🍣 You threadin' lightly or what?

That's right, i went there.

Hey friends,

It’s kinda unmissable to start this without asking:

Have you been using Threads or what?

I won’t lie, i’ve been into it. And also slightly wondering if this breaks the delicate balance i’ve been able to strike between LinkedIn and this little old newsletter. But mostly, into it, because of the chaotic good (for now) energy it brings to us all.

Anywho, if you’re threadin’ not-so-lightly, come say hi.

On with the slices?

On with the slices.

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🏌️ Swing between vices

“Aristotle’s famous metaphor of the “Golden Mean” [is] the idea that virtue usually sits between two vices. Courage is somewhere between cowardice and recklessness. Confidence between crippling self-doubt and blinding arrogance. Hard work between workaholism and laziness.” Ryan Holiday

It has become a bit of a cliché to say we need balance in things, and yet how often we forget that nothing benefits from being taken too far. When i was a kid, i used to think the world had to be rational, which made me a significant dick who thought himself superior to anyone who was, say, spiritual, or – gasp! – displayed emotion of any kind.

Over time, life teaches you that you’re constantly swinging between the edge of different vices, and therefore in the process finding some virtue. The biggest myth is that once you find it, you’re there. The harshest reality is you’re never there. You’re always just swinging around. A bit like riding a tightrope. Stasis means you die.

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🔌 Limitations yield power

My mentee at work has been teaching me a ton about how to think better about neurodiversity, and neurodivergence (which FYI are different things). Anyway, one of the things that stuck with me is the idea that we’re all neurodivergent on some capacity, it’s just that in some scenarios it gets more frequent, and more intense.

Broadly, it goes like this:

1. Sure, we all have moments of depression, anxiety, needing to organise things, a flurry of thoughts that we can’t shut down, or compulsive behaviour of some sort.

2. The thing is, for people who are closer to the edges of the spectrum of those conditions, it’s not about whether them having it and you not having it, it’s that when it happens to them, it punches 10x more frequently, and 10x harder.

The tricky thing with this is what it’s easy to then feel sorry for people who are on the neurodivergent spectrum, regardless of what it is. But this is the wrong reaction, because people don’t need sorrow. They need respect. Because chances are, what we perceive as these moments or ‘loss of control’ are actually one side of the equation. The other side is about the same things we see as limitations becoming powers later.

For every moment like this, there’s potential for something like that. But it takes a lifetime of practise, self-compassion, and ideally the right support networks. And a constant reminder that “if you’re too much for some people, they ain’t your people”.

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After the break, more thoughts on managers being engines but also breaks, the currency of creativity, volume vs value related to ChatGPT, the importance of experimentation and evidence, and plenty other goodies. Only for patrons, though. Get it all while it’s fresh!

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