đź‘‹ Hi, my name is Max Zsol.
I'm a computer engineer and writer of sci-fi,
some times with the help of AI.
I also blog about
writing,
mindfulness,
engineering leadership,
mechanical keyboards, and a long etcetera.
The Power of Labeling
Labeling is a powerful concept that I wish I remembered more often and mastered better.
There are many interpretations of the term labeling across many disciplines. At its very core, the idea of labeling is that of giving things a name. When we give an idea a name we make it tangible in people’s minds.
That is why legislators use catchy names. Patriot Act. Affordable Care Act. Freedom Bill. Same for all the acronym bills.
—What’s the strategy behind those catchy legislation titles?
A label acts as an anchor. Once you establish what the name refers to, you can use the label as the shortcut for that idea. Instead of repeating a complicated concept over time, you can label it “X”, and then get away by just saying “X”.
But the magic of labels is not just that they are a time-saving shortcut. Labels also carry authority. We are biased to believe that concepts with a proper name are more likely to be reputable and valuable.
And the last thing about labels is that labels make ideas easier to become memes. If well chosen, a label is easy to remember (eg. a catchy name, a play of words, acronyms, etc).
The black-hat interpretation of labeling is using it to influence others to buy into your ideas.
The white-hat approach is to label initiatives to help materialized them.
Start with Empathy
Designers imagine things that don’t yet exist, and then they build them, and then the world changes
—Designing Your Life
I am reading Designing Your Life after listening to an interview with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. I love their proposition to approach growing a career as if designing a product.
Above all, I love how the book reinforces ideas around product design that are very close to me. One of these ideas that resonate with me, is the concept of empathy.
Designers love questions, but what they really love is reframing questions. Reframing is one of the most important mindsets of a designer. Many great innovations get started in a reframe. In design thinking, we always say, “Don’t start with the problem, start with the people, and start with empathy.” Once we have empathy for the people who will be using our products, we define our point of view, brainstorm, and start prototyping to discover what we don’t yet know about the problem.
—Designing Your Life
It’s been my experience that good design starts with the user first. Who are they? What do they need?
My best experience working with designers has been to experience that reframing from the quote above. Whenever we find ourselves at a dead-end, we recenter the conversation around what is best for the user. How are they going to experience what we are designing? That is where we should start.
Empathy is such a great starting point for much more than design. Management and leadership should also be centered around empathy. Our lives as well should focus much more on others. I’m willing to bet this would be a much better world if that were the case.
To treat life like a product. What an idea!
Effective leadership
As a senior manager, I miss the easy metrics of success that I had when I was a programmer or team lead. Back then all I had to ask myself was whether my project shipped on time and as planned. If so I had succeeded.
Today, when I try to evaluate success across my team, asking if they delivered their projects on time and as planned is not enough. I have to question many other more ambiguous topics:
- What is the satisfaction level among the staff
- What is the attrition rate
- How is the staff keeping up with their skillset
- Is our staff value competitive with the market
- What is our org vision
- How does our org vision support the company goal
- and a long list of many more things
All of these topics or goals have the common aspect of being hard to measure and having a long time span.
The ambiguity, and the long-time horizons (plus the habitual lack of feedback at senior levels), leave me constantly wondering how to measure my effectiveness.
This is where vision comes into play. When I need to find solid ground I refine the vision for my group and try to assess how everything and anything I do ladders up to that vision. If I have crafted a valid vision (and that’s easier to get feedback about), it is easier to evaluate effectiveness.
Quick Communication
TL;DR: Communicate fast and to the point but do it with heart.
My job requires a lot of written and verbal communication. I am constantly running between meetings with barely enough time to check my emails. I have to move fast and that means making quick decisions and communicating quickly.
Quick communications try to communicate things like these:
- I need you to do this now.
- Here is my one-sentence response.
- I need your reply now.
Every time I send one of these I rewrite them over and over. Here is how a one-sentence email might evolve:
- “I need an update asap.”
- “I need you to write a status update before EOD.”
- “Can you send me a status update before end of day?”
- “Could you send me a status update before end of day?”
Changing from “can” to “could” might seem like an unnecessary change. “Can” is a perfectly appropriate request but “could” implies “please” without stating it. So that small change, depending on your audience might be better received.
