Being coachable
The basic premise is that everyone goes through four stages of learning. First, a person starts in stage 1, the “enthusiastic beginner.” We’ve all been there…. You think you have all the answers but really, “you don’t know what you don’t know”. For example, I remember the first term sheet I ever drafted; I thought it was a piece of cake. It probably took me 30 minutes to complete a draft. Then I got redline back from the Partner with whom I was working. Clearly, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing!
This moment of humility is when a person opens themselves up to learn and progresses to stage 2. Stage 2 is the “struggling learner.” You suck, and you realize it. Nonetheless, gradually, you push through, learn, and move to stage 3, the “cautious contributor.” Here, you’re able to contribute, but you’re still tentative and unsure. You’re highly competent, but you don’t realize it yet. Some positive feedback later, and you start to realize your own competence and you become a “peak performer.”
All people start in Stage 1, but some never leave. I think this is what is meant when people describe someone as not “coachable.” They never let themselves have that moment of humility and self reflection when they realize their own lack of competence. Unfortunately, that person will never grow as a leader.
My lunch date on the other hand was clearly a cautious contributor and well on his way to being a peak performer. All the ideas he had around the business model were great; he just wasn’t yet completely confident in his own business model savvy.
I emailed the CEO after his board meeting and asked how the meeting went. “Great!” was the response. Sounds like someone made it to stage 4.
Esper Dominoes Topple All By Themselves
Tangible Manipulation of Wirelessly Linked Objects
From the IAMAS Ubiqutous Interaction Research Group in Japan comes these nifty techno-dominoes.
Each block is capable of deciding which of its fellow blocks to knock over next. They do this by communicating wirelessly, thanks to internal zigbee radios. Once a block has received the signal to fall, it sends a message to the next block and so the process continues. Click through for a video where several permutations are demonstrated, and a glimpse of the potential of this application is revealed.
Incredible Laser Engraved Belt
Raster engraving at its best.
It’s always exciting to see a process pushed to the limits of its capacity. This beautiful belt from my-lasercut shows the potential of raster engraving when used extensively throughout a product.
Fortune cookies handmade by us, given out New Years Day. Leala,
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Fortune cookies handmade by us, given out New Years Day. Leala, our baker, gave us inspiration to celebrate New Years Eve with potluck dinner. Red envelopes, Duck from Good Taste, Noodles from Franks, Fried Rice and Drunk Noodle from Lillikoi, Fish for goodluck (courtesy of Purest Cafe on 1st and Ash). Hendricks Gin w/ coconut water, Q-Tonic, Lime and Lychee. Thanks to Fin restaurant for the cocktail idea.
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Google Lied about Manually Changes
The Lie was told here by Udi Manber, and repeated by Matt Cutts. And I quote:
‘At Google we do not manually change results. For example, if we find for a particular query that result No. 4 should be result No. 1, we do not have the capability to manually change it. We made that decision not to put that capability in the algorithm—we have to go and actually change the algorithm.”