… therefore, if you want to do something make a habit of it, if you don’t want to do that, don’t, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you’ve not only experienced that evil, but you’ve also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire.”
- Epictectus, Discourses, 2.18.1-5
Mental Model of the Week
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law can refer to either of two observations first published in a 1955 essay in The Economist by C. Northcote Parkinson. Today I will focus on the first observation, but you can read more about the other at your leisure.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
If you set aside an hour to do a specific task, you’ll use the hour. If you set aside two hours for the same task, you are likely to use two hours to complete it. In other words, effectively time boxing tasks can drive efficiency.
One tool I use to time box is the Time Timer, a device a first learned about in this 2014 article by Jake Knapp (the article focuses on how to run better meetings through time boxing - well worth the 4 mins to read it). The Time Timer is simple to use and visual without being distracting. I have my son using the Time Timer as well. He uses it to time box homework assignments (he was regularly over estimating how long homework would take him, which was discouraging, so we flipped that around to “just set 30 mins on the Time Timer and see where you are at at the end of the 30 mins” and, voila, the homework tends to take less time than was originally thought).
Remember Parkinson’s Law each day and time box your tasks to dramatically improve your output and your well-being. You won’t regret it.
On The Night Stand
“The Tusks of Extinction” by Ray Nayler - This novella by Ray Nayler packs a lot into a small package. You have mammoths brought back from extinction, consciousness downloading and then uploading into a different species, a commentary on poaching and human nature and much more. Be prepared to finish this one in one sitting. There is a reason this novella was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards and was named a New York Times Best of the Year.
In Heavy Rotation
+ Green Day: Dookie - What can I say? It’s a classic album and I have fond memories of listening to this one on cassette tape on the school bus. Last year was the 30th anniversary of Dookie’s release and it still stands the test of time.
Still Curious?
+ AI Has Upended the Search Game. Marketers Are Scrambling to Catch Up. - “Email software platform Mailchimp has seen a steady drop in web traffic since AI-assisted search started allowing people to gather information about the company and its products without visiting its sites, according to Ellen Mamedov, global director of search engine optimization.
In order to counter the shift, Mailchimp began updating its sites to better serve the so-called crawlers, bots that visit pages across the web to collect the data that informs the answers provided by AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, Mamedov said.
Technical search elements, like the speed at which pages load and the snippets of code used to track user activity, are more important for these bots and AI-driven searches than for traditional search engines, according to Mailchimp’s research.”
+ Why introverts often build bigger nest eggs—yes, the research backs it up - “A notable study published in the Journal of Economic Psychology found that introverts indeed have a distinct financial advantage over extroverts. The researchers revealed that introverts are more likely to have higher savings rates, better investment habits, and less debt. But why?
One major reason lies in our natural tendencies toward introspection and careful decision-making. Introverts, by nature, take their time. We don’t rush into flashy purchases or spontaneous decisions fueled by the thrill of the moment. Rather, we reflect, analyze, and then act. This habit of deliberation means fewer impulse buys, less credit card debt, and, ultimately, more money safely tucked away for the future.”
Thanks for reading and please refer a friend (or ten) if you find value here at The Commonplace Chronicle.
Until next week,
Eric