45 / Engine-making. Fools. Agile Systems. Greenlight.
Making our personal engines.
Serving up this week’s Circle Three!
Fall is in the air. Who’s ready for some crisp leaves?
"Do you want to be right or do you want to be learning? Do you want to be the tyrannical king who already has everything figured out? Or the continually transforming hero, or fool, who's getting better all the time?" — Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life, Rule 9
Learning is a constant of life. Jordan Peterson eloquently convinces us of this here. I want to be the fool, constantly reinventing, where feedback is a gift. To be right or to be learning?
Greenlights is one of my favorite books from the last year. Matthew McConaughey spent 52 days living off the grid, consolidating notes from 36 YEARS of writing to create the book. Watch this valuable, short video about his process. Read the masterfully crafted final product and you'll know it was worth it.
The excellent short piece will leave you energized. It discusses what needs to be done to feel joy. The things "are worth doing simply because they make you happy. Nothing is a waste of time that gives you energy." Emanate joy!
Building successful teams is a challenge. I've been part of large and small teams that have seen great success and massive failure. Spotify's agile scaling structure is fascinating to read about how to establish a strong culture and network through Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds.
Number 3: Don't start talking without having something to say. This and other things to avoid when making small talk with strangers. As people head back into the office or hop on a plane to travel, these are helpful reminders.
From the Harvard Business Review, an excellent article on the controversial topic of Bitcoin's energy consumption. If you're interested in learning more, reply to this email or read some of my thoughts here!
We Shape Our Lives Like a Board Game
Engine-builders are not just in games.
Google "Engine building" and you might get some nice tutorials showing greasy car parts and garages. But I learned a new definition of "engine-building" this year.
The game Wingspan took over our family vacation. Picture this: family members watching YouTube tutorials on how to level up their strategy; questions over breakfast on when the next game will be.
Wingspan is defined on Wikipedia as "a card-driven, medium-weight, engine-building board game in which players compete to attract birds to their wildlife reserves." It may sound simple, but it's anything but. Wingspan takes Catan to another level. (For the record, I'm inexperienced at both and not big into board games.)
So what's the point?
Engineers create systems to solve problems. The methodology and resources might look different — using a computer, building a bridge, or designing a car to name a few — but the study of engineering is how to apply analytical approaches to problems.
Pluck an engineer from the bunch and there is a high likelihood that person will love solving problems and creating systems. (And that he will be male. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, only 14% of engineers are women.)
Similarly, the game forces players to develop an engine. Tim, from BoardGameGeeks.com, wrote of Wingspan: "The engine building [in Wingspan] is that your actions get significantly more powerful over the course of the game." (Thanks, Tim). How you play each turn and where you place your cards have impacts for the rest of the game.
The Game of Life
It struck me how similar this is to life. We create systems to solve the problems we're dealt. We all engineer our lives to the extent that we can, always having to work within constraints.
And depending on how you play your cards, your actions can get significantly more powerful over the course of your life. Actions during the beginning of Wingspan might provide a meager reward. By the end of the game the same exact action could earn enough points to claim a victory. But only if you're engine is well-built and consistent.
Each move, just like each bird card in the game, has special powers and abilities.
It all depends on how you establish your engine. And we're all engine-builders in the game of life.
🐦 Tweeting:
🔊 Listening:
📖 Reading: Sections from The Art of Possibility
➕ Win: almost fully moved into Center City, Philly!
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