Last sprint retro

N/A holidays write-off

Don’t Break the Chain

It’s a new year (and now even an Old New Year) and an opportunity for a new approach to keep Rachael 2.0 moving in the right direction.

The Plan: Use the Github contribution graph on my Github profile to encourage never breaking the chain (weekdays for now).

How? Each day, push a commit only after all five focus areas have been attended to at least a little bit. Each day consists of only one ticket on the sprint board. Create a daily summary to briefly explain how I touched each category.

Why? This new approach simplifies, allows flexibility and reduces overhead while building consistency with the reward of getting the box filled in!

This week, I aim to work on five focus areas every day:

Writing

Reading

App/community building (Code name: Evercooked)

Health

House

Beginning of Sprint 7 Week 03

Daily Summaries

Tuesday, January 14:

Wrote a short article about my word of the year.

Read part of This Is Strategy by Seth Godin. Some notable quotes:

Individuals organizing others with persistence and generosity change the world, and do it every day.

Strategy is the hard work of choosing what to do today to improve our tomorrow.

Life without a project fades to gray.

A series of 17 questions shines a light on the work to be done. It brings tomorrow forward to today, right here and right now, allowing us to articulate a strategy.

Who are we here to serve?

What is the change we seek to make?

What are our resources?

What is the genre we’re working in?

Who has done something like this before me?

What systems are in play?

Am I changing someone’s status?

Why would anyone voluntarily choose to be part of this work?

What will they tell their colleagues?

Who gains in status, affiliation and power by supporting this work?

Will early support translate into more support later?

Where is the network effect?

What do I need to learn to make this work?

Who do I need to work with?

Where is the dip and when should I quit?

What will I do if it doesn’t work out?

How much is enough?

Rome Was Built in a Day

Of course it wasn’t finished in a day. It still isn’t. But as soon as the brothers announced that “This is Rome,” there it was. Built, but incomplete. After that, the work became the tireless, recursive, and repeated effort to improve the system and to grow the community that is Rome. They started it in the right century, in the right place, with the right philosophy. And then, each day, Rome got better. Better, not done.

A few years ago, Lisa Nichols was sitting with her 87-year-old grandmother. “Lisa,” her grandmother said, “when you’re my age, your job is to sit in a rocking chair and tell people the stories and lessons of a life well lived.”

Then she looked at Lisa and said, “and at your age, your job is to live a life worth talking about.”

Worked on fixing the mess in Evercooked that happened by renaming dish entries to preparations. Still more to go.

Did Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series and 35 minutes in the sauna at the gym. Started the audiobook, The Comfort Crisis in the sauna.

Identified and found the primer and paint for the kitchen ceiling.

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January 15

Worked on an article about dumplings and Christmas.

Best laid plans...I missed reading and broke the chain already!

Worked on getting the models fixed and joined correctly and building a form to add a Preparation with optional new Dish and new Occasion if necessary.

80 pushups, 80 box jumps, 80 glute bridges with 50 lbs, 80 kettlebell swings with 26 lbs, 15 calf raises with 120 lbs, pancake video, 10 jefferson curls with 26 lbs, 10 pancakes with 26 lbs, 35 minutes sauna

Got some of the Christmas stuff put away.

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January 16

Worked on an article about dumplings and Christmas.

Read part of This Is Strategy by Seth Godin. Some notable quotes:

Next Guest, Best Guest

A simple way to see time is to think about launching a podcast. Who would be the best guest you could imagine? Michelle Obama, Elvis Costello or Atul Gawande are the sort of home run interviews that podcasters dream of. But of course, none of these folks is eager to appear on your new podcast. Who would be the guest just before them? Which person, if they had a good experience on your show, would make it really likely that your dream guest would say yes? And so we work backwards, beginning with the end in mind. Which guest makes it likely we can welcome the guest who would open the door to our dream guest? Unfurl it all the way backward, without skipping steps, until you’ve reached your brother-in-law or next door neighbor.

If you sell your time at the lowest possible price, you’ll always be busy helping someone else get to where they’re going. Successful people figure out how to trade their time and their effort for the change they seek to make in the world.