So much of editing my quick communication is about making sure people understand the message doesn’t carry any animosity.
You can make your communication even shorter and just send “I need an update asap.” But you’ll need strong relationships with those you are communicating with.
This is hugely helped me:
- Having strong relationships with my team. They know me, and I know them.
- Having open discussions about communication styles. I shared what I like and expect, and asked the same from my teammates.
If your teams know you, they will understand the subtext of your communications. Just make sure this style is not the only one you use with your team or you might erode that rapport.
Can you predict the future?
When I ask my team if they are on track or not, I am not looking for a yes or no answer. I am looking for the details that support whichever status they believe to be in.
You should have automated tools that you can check to see your project status. Many organizations, however, fail to implement those or do so in ways that are not entirely reliable.
I have seen too many teams manipulate data “to stay in the green.” Whether intentionally or unintentionally, reports are only as good as the data. Whether you have a burnout chart, a Jira board, a GitHub project graph, or any other visualization tool, you should still talk to your team.
When I ask my team if they are on track or not, I want to know where the team is compared to where they should be. And the key to the question is knowing “where they should be.” If you can’t answer how much of your backlog should be completed by now to meet our deadlines, I have to assume we are not on track.
If you don’t know how much work you have completed, how much work is left, and how that relates to the time left, you are in trouble. Do you know your velocity? If you don’t know, you are in trouble. You are either off track already or you will get off track before you know it.
Track your progress in such a way that you can make estimates about the future. If you can’t estimate what and when things will happen in your project you are not tracking it properly.
Distributed power
Many large organizations have a dysfunctional distribution of power.
By design, top-level management understands long-term high-level vision but doesn’t know about the details. Similarly, low management understands the low-level details but doesn’t have unfiltered access to long-term goals.
Although there could be a balance between those two aspects of organizational management, it rarely materializes.
Low managers might lack the context to understand high-level vision. This could have even if they had access to this information. However, most companies are designed to hide this information from low-level management.
The imbalance comes from the power structure. Upper management has power over the high-level vision, which they have unique access to, but they also have power over the low-level details.
“The persons on the spot usually have better knowledge than can those at the top and hence can often (not always) make better decisions if things are not micromanaged. The people at the bottom do not have the larger, global view, but at the top they do not have the local view of all the details, many of which can often be very important, so either extreme gets poor results.”
—Richard W.Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
Power is not uniformly distributed. Instead, it is concentrated on the top, and then lent to the bottom layers. Low management operates within the limited confines of their given locality. They can make decisions and execute after the high-level direction has been set from above.
Lower management is limited even with decisions that affect their own group alone.
This unbalance will always manifest in organizations where top management is too far removed from the day-to-day operations and restricts information flow.
Why not create better success metrics based on results and empower teams to own more decisions? Teams might stumble until they find their local optimum but now they have the leeway to find it.
Cowards and assholes
“Sometimes cowards are worst than assholes.”
—Kate Darling, Lex Fridman Podcast #329
Kate Darling shared this line in response to a question by Lex Fridman about Jeffrey Epstein infiltrating MIT.
That line is the most concise version of an opinion I’ve held for a long time.
Most recently I was watching the last season of For All Mankind. In the series William Lee Holler plays the son of a couple of astronauts named Jimmy Stevens. Jimmy’s apathy and disenchantment let him be easily manipulated into planning an attack on the very same institution his parents were part of.
Every time this character was on the screen I couldn’t stop from repeating, “here is the true villain of the series, the absolute worst of humankind.”
I am certain that much more dangerous than the leaders are the followers.
At least with a leader, you know where they stand. They are driven by a particular motivation. They might be sneaky about it but they have internal consistency about their convictions.
The followers are the people that lack all conviction. They are the people among us willing to compromise their personal values if they have something to gain. They will torture others and excuse themselves claiming they were following orders. They are the true danger and the ones to watch out for.
I fear the cowards more than I fear the assholes.
Passed over
Some setbacks are about things that happen.
Some other setbacks are about things that don’t happen. Like being passed over for a promotion, or not being included on a meeting, or your work not being recognized.
All those things that didn’t happen, but you wanted them to.
How does my mindfulness practice help in those situations?
