There are two main themes this week:
Collaboration and teamwork
Diminishing returns
The stories about Ubuntu (a team first ideology that says that for me to be my best you also have to be your best) and our addiction to metrics highlight that there are multiple approaches to everything. In sports today there is a highly quantitative approach (e.g. moneyball in baseball, metrics focused training in endurance sport, etc.) and a more qualitative team first approach (e.g. the Celtics in 2008 and Ethiopian runners today where training solo is considered selfish since you are depriving the group of your energy). Both approaches yield results, but they do so in dramatically different ways when you consider what the athlete or the team experiences along the way. Which way is best? I bet it depends quite a bit on the situation.
The law of diminishing marginal returns is our mental model of the week. Diminishing returns pairs well with Joseph Tainter’s thoughts on what makes civilizations fail - when the costs of complexity are greater than its returns to society. I had never thought of civilization collapse from that lens before, but I find it very compelling.
Getting back to some uplifting thoughts, check out the Meditations section to get motivated to get your first draft out into the world. As George Saunders notes, you just need the first draft to be so you can revise it.
Time to get started!
What’s Interesting
+ Ubuntu: A way of life for creative leaders - “When Doc returned, his team was there, unified and ready to win together. That was when Doc knew it was more than just a word; it was actually real. With the strength of Ubuntu propelling them forward, they tore through the regular season with a 66-16 record, a stunning turnaround from the previous season. They played unselfish, team-first basketball — the embodiment of Ubuntu on the court.”
+ Are we too addicted to metrics? with Michael Cawley - Cawley discusses the training model for Ethiopian runners, which follows a team first approach. Training by yourself is considered selfish because you are using energy that could be given to the group. An excellent podcast to pair with the piece on Ubuntu above. (podcast)
+ “Fragile, impermanent things”: Joseph Tainter on what makes civilizations fall - “Tainter’s theory of collapse is deceptively simple—especially when paraphrased. Collapse occurs, he argues, when the costs of complexity are greater than its returns to society. Complex societies are problem-solving organizations, and when the costs of coping with crises are too great, they fail.”
Meditations
“Initium est dimidium facti"
The Latin translates to:
"Once you've started, you're halfway there."
Just get started.
Horace, Epistles
Pair with:
“Who cares if the first draft is good? It doesn’t need to be good, it just need to be, so you can revise it.” — George Saunders
Mental Model of the Week
Law of diminishing returns
The law of diminishing returns states that there is a point where adding one more unit of a good thing (i.e. effort, capital, etc.) produces less output. In other words, quick wins come early and then it takes an increasing amount of effort to yield a smaller result.
I think of diminishing returns often in my work with growing organizations. Keeping diminishing returns in mind helps you to know when further optimization of a certain system is not the best use of your next unit of effort.
A closely related mental model is the Pareto principle, commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule. In other words 80% of results come from 20% of efforts.
On The Night Stand
“The Lessons of History” by Will and Ariel Durant - We have all heard the phrase “the only constant is change.” What “The Lessons of History” shows us is that the only constant is human nature, while human behavior can and does change as the result of ideas. Ideas are the most powerful things in all of history because they can be passed down and they change human behavior.
A short book, less than 100 pages, it is one I reference often given that the lessons are timeless. Here are a few lessons the Durants’ outline in the book:
“We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive recirculation.”
“Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.”
“Peace is an unstable equilibrium, which can be preserved only by acknowledged supremacy or equal power.”
In Heavy Rotation
+ GoGo Penguin: Live from Studio 2 - I’ve been a fan of GoGo Penguin for quite some time. They fuse jazz, breakbeats and other influences (video game music?) into something that you can hardly believe is being played by just three people. It is an enveloping wave of sound that permeates every nook and cranny. Seeing GoGo Penguin live at Thalia Hall in Chicago last year has to rank in my top five live shows of all time. Live from Studio 2 was recorded during a live streaming event the band did during COVID. Put it on, pour yourself a nice bourbon, and kick back.
If you like what you hear there is a lot more to explore in the GoGo Penguin discography. The band also has a new record coming out on June 20th entitled “Necessary Fictions” so make sure to pre-save that on Spotify and perhaps pre-order the record on vinyl or CD. Tying in to the theme of collaboration, the new record sees the band working in guest artists to their trio, including the first ever human voice on a GoGo Penguin track.
Still Curious?
+ The secret event that kills analog music as we know it (via cheapaudioman) - Yes, the headline is clickbait, but the content is solid. Turns out the single point of failure for vinyl is at lacquer disk manufacturing. (YouTube)
+ Bot farms invade social media to hijack popular sentiment - “‘It’s very difficult to distinguish between authentic activity and inauthentic activity,” says Adam Sohn, CEO of Narravance, a social media threat intelligence firm with major social networks as clients. “It’s hard for us, and we’re one of the best at it in the world.’”
+ AI can accelerate scientific advance, but the real bottlenecks to progress are cultural and institutional - “But the biggest blocks to accelerating the pace of scientific advance may not be technical at all. From grant committees that favor incremental and focused over novel or interdisciplinary research, to academic systems that reward individuals rather than teams, to laboratories that are ill-equipped for automation, the challenges of advancing science lie in the funding, structuring, and guidance of scientific work. Artificial intelligence tools can help speed some important research, but transforming the pace at which science progresses will require addressing deep cultural and institutional barriers, too.” (Editor’s note: I thought this article fit well with one of this week’s key themes; collaboration and teamwork. It is interesting that academic systems still reward individuals when so much research says breakthroughs come through teamwork and collaboration.)
Thanks for reading and please refer a friend (or ten) if you find value here at The Commonplace Chronicle.
Until next week,
Eric