Hey legend,

Here’s your small collection of books and podcasts that caught my eye in August and I recommend them to you, too.

To help explain our fascinating and complicated relationship with money:

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

To help understand how (and why) we should care about the future:

Check out this interview and learn about Effective Altruism.

If you’re feeling lost and/or confused about all things climate:

The Carbon Almanac will help.

For tips on the do’s and don’ts of returning to an office:

This episode of Work Life is a good place to start.

What was the best thing you read or listened to last month? Let me know by replying to this email and in the meantime, keep being awesome.

In 2019 I was sitting in the office of a very accomplished entrepreneur. Someone who had built and sold multiple successful businesses, written best-sellers and long been considered a leading thinker in their field.

On the whiteboard he had written up an idea that he was noodling on and turned to me, and two others, and asked:

“What do you think?”

Here was a brilliant and accomplished leader asking the three of us for our opinion. For our thoughts, ideas and input. Together, the four of us had a conversation, threw more ideas around and co-created a new and improved solution

He did this not because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he was genuinely curious what we thought. He had the humility to realise that he doesn’t know everything and so deliberately created space for us to contribute and add our ideas.

It’s moments like this that remind me humility is a superpower. One that some consider a weakness and others appear to lack in almost shocking quantities. So what if we all practiced it a little bit more?

What would it look like to eliminate rushing from your life? How might it feel? Is it even possible?

Because we all know the feeling of rushing to get somewhere or rushing to complete something and I’m not convinced the thrill of it is worth the anxious energy it produces. Thanks Josh for inspiring this nood.

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

It doesn’t matter how senior they are, whether they’re at a Fortune 500 company or Founded a successful Not-For-Profit. All leaders are making it up as they go and will experience moments of doubt, insecurity and, yes, feeling like an imposter.

Knowing this, what would it look like for you to remove that backpack full of perfectionism bricks and impossible expectation textbooks?

What rules have you created for yourself that are no longer serving you?

Because having a rule to always wake up at 5am can be great, until you start going to bed later and it’s the reason you’re so exhausted and moody at work.

We’re all operating in accordance with rules we’ve set for ourselves, but how often do we stop to question them?

The brilliant Jen Waldman and I just released Episode 200 of our podcast.

It marks 200 consecutive weeks of showing up, sharing stories and asking questions about creativity, leadership and entrepreneurship.

It’s 200 weeks of laughter, learning and height jokes (she’s 5’1″ and I’m 6’7″ for those who don’t know… you’re welcome).

It’s also 200 weeks of delightful self doubt and swirling stories like:

“I have no ideas”

“Why would anyone listen to a word we say?”

“Was that even an episode?”

200 is a great round number and a milestone we’re proud of. It’s also a reminder that the milestones and achievements we see in others often sit atop a pile of self doubt, bad ideas and then the occasional moment of clarity.

Thanks to anyone who has tuned in over the journey and here’s to 200 more weeks of learning, laughter and, well, mini-existential crisis.

Hey legend,

Here’s a small collection of books and podcasts I ate up in July and recommend you do too.

If you’re fascinated by humans and our quirky, irrational behaviours:

The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Green.

If you love learning languages (or, let’s be honest, the idea of learning languages):

Checkout this interview with founder of Duolingo, Luis von Ahn.

If you’re interested in nerding out on emotional intelligence:

This episode of The Imperfects podcast with Lael Stone should do the trick.

In case you missed it:

We released Episode 200 of The Long and The Short Of It this week.

What was your favourite thing you read/listened to last month? Let me know by replying to this email and in the meantime, keep being awesome.

Why do mistakes feel light, funny, and recoverable while failures feel heavy, serious, and permanent? Are these two sides of the same coin or something different altogether? Can a creative process, which often encourages mistakes, also make room for failure?

Last week I wanted to find out so I asked my most creative friend, Jen Waldman, in this week’s episode of The Long and The Short Of It. You can tune in wherever you get your pods or, you know, by clicking the link above.

What if I’m right where I need to be?

Because we spend a dizzying amount of time zoomed out, thinking about what’s coming up, what has been, who is in front of us and all the things we need to do and improve based on that.

So what might change if we zoomed in and realised that we’re right where we need to be?

If you order a coffee in a cafe and they mistakenly give you the wrong one, do you:

a) let them know about the mistake and request the right coffee because that’s what you ordered? or;

b) suck it up and drink the wrong coffee (while resentfully promising to never come to this stupid cafe ever again) because you don’t want to “cause a fuss?”

Regardless of your answer, you can learn a lot about your personality by answering this questions and listening to this episode of The Imperfects podcast.