- Awareness. I take a deep look at my own reaction to understand where the hurt is coming from.
- Self-regulation. I try to detach myself emotionally from the situation, to be able to assess it better and reduce hurt.
- Stoicism. I try to remind myself about what I can and what I can’t control.
It’s a process.
It takes time.
It gets better.
After you are gone
You won’t read every book on your shelves. You won’t finish every project. You won’t cross every item on your To-do list.
So what are you going to focus on then?
If you knew your time was limited, what would you do with it?
I never asked myself this question before, but (spoiler alert) our time is limited. We won’t live forever. We won’t have time to focus on everything.
Knowing (or rather facing) that, what would you choose to spend your time on?
Of all those books, which are the ones you would really lament not having read on your deathbed? Of all your unfinished projects, which are the ones you would really wish you had tried harder?
Start there.
Don’t let the urgency of the day-to-day push back the important stuff.
Don’t let urgent kill important.
Repetition Bias
I have been in an office where false statements were turned into truths, and it always blows my mind when it happens.
Joel’s story is the story of how to turn a false statement into a truth.
And This is how it goes.
I was in a meeting where Joel shared his idea. He was enthusiastic but his idea had no legs, so it landed flat. There were badly held back groans, and an immediate desire to move on to the next person. A few people responded politely but the idea went nowhere. It was truly a bad idea.
It’s ok. We all have bad ideas.
For most of us, this is where the story ends. If it was our idea we’d likely let it go. But not Joel. Not this time at least.
Because Joel had an agenda. Maybe he lacked some awareness, but above all he was determined. So he went around each and every person in the meeting, setting one-on-ones to workshop his idea. Most people listened. A couple of people tried their best to find anything good inside Joel’s bad idea. Some gave small suggestions.
Then in your next group meeting, Joel shared a rehash of his first idea. The same thing but slightly different. He even incorporated some suggestions from people he talked to. The last time you could feel the room pushing back on the idea, this time nobody seems that affected. Most people moved on without much concern.
In the next few weeks, Joel brought up his proposal a few more times, indifferent meetings, and in different contexts. Some people referred to it as “Joel’s approach.” Joel’s crazy idea had moved from being ignored to being recognized, even if not adopted.
And then the thing that blew my mind happened. Some other people brought up the idea in meetings. What seemed like a nonsense suggestion slowly became “plan B”. Some people used Joel’s plan B as a way to turn down plan A, which they never liked to begin with. Some people who didn’t feel their ideas were heard saw in “plan B” a new chance to exert influence.
In front of my own eyes, I saw an unpopular underground idea become mainstream.
Overexposure has a way of giving validity to ideas. It is a form of exposure bias, and all it takes is repetition.
This is called the Illusory truth effect.
The illusory truth effect is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure.
And works like this:
When truth is assessed, people rely on whether the information is in line with their understanding or if it feels familiar. The first condition is logical, as people compare new information with what they already know to be true. Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new, unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful.
Repetition can turn a false into a truth and a truth into a false.
Humans like mental shortcuts. We rely on them to make decisions. A mind shortcut saves us time, and we are lazy and like to save time.
There is a black hat management/physiological technique here in which I’d say:
“Repeat a statement you want people to believe multiple times and people will eventually believe it (if you repeat it enough times) whether it’s true or not.”
The white hat technique is
“If you want to get momentum behind your ideas, especially controversial ones, socialize the idea with many people and make sure the group you need to convince has been exposed to it repeatedly multiple times.”
The power of repetition is one of the most mind-blowing discoveries of my professional career.
Use it for good.
Leadership
Sticking to your principles even when it’s difficult.
Not cutting corners.
Doing the right thing without compromises.
Not giving up when things get tough.
Acting according to your values.
The Morning Trigger
The most forgotten or ignored trick to picking up new habits is the trigger.
Meditation is one of my regular habits. I’ve been doing it for years. But even after all this time, I do it at very irregular times. My schedule is all over the place and sometimes I forget to meditate.
Some days I meditate in the morning and sometimes at night. Sometimes I do it at home and sometimes at the gym or bus. Sometimes I use an app, and sometimes I don’t.
I have built a habit, but I don’t have a routine. And that makes consistency very difficult.
