rands

Via Daring Fireball:

The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.

Richard Burton:

… Engineers are tired of being spammed by recruiters and rarely respond to their emails.

Sometime during the Christmas of 1993, my wife scared the shit out of me in my office. She achieved this by walking up behind me and putting her hands on my shoulders while I was playing Myst for the first time. I no longer recall where I was in the game, what I remember was I was deeply lost in the evolving narrative of the game – I was on this island, strange events were occurring, and I was trying to figure them out before… before what? I don’t know what was going to happen – I was freaked out and more so than when my wife’s hands landed on my shoulders and I leaped out of my chair.

In 1993, Myst was a technological feat. It was an effortless blend of pre-rendered images with just enough Quicktime video to give you the impression the world was alive. The arrival of Myst drove adoption for the then-nascent CD-ROMs, but while the technology was amazing, what cemented Myst in my memory was how I became engrossed in a story that was barely being told. It was being experienced.

The reason I’ve been thinking about this is that sometime during the Christmas of 2013, my wife scared the shit out of me again. She achieved this by simply rolling over in our bed while I was playing The Room 2. The Room and The Room 2 are iPad games. The premise of the first game is extremely simple: you’re in a dark room and there is a safe. On top of the safe, is a note, some books, and a smaller chest. Your goal: via puzzles find the narrative.

The puzzles are not complex. You’re going to figure them out by paying attention, noticing details, and experiment. Again, what drives the game, like Myst, is the evolving narrative – what the hell is going on here? Unlike Myst, The Room began on a smaller scale, but with vastly better technology at its disposal. If you think there are no truly great iPad games that show off the hardware and the touch interface: you are wrong and for a mere $.99 you can correct this misconception. But to understand how my wife freaked me out, it’s going to cost you another $4.99

See, the success of The Room allowed developer Fireproof Games to evolve the story in the sequel. There are many rooms with many different kinds of puzzles and in an effort to keep this brief review spoiler-free – there is something else. It’s a thing which is hinted at, it’s hiding in the shadows, and while you might never see it, it’s going to freak you out.

Janelle Nanos in Boston Magazine:

Comprehensive and compelling article on the death of Aaron Swartz. Elegantly written. Includes details from the MIT-commissioned investigation by professor Hal Abelson that documents:

[The Abelson reports] notes that “MIT is respected for world-class work in information technology, for promoting open access to online information, and for dealing wisely with the risks of computer abuse. The world looks to MIT to be at the forefront of these areas. Looking back on the Aaron Swartz case, the world didn’t see leadership.”

Megan Garber in The Atlantic:

Conversations, as they tend to play out in person, are messy—full of pauses and interruptions and topic changes and assorted awkwardness. But the messiness is what allows for true exchange. It gives participants the time—and, just as important, the permission—to think and react and glean insights. “You can’t always tell, in a conversation, when the interesting bit is going to come,” Turkle says. “It’s like dancing: slow, slow, quick-quick, slow. You know? It seems boring, but all of a sudden there’s something, and whoa.”

My current conversation power move is eye contact. Eye contact. All the time whether I’m speaking or listening. For speaking, my natural state is to look away when I’m talking so I can focus on what I’m attempting to say, but I miss essential nuanced feedback. For listening, eye contact can feel uncomfortable because it can feel like staring, but, again, if you look away, you might miss essential conversational data.

I’ve got more to say about the New Year, but let’s start with data around the year in Rands.

The top 5 articles published in 2013 by traffic:

1. The Process Myth
2. Regular Audio Human
3. Full of Interesting Strangers
4. Entropy Crushers
5. Titles are Toxic

All of these articles fall under the “decent amount of work” category so it’s satisfying that they generated good traffic.

Article count by category for long form pieces:

1. Tech Life 8
2. Management 6
3. Tools 2
4. Apple 2
5. Writing 1 / Rands 1

So, yeah, I write about nerd stuff and leadership. Not a ton of news there. There is more to be said about writing, but I feel I’ve said in prior years.

Other interesting facts:

• The #1 article in 2013 based on traffic was The Nerd Handbook which was written in 2007. Bored People Quit was also in the top 10 and that was written in 2011.
• Since the redesign two months ago, traffic has almost doubled. I’d like say this due to the design, but I have been posting more long form and excerpt pieces which confirms the rule: post more = more traffic.
• Since the redesign, pages per visit are up 17%, visit duration is up 30%, and new visits are up 5%. So, more people are finding this place, they’re reading more, and staying longer. Welcome.

Aimee Groth on Quartz:

In its highest-functioning form, he says, the system is “politics-free, quickly evolving to define and operate the purpose of the organization, responding to market and real-world conditions in real time. It’s creating a structure in which people have flexibility to pursue what they’re passionate about.”

Reads delicious and the Wikipedia page on Holacracy is also worth a read. Per that page, most of the adopters who are using Holacracy in practice read to be smaller companies. I think communication, roles, and responsibilities are much more fluid and easy to discern at this size which makes these organizations great test beds.

What happens at 150+ employees is a different situation. Communication becomes fundamentally more expensive and that’s when we inflict all sorts of new structures, roles, and responsibilities on our teams. It’s also when such cancerous growths as politics starts to take root and because the team has become so large, it becomes harder to inoculate against these culture killing developments.

If ever there was a company to give Holacracy a legitimate chance, it’s Zappos, but I’d like to see a report card in a year.

John D. Cook on The Endeavour:

If something saps your energy and puts you in a bad mood, delegate it even if you have to pay someone more to do it than it would cost you do to yourself. And if something gives you energy, maybe you should do it yourself even if someone else could do it cheaper.

A good breakdown of the different variables to consider when decided whether to delegate or not. You’re probably delegating by gut right now and it might be worth taking apart the decision. Wish I wrote this.