Welcome to the second Monthly Quality Contributions topic to the Commonplace forum. This is part of our goal to make Commonplace the best location on the web for business discussions.
You can find all historical quality contribution threads below:
Commonplace High Quality Contributions - November 2024
Non Cedric Ones
- @dineshraju turned a thread on Ribbonfarm into an existential commentary on the limitations of the human brain
- Our monkey brains have no way to look at the unstructured reality and can only use models.
- There’s no reason to believe that the multi-dimensional amorphous complexity that we call reality is so conveniently model-able by the brains of evolved monkeys.
- @kytrinyx and @joepairman had a wide ranging discussion on learning language without traditional instruction - vocabulary and grammar.
His idea is that the basic unit of language acquisition is an experience—everything that goes into that experience, along with the language. According to Brown, any focus on the forms (words, phonemes, structure, analyzing, thinking, memorizing, looking things up in dictionaries) would give worse results.
- @Roger questioned if executives really want to be data driven? Or do they use data as only a way to persuade people to decisions they have already made?
In fact, data is quite harmful if it contradicts the notion of “I am in charge because I am always right”. Of course, this really means “I am always right because I am in charge and can sideline anything and anyone that contradicts me on that.” Arguing against that is often career suicide by definition.
- @Andy_Croll added a comment to the Trader Joe case, giving colour to the challenges retail businesses face against organised shoplifters.
One time a group conspired to get themselves locked in the store overnight (having vandalised the door lock to the outside “garden centre” area) and passed a vast number of power tools under the fence once we locked up. Some folks also once tried to hide in the warehouse, but we caught them that time.
- @kirso had a nuanced take on the superstar city location question, and one that personally matches my take on the topic.
So the answer is probably the
game you are playingdictates the resources that you need and therefore the right city might be or might not be a factor.
- @ergestx shared many great articles and links addressing the question of how to get more agency - Another post by @Drayton in the thread also had several links worth visiting.
I’ve been fascinated by the concept of agency for some time now but I don’t find very much written about it that mentions agency directly. Here are some of my favorites:
- List out the outcomes you want to see for the business
- Then list out your proposed output metrics for those outcomes.
- List out your proposed levers to influence those output metrics
- Turn those levers into controllable input metrics
- Set up a report that plot your CIMs using XMR charts
- Look at that report on a weekly basis (WBR)
- Investigate sources of exceptional variation, act on what you discover
- For CIMs that appear to be predictable processes but are not achieving a desired level, “redesign the process”
- @kytrinyx for her distinction between public speaking and writing (with special mention to @joepairman for a post further down)
The only criterion for my shitty first draft is that it must be shitty, and it must happen quickly.
Cedric Quality Posts
Cedric writes many good posts, but wanted to separate them out from the main section.
I think the concept of data storytelling has no place in a process control worldview.
- @cedric for explaining his Outcome Orientation approach to consuming media. I will admit I scroll Twitter aimlessly far too much for me to claim I do this.
Outcome orientation is very simple. At all times, whenever you are doing something or reading something, you should ask yourself the question:
- What is the outcome I am trying to achieve here?
You may then continue with the action or consumption if you wish, but you must answer the question honestly first.
- @cedric summarised a Lightspeed report, with the contraian claim that Singapore is the most important market in South East Asia for B2C businesses - Not Indonesia as is commonly thought.
Of course a competitor may emerge from the rural areas to attack winners in the metro areas. But a) you can repeat this analysis to evaluate emerging regions, b) you can watch out for emerging competitors in those regions, c) assuming the capital cycle has turned, that risk is reduced for a few years, because d) it remains unknown if a valuable tech company can be built in rural areas — and certainly not without abundant capital (or political access).