As for me? I’m in camp B, attempting to convince myself there’s no difference between a weak, soy, extra hot mocha and the long black that I ordered.

Am I on autopilot?

Because when we roll from meeting to meeting to meeting, it can be easy to glaze over into autopilot, nodding along and acting as if we’re listening. An alternative is to treat each meeting as if it were a takeoff or a landing. That is: a task that requires our attention, energy and concentration.

The brilliant Michelle Florendo recently pointed out that the opportunities presented to us through work and life are a bit like tennis practice.

On one side of the net sits a ball machine, firing ball after ball to the other side of the net. These balls represent opportunities.

Some we capitalise on perfectly having enough time and composure to hit a satisfying forehand back across the net. Others might come a little too fast or a little too slow, causing us to mishit, shank off the frame or swing and miss entirely.

Then there are the balls that hit us square in the face when we’re not ready. The ones that cause our eyes to water and an emotional outburst to occur where we throw the racket, look up to the sky and scream “I don’t even like tennis, especially when used as a metaphor!”.

The thing about a ball machine, though, is that there’s always another ball coming. The machine doesn’t care whether you hit the ball or the ball hit you. It certainly doesn’t care how you feel about it.

In life too, there is a constant stream of opportunities. We can view this stream as overwhelming and frustrating or we can view it as an opportunity to practice, improve and get better… Especially when we get hit in the face.

What do I value?

Because everyone has too much to do and not enough time to do it. The answer is unlikely do more so an alternative might be to do what matters.

Hat tip Kirsty Stark for calling me out this week and making me think about this question.

When in Paris recently my wife ordered a diet coke and received a glass of red wine. It was an insight into how ‘good’ our basic French was (it was terrible) as well as a fascinating example of how to respond to mistakes.

In this case we explained to the waiter (in even worse French) about the mishap, apologised for our terrible French and she proceeded to laugh and swap the drinks, without fuss. It was funny, a little bit awkward and easily fixed.

It got me thinking about all those times when we don’t laugh off a mistake. When we choose to avoid the awkward and get angry or frustrated at a miscommunication at work. When we take a mistake personally and create a story that someone is out to sabotage us rather than pausing to laugh at what might have transpired.

No-one wakes up in the morning hoping to make a bunch of mistakes. No-one hopes to miscommunicate and cause frustration. No-one wants to serve someone a red wine when they ordered a diet coke.

So what might it look like if we acted as such?

Hey legend,

Here’s a small collection of books and podcasts that I consumed in June, while eating my bodyweight in pasta, pizza, gelato and assorted pastries in France and Italy.

…

…

… well this is awkward.

Turns out I didn’t consume anything but aforementioned food groups.

Instead, I switched to using a different part of my brain (the part that decides “what will I eat next?”) and took some time out to rest.

For more on this novel concept, see this recent podcast. You didn’t think I’d leave you without at least ONE resource, did you?

When’s the last time you celebrated something awesome that a friend did? When’s the last time you celebrated something awesome YOU did?

Take inspiration from my brilliant friend Kirsty who created a #dailyawesomeness channel in Slack where we post our wins and celebrate one another. It has me noodling on instead of cutting down the tall poppy, what if we helped it grow?

Have you ever had the experience of hearing someone share an embarrassing, vulnerable story, and immediately feeling more connected to them? Like the time I wore shorts to a job interview with an Executive in a very formal government department.

It’s because our imperfections connect us.

So what if we lead with them? (See The Imperfects and Armchair Experts podcasts for great examples of how to do this).

PS. By some miracle, I still got the job.

What would it look like to be the world’s best boss?

Because as Seth Godin points out, we’re often our own worst boss, which has me curious on what would it take to flip that.

“The tone is wrong, the characters ring false and the humour is strained and simply awful. Don’t waste your time and money.“

“I loved every minute reading it. It had a whole new feel to it.”

These are two seperate reviews of the exact same book. Two humans having a completely different experience when faced with the same thing.

It’s baffling, hilarious and really quite reassuring.

Another moment of Sonder. Another reminder that no-one knows exactly what you know, believes exactly what you believe or cares for exactly what you care for. Another reason to lead with curiosity and empathy and ask: what might be happening for this person to make them feel this way?

The book in question? One from the Harry Potter series.

Why is the diameter so small?

Because Bo Burnham is a comedy genius and, well, I was really just looking for an excuse to share this clip from a few years back. It has a lazy 32 MILLION views.

It also makes me wonder: What else am I missing that’s right in front of me? Because he’s right, Pringles legitimately are too narrow.