Yes, the ideal is to have an accurate self-judgement. But let’s be honest: how many people have it? If you don’t have it, it’s probably wiser to slighly underestimate yourself. If you overestimate yourself you will tend to:
A lesson for PhDs
The biggest mistake ๐จโ๐PhDs๐ฉโ๐can make is to confuse ๐expertiseย with ๐ช experience. Many do. When they do, they expect too much when making a career switch, leading to disappointments at many fronts. Why is that a threat? Because there are too many essential skills you did not learn or cultivate during your PhD study. Continue reading “A lesson for PhDs”
Weekly quote #5: Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt
Weekly quote #3 – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
We are so bad at prevention, simply because few direct reward acts on it. We only do it when our modern human brain can overrule the often stronger prehistorical brain mass๐ง . Jonathan Haidt calls it ‘the rider and the elephant’ (just read his fantastic book ‘The happiness hypothesis’. A lack of training of that animal is dangerous.
There are many examples of an ounce of prevention:
- We all know we need to plan,
- sport regularly, eat healthy,
- put a lot of quality energy in our kids,
- start our day with the hardest tasks,
- finish that one chronic task,
- use sunscreen, stop smoking, etc etc.
It is only when you understand how humans act and become an observer of society, rather than a participant only, that you start preventing more than average, because you see other people’s elephants going wild. (for example yelling in traffic is a very good example of what I call a ‘lose-lose’ strategy).
The biggest problem with the climate change issue is that feedback is too slow and hence, rewards are too little. If you ask me, this big planet problem is a psychology issue, not a technology issue. There’s a lack of immediate gratification, which makes the problem so hard to solve. Can anybody come with an example of a problem of global scale that was solved with global teamwork effectively?
Preventing problems with a small, continuous effort is a very smart strategy, yet the vast minority of people understand this concept and act accordingly.
How proactive are you? Are you a preventer or a drowner? Let me know what your thougths are on Weekly Quote 3! Wim
Weekly quote #2 -Great vision without great people is irrelevant
If you work on a project, if you start a business, if you write a paper, whatever you do with others: you need a vision. Preferably a big one.
You will never reach something big without big vision. But itโs not enough. Great vision without great people and your vision will remain nice words. Great people without great vision and the people will leave.
Since we started hiring people we see 2 groups:
- People for which vision and values are important
- People that don’t care
- a) either they never will
- either they don’t realise the importance yet
I think you need groups 1 and 2b….
Agree?
Weekly quote #1 – Easy choices, hard life, hard choices, easy life
I was reading Tim Ferris’ book ‘Tribe of Mentors’ and discovered this quote which is so true. It became one of my favourite ones and gained importance since I started a business. Hard choices can be so uncomfortable Continue reading “Weekly quote #1 – Easy choices, hard life, hard choices, easy life”