If I want the real truth about a business and where it’s going, I’d divide the modern business plan into six sections: 1. Truth, 2. Assertions, 3. Alternatives, 4. People, 5. Money, 6. Time

The truth section describes the world as it is. Footnote it if you want to, but tell us about the market you are entering, the needs that already exist, the competitors in your space, technology standards, the way others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific the better. The more ground knowledge the better. The more visceral the stories the better.

Do you see the system? The point of this section is to be sure that you’re clear about the way you see the world and that you and I agree on your assumptions. This section isn’t partisan. It takes no positions and simply states how things are.

If you’re not talking about systems and the status quo in your truth section, it’s incomplete.

Truth can take as long as you need to tell it. It can include spreadsheets, market share analysis, and anything I need to know about how the world works. We shouldn’t disagree about anything in the truth section.

The assertions section is your chance to describe how you’re going to change things. We will do X, and then Y will happen. We will build Z with this much money in this much time. We will present Q to the market and the market will respond by taking this action.

In this section, share your business model. The tension you’re going to create. The scaffolding you will build.

This is the heart of the modern business plan. The only reason to launch a project is to change something, and I want to know what you’re going to do and what impact it’s going to have.

Of course, this section will be incorrect. You will make assertions that won’t pan out. You’ll miss budgets and deadlines and sales. So the alternatives section tells me what you’ll do if that happens. How much flexibility does your product or team have? If your assertions don’t pan out, is it over?

The people section rightly highlights the key element—who is on your team and who is going to join your team. Who doesn’t mean their résumé. Instead, talk about their attitudes and abilities. Strip away the false proxies and labels and instead focus on skills, resilience and their track record in shipping.

The next section is all about money. Because projects = money + time.

How much do you need, how will you spend it, what does cash flow look like, P&Ls, balance sheets, margins and exit strategies. What assets will you build?

Finally, for emphasis, time. What will be different a week or a month or a year after you launch? How will the unseen axis of time inform your planning, so you are leading and not following.

What matters is customer traction. Not everyone, someone. If the customers stick around, that’s good. If they bring their friends and colleagues, it’s likely to be a success. Inevitably, the project will change in response to those that use it. But without customer traction, nothing happens.

The goal at the start is traction with a few, not perfection for the masses.

Make something for the few. Something so extraordinary and powerful that they would miss it if it were gone. Something remarkable enough that they will tell the others. Watch what they do and listen to what tomorrow’s users want. Add that to your product. Repeat.

Strategic Marketing

Marketing is the art of building a product or service that tells a story. A true story-one that resonates and changes the person who experiences it. The first job of the marketer is to find a problem and to solve it, helping the customer get to where they are going. And the second, which (from a marketing perspective) is ultimately more important than the first, is to give that person a story to tell others. To engage with the web of community. To help that person improve their status and affiliation because they are engaging with others using the story that you helped them create. When we see the world as a web, and our work as helping the people in the web connect and grow, the strategy becomes far more clear.

What does it mean to be a strategic thinker?

It means that you see the system. It means that you develop the assets and skills that you will need to work with the system or to change it. It means that you have the empathy to understand how others make choices. And it means that you work to reduce delays in the feedback loops so you can adjust your tactics based on the system’s response to your work. The operating plan and tactics that accompany our strategy are focused on these feedback loops—on allowing us to become more nimble when we encounter responses from the status quo.

Paired with ChatGPT to continue progress on the data modeling and getting a form together to input some of the data.

Deadlifts, bench presses, dumbbell rows, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, shrugs, wrist flexes, lateral side raises, lateral front raises, dips, pullups, rope pull, hanging, rope pulse, tree foot raised, cage toe hold, handstand, balance ball: tree, tree leg behind, eagle, foot out front, dancer, lotus tree, warrior 3. Notable improvements: upped weight on shrugs and wrist flexes to 70 pounds. Reduced weight of supported dips to 10 pounds.

Cut the dead lights off the Christmas tree.

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January 17