I have just recently realized the reason why I struggle with consistency. It is because I don’t have a plan. I haven’t agreed with myself when and where I should meditate.
I’m missing a trigger.
A trigger is an event that will kick off that automatic urge to do a habit. […] Habits become automatic after we’ve created a bond between the trigger and the habit — the stronger the bond, the more ingrained the habit.
—Leo Babauta
I have some triggers but since they don’t happen consistently, my meditation practice is not consistent either.
Some of my triggers are
- sitting down on the bus on my commute,
- a reminder from my phone,
- a notification that a friend has logged time on their meditation app,
- coming across the topic of meditation throughout my day
Given how different my triggers are, it’s easy to see why I miss some days. What I am missing is a regular event that I can automatically associate with meditating every day. I’m certain if the trigger is consistent, I can build a consistent behavior.
Pre-pandemic my main trigger was sitting on the bus on my commute. Today since I do work remotely some days, I miss that constant trigger. Weekends make for yet another different structure to my day and potential triggers.
—James Clear
It seems to me the one thing constant in all my days is getting in and out of bed. I already have a fairly well-tuned night routine so that leaves my morning I guess.
I guess that’s why morning routines are so popular. A morning routine can be adapted to any kind of day. You get out of bed on a work day, on a weekend, while on holiday, and on your birthday.
(Of course, if you are lucky to get out of bed.)
My TL;DR:
- If you are not regular with your habit pick a trigger to build a consistent routine
- If you can’t think of a good trigger, pick getting out of bed as your starting activity.
To meditate is to struggle
The practice of meditation is the practice of struggle. Or put another way, meditation is the practice of fighting resistance.
An erroneous belief is that to mediate correctly one must be able to sit for long stretches of time with an empty mind, unaffected by distraction. If you could silence your mind completely, you probably wouldn’t need to meditate.
To meditate is to get distracted, and then to bring our mind back under control. To meditate is to see how long it takes our mind to go off on its own. And then to try to get the mind back in focus.
Most people who complain about meditation, really complain about their inability to sit still and empty their minds.
This is the same as going to the gym for the first time and coming to the conclusion that you can’t lift weights because your are not strong enough. Any good trainer would tell you to start small, and not be discouraged. Going to the gym, and struggling to lift weights, is not only how you get better at lifting, it is in itself the act of weightlifting. It is pushing against the resistance that makes us stronger and builds our muscles. You are a weightlifter from day one.
Just the same, meditation is the training of our minds. It is the pulling attention back when we are distracted the core exercise. The fact that we struggle to meditate doesn’t mean we are failing. It means we are working out control over our minds.
The fact that we struggle to meditate is proof that we are doing it right.
To meditate is to struggle.
It’s all in the delivery
Have you ever struggled to get people to follow your vision? Have you wondered why people in your organization don’t seem to stand behind your ideas? I know I have.
There are two reasons, and only two, why you might struggle to sell your idea:
- Your idea is not good enough.
- You are not effective at getting your idea across.
That’s about it. That’s all there is.
Having the right ideas can be complicated, but it’s really not all that matters. Being right is only half the battle.
You have to get people on your side. And knowing how to deliver a message is just as important as the message itself. What we say is just as critical as how we say it.
To measure if your communication is effective, measure outcomes. And when those outcomes don’t meet your expectations adjust your communication style.
Few people tweak their communication style as much as they tweak their keynotes. If you struggle to get people behind your ideas, look at how you are communicating. You have to get people’s attention, you have to be clear, and you have to be inspiring.
Most people can figure out when their ideas are not right. But few people can tell when their communication is missing the point.
Adjust your style, and measure outcomes. Focus on how you communicate just as much as on what you communicate. Most of the time tweaking the “how” will get you further than changing the “what”.
To Be Inspiring
To drive people to action nothing is more effective than inspiring people. But honestly being an inspirational leader sounds exoteric and the like the stuff of cheap self-help books.
Inspiring sounds complicated, but doesn’t have to be.
Inspiring people is about what’s in it for them. How does your idea help others in any way? Does it make their lives better? Does it solve a problem for them? Does it give them gratification in any way?
Sometimes people have a hard time seeing a new reality. That’s where communication skill comes into play. You want to help people visualize your vision clearly. You want them to see it with such vividness they believe it to be possible. And most importantly, make them a key part of your vision so they feel vested.
Sharing your vision clearly is being an effective communicator.
Inspiring people is creating a vision that serves them.
When you no longer fit
We use the phrase “to be a good fit” when we interview candidates for a job. We heavily analyze fit when we welcome somebody to our company but we soon forget about it once they’ve joined.
This is what I think we mean when we say “a good fit”:
- Are the candidate’s goals aligned with the company vision?
- Is the candidate’s path of growth aligned with the opportunities the role provides?
- Are the values of the candidate aligned with those of the company or group?
Time, as with any other relationship, introduces change. Change can be good, bad, or neither. But change is inevitable to happen. What was once a good (perhaps perfect) fit might not be anymore. A person that was a perfect match for a company might not always be.
Most change doesn’t happen overnight. When we change or the company we work at changes it generally happens slowly. We are likely to start feeling discomfort long before we feel pain.
If ignored for a long time this discomfort can be a source of burnout.
You might struggle with work, with your assignments, with the vision, with the culture of your workplace. If you were once perfectly aligned with your company on all those fronts, it might be challenging to realize things are no longer the same.
I know I have fought hard against that feeling. My biggest mistake when I struggled to be satisfied at work was thinking I was the problem. If this place was such great a few years back, I thought, why isn’t it now?
I remember thinking that the company was making decision after decision that I disagreed with. Some were small, and some were larger. Eventually, that meant that the company was going in a direction that didn’t align with me.
And although I saw the company going towards a future I was not excited about, and I kept thinking I was the problem.
I took it personally. I thought I wasn’t doing something right. I failing to be effective to get my points across and correct the misdirection. Or I was failing to understand a grander vision under which these decisions made sense.
This situation can be an extremely frustrating time in anybody’s career. I didn’t feel heard or my contributions welcome. I was not effective, and I started doubting myself.
One day I was watching an interview with a veteran, much older than me, who was talking about what was exciting to them now. They talked about old and new technologies with such passion it lighted up something in me.
It reminded me of what lights me up and what motivates me. It reminded me there is work that is meaningful and has value that excites me and helps me believe I can contribute to building a better future.
Ask yourself this question: Is my company meeting my expectations?
You won’t always be a fit for your company, just like your company won’t always be a fit for you.
And that’s ok. It probably means you have outgrown your role and it might be time to try something new.
It’ll take courage and self-compassion to accept you are not a fit. But that’s ok too. It is all part of the journey.
Regarding your secret reorg
I got a slack message this morning that read:
"Have you heard anything about a possible reorg?"
Unsure about how to respond I simply typed:
"I have..."
Few words whispered in the office halls instill more anxiety that “reorg”.
Are you planning a reorg? If so let me share some thoughts from somebody who’s been on both sides of a reorg: planning it and being subjected to it.
First of all no matter how careful you want to be, word’s gonna get out. And it is going to happen much earlier than you can expect.
People will know something is coming. They will come up with their own versions of the reorg and share those with others. If you don’t get ahead of rumors they will kill confidence and moral of your team. And they will it make the reorg that much harder.
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality
—Seneca
The longer you take from planning to execution the more likely it is for rumors to start. Leaders drag reorg planning for too long.
Here’s what you should do to avoid leaks:
- Change ways of working before you change organigrams. If you can’t, it means your teams are not collaborating. Address collaboration before you do a reorg. Teams that don’t collaborate will suffer from culture shock when forced together by a reorg.
- Talk to more people. Don’t validate your master plan with stakeholders. Instead recruit people early. Approach organizational design as a group exercise slowly and organically.
- Plan for a small incremental rollout. Org changes might happen at once but you can start socializing the key ideas and the strategy for the reorg much earlier. Rollout design is an unappreciated job. But it has huge impact on effectiveness and adoption.
I’ve seen secret reorgs planned for over 2 years!
Nothing kills morale like runaway rumors.
Get ahead of it and execute a roll out plan now.
Finding Mindfulness
If I had known I could take care of my mind and if I had known things could get better I wouldn’t have quit my job after my burnout.
We admire those who show resilience and strong will. Particularly in position of leadership. I used to think that it was a sign of weakness if I needed