All Blogs

Hi all, I’ve moved this blog to Substack. You can find it here: https://cloudstreaks.substack.com/

Description ability: A key way Masters differentiate from Novices. - June 2023

Deliberate laughter practice: A better tool to destress and change your mood than meditation? - May 2023

Product traction framework: Ideal product = 1. Known problem * 2. Known solution * 3. No existing product - May 2023

What went wrong review: Trying to be consistently less stupid. - Apr 2023

Counter Biassing: Counter balance your biases to try be unbiased - Apr 2023

Optimal unit of work size = Smallest unit of work needed to get a unit of learning. - Apr 2023

Mind ability = Improvable = 1. Knowledge level * 2. Thinking speed * 3. Synthesis ability - Mar 2023

Quality Metrics: Objective measures for subjective things - Mar 2023

Plentiful Prioritising = Prioritising well = Coming up with double the number of ideas you need and going with the top half. - Feb 2023

Positive Sum Discussions = 1. Message Positive Sum * 2. Messaging Positive Sum * 3. Interactions Positive Sum - Feb 2023

Psychologically safe floor expectations: Expectations = Floor + Middle + Ceiling - Jan 2023

Tradeoff Table: Most things involve a tradeoff, use a framework like this to try to explain the tradeoff. - Dec 2022

Synthesizers, not summarizers: Move the game forward, don’t just say something. - Dec 2022

Effective Email: A key way to reduce organisational drag - Nov 2022

Dealmakers vs Dealbreakers vs Nice to haves: Not everything matters equally. - Nov 2022

Net progress deliverers: Don’t fight all fires, optimise for net progress. - Oct 2022

Humble Mindset: How a humble mindset leads to sustained success. - Oct 2022

Attention Control: Don’t always be present - Your mind can time travel, to not use this ability I think is silly! - Sep 2022

Rounded mental abilities: IQ, EQ & KQ - Sep 2022

Mental Ability = Number of ideas * Interconnectedness of ideas - Aug 2022

Realists: not pessimists, not optimists - July 2022

Types of Innovation: 0=>1 vs 1=>10 vs 10+ - July 2022

Same different: One person's opportunity is another person's anxiety. - July 2022

Diagnose before you prescribe. Quality diagnosis = 100% Coverage Problem Space framework = Building a framework to explain ~100% of the problem space. - June 2022

Earned Secrets V2 = 1. Find problem + 2. Do the work to build / level up a solution (AKA earn a secret) - June 2022

Learning Modalities: Reading, thinking, talking, writing, building and user testing. - May 2022

Externally supported recommendations, not opinions - May 2022

Good strength vs Bad strength: Every strength is a weakness and every weakness is a strength. - May 2022

Principle Creation Ability ≈ Levelling Up Ability - April 2022

Purpose Vs Play Vs Peace: Plentiful Ingredients For A Pleasant Life - April 2022

Accountable Talk Stems: a key strategy to improve positive sum-ness of discussions - March 2022

Constant course corrections: IMO one should be doing constant course corrections - Mar 2022

High Definition Line Of Sufficiency: Defining Sufficiency Sufficiently - Feb 2022

Management Styles: be authoritative, not permissive or helicopter - Feb 2022

Ego distortion and blind spot discovery: a key strategy for personal upgrades - Jan 2022

Innovator Mindset = Considered Confidence = Imposter syndrome done well - Jan 2022

Metacognition Writing: the best way to add value I’m aware of - Dec 2021

Levelling up: Shuhari = Bloom’s Taxonomy = Dreyfus Taxonomy - Dec 2021

Innovation = 10 Units of Effort for 1 Unit of Progress - Dec 2021

Naming concepts = Making concepts easily usable - Nov 2021

Source of Challenge vs Source of Support vs Source of Inspiration - Nov 2021

Counterproductive school mindsets: one of the most important forms of education are positive sum mindsets - Nov 2021

Subjective Language: don’t use objective language for subjective things - Nov 2021

Positive sum support: done well support is a positive sum outcome, not making someone dependent on you - Oct 2021

Automaticity: How to go from a novice to a master - Oct 2021

Upgrade Spreadsheet: A system to build changes / upgrades into your mind. - Oct 2021

Team Dynamic: Building a great team > Hiring the strongest people you can - Oct 2021

Detail vs Accuracy: ​​“It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” - Sep 2021

Culture: uniform in some areas, diverse in others, but always updating - Sep 2021

Always be prepared to absorb a big hit. Always be focused enough to create a big win. - Sep 2021

Good life = 1. Healthy Mindset + 2. Can learn from circumstances + 3. Have a plan to get to / stay in a good place - Sep 2021

Ideas vs Ego: disassociating your ideas from your ego is key to growth - Aug 2021

To solve problems effectively, first build a complete picture of the problem space. - Aug 2021

A framework to articulate expectations: Level of expectations ≈ Amount of new - Aug 2021

Sufficiency > Perfectionism - Aug 2021

Conversation outcome = 1. Mindset * 2. Messaging * 3. Message - Aug 2021

Positive Sum Ecosystem = 1. Principles * 2. Proportionality - July 2021

Positive Sum Conversation Mindset = 1. What did I learn? + 2. How does the other person feel? - July 2021

Inspiration - a path to a better life, a path to a better company, a path to a better world - July 2021

Product innovation ability: innovation is not magic, innovation can be systematic - June 2021

Professional self development: an essential tool to cultivate yourself, an essential capability to build inside of companies. - June 2021

Building decision making ability = Building the amount a business can do - May 2021

Stress outcome = External (Environment) * Internal ( Experience + Tolerance + Resilience) - May 2021

Some people want to be an olympian, I want to be a mental decathlete - May 2021

Knowledge compounds exponentially: an explanation for the matthew effect - May 2021

Ability to see data points in the world around you ≈ Ability to innovate - May 2021

Positive Sum Mindset vs Zero Sum Mindset - May 2021

Growth mindset * No growth plan = Fixed mindset - May 2021

Defence mode Vs Understanding mode - Apr 2021

Being easy to work with is the outcome of hard work - Apr 2021

I contain multitudes: one should have multiple modes - Apr 2021

The only way to fail is to fail to learn - Apr 2021

A recipe for relaxation: Work Mode vs Relax Mode - Apr 2021

Units of learning: The best way to show progress - Apr 2021

Self Esteem = Percentage Win Rate - Mar 2021

“The ability to change your mind is a super power.” Ray Dalio - Mar 2021

Improved ‘intelligence’ = strategy added - Mar 2021

Visualising ideas: a way to see things you otherwise wouldn’t - Feb 2021

Anti Confirmation Bias: to be unbiased you need to bias your bias - Feb 2021

Go ahead = 1. better + 2. not worse - Feb 2021

The direct and indirect approach. Try to come up with both. - Feb 2021

Improving at thinking = metacognition - Jan 2021

All models are wrong, some are useful - Jan 2021

Nature vs Nurture vs Self Authoring: determined not to be determined - Dec 2020

Hiring as a ‘not no’ vs a ‘yes’ - Dec 2020

Good mistakes vs Bad mistakes - Dec 2020

I almost never start off knowing how to make something better - Dec 2020

Serious with a smile :): Humour is no laughing matter… and a lack of laughing is a serious matter! - Nov 2020

You get exactly the behaviour you... celebrate? Taking pride in pride - Nov 2020

Either you manage your headspace or your headspace manages you - Nov 2020

Mental chocolate: done well, chocolate is healthy - Nov 2020

Diverse Reading vs Undiverse Reading AKA Building Knowledge vs Digesting Facts. - Oct 2020

Growth generations: current skill levels < growth rate of your skill levels - Oct 2020

Building innovation ability in others = the best thing you can do? - Oct 2020

Taxonomised thinking: if you don’t taxonomise your thinking you’ll get your results taxed - Oct 2020

Language is the ultimate tool. Writing = improving at language. As such: writing = cool! - Oct 2020

The biggest problem is figuring out what the problem is. Blogging is practicing figuring out what the problem is. - Sep 2020

Quality work relationships make work no hardship: 6 areas for building relationships - Sep 2020

Building work relationships - to build something you first have to do nothing - Sep 2020

1. Problem solving ability = 2. Generic problem solving ability * 3. Problem space knowledge - Sep 2020

Optimising for the common good - aka Stage 6 of Kohlberg’s framework - Aug 2020

Enjoyable Job = 1. No bad + 2. Good - Aug 2020

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a management tool & and 4 management mistakes - Aug 2020

Strategic Thinking Stages: the world isn’t black and white; learning to think in 3D multicolour surround sound - Aug 2020

We all have blind spots and ego distortions… To others, our blind spots and ego distortions are often... blindingly obvious! - Aug 2020

Reportability vs Responsibility: people often think they want a new job, but what they want is more responsibility - Aug 2020

How chasing perfection and being a perfectionist don’t align - July 2020

Conversation conventions - thoughts on how not to derail meetings - July 2020

Credibility vs Ability: try to be constantly cultivating both - July 2020

Metacognition - the ultimate skill - July 2020

Habits - accumulated momentum - June 2020

Entrepreneurship vs Leadership: for good outcomes you need both Entrepreneurship AND Leadership - June 2020

Brain upgrading: there is no such thing as intelligence - June 2020

Cultivating credibility: positive vs negative sentiment override - May 2020

Worry is a waste of imagination - May 2020

Building humans, not robots: how to systematically grow people’s ability to take responsibility. - May 2020

How not to eat your own bullsh1t - May 2020

Pragmatists vs Ideologues - do what works! - May 2020

Pain + Reflection = Progress. Reflection = start by assuming responsibility is 50% yours. - Apr 2020

IMO good messaging tries to provoke thought, not tell people how it is. - Apr 2020

There are no lightbulb moments. There are however earned secrets. - Apr 2020

Brain upgrading: increasing the rate at which you think! - Apr 2020

Agreeable Disagreement - A Key Life Skill - Mar 2020

Experience points: through cultivation you can get 100x the value from the same activity! - Mar 2020

Positive sum principles increase the opportunity set - Mar 2020

Narrow vs broad self interest: the common good is uncommonly good - Mar 2020

Developmental Framework Fun - a collection of other’s frameworks - Feb 2020

Learned help yourself-ness - learn this and you can do anything - Feb 2020

Diverse Teams vs Diverse People - Feb 2020

Geniuses: built not born - Feb 2020

Team Players and Team Leaders - Feb 2020

Post Game Analysis - an essential tool for improving life - Feb 2020

Hierarchy of disagreement and message metatagging - Jan 2020

Story = Reality Distortion Field - Jan 2020

Helpful vs harmful inner voice - Jan 2020

Writing is problem solving - Dec 2019

Layer multiple overlapping models together to understand the world - Dec 2019

Consciously upgrade your mind’s operating system, it makes everything else better! - Dec 2019

Attention skills vs Attention kills - Dec 2019

The only problem to solve is problem solving itself - Nov 2019

Munger: thoughts on how to be the ultimate intellectual companion - Nov 2019

Terrific vs Terrible Teams - Nov 2019

It's not “I'm right, you’re wrong”, it's “oh, you have a different view to me, how can I learn from you!” - Nov 2019

Make excellence an unconscious habit - Oct 2019

Making games together > playing games alone - Oct 2019

How meditation can upgrade your mind and life - Oct 2019

Productivity imProving Practice - Oct 2019

People as solutions to problems - Oct 2019

Strong beliefs help loosely… and multiple beliefs harmoniously - Sep 2019

Working with your environment vs against your environment - Sep 2019

‘1:1s’. Done badly 1+1 = 0. Done well 1+1=10! - Sep 2019

The Decision Dichotomy: how making the right decision can get you a bad outcome - Aug 2019

Ho ho ho, merry feedback-mas - Aug 2019

Leaders produce more leaders, not more followers - Aug 2019

Loyal vs Disloyal Opposition. - there will always be opposition, it’s just a question of it's loyal or disloyal opposition! - Aug 2019

Learning Vs Innovating - don't learn about innovating the hard way - Aug 2019

Where does passion come from? You can create, grow and sustain passion! - Aug 2019

Solving complexity through simplicity - explaining with equations is enlightening - Aug 2019

Relaxing Stress Strategies - why having a Plan Z should mean you’ll never be dead! - July 2019

Improving at empathy means improving at everything. - July 2019

Positive Sum Pushback Approaches - "Every interaction can be positive sum, it doesn't matter if you are disagreeing." - July 2019

Emotional energy exchange enitiative - interacting with yourself and others better! - July 2019

Helping Humans Handbook - don’t just support, also push, intervene and leave alone! - July 2019

Emotional health is experiencing the full spectrum of emotions in a healthy way, not only feeling ‘positive emotions’ - June 2019

The importance of importance - “There is always a most important thing. If you don't know what the most important thing is you will not be important for very long.” - June 2019

Levelling up problem solving ability through the 'Treasure Taxonomy' - June 2019

Partnership Economics - “the best things are selfless and selfish” - June 2019

10x work goals: human beings, not human doings - thoughts on how epic work can be a reason for being - June 2019

Decision frameworks: “How to approach solving problems is itself a problem to solve.” - May 2019

It's not about strengths & weaknesses, it’s about trajectory & levelling-up! you can improve at everything always :) - May 2019

Bulletproofing Your Business - “the person who does not have time to help has no advantage of the person who cannot help.” - May 2019

Expectations vs Suggestions vs Recommendations - “Never ascribe to malice that which can be ascribed to miscommunication.” - April 2019

Default vs designed expectations: write your own stories! - April 2019

Esteem team - how resilience can lead to brilliance - March 2019

Helping humans, hard fun? But the best kind of fun :)! - Generations of models for how to help humans - March 2019

Devil (un)disqualified decisions: only move ahead with decisions that the devil cannot disqualify (aka the work needed to build an opinion) - March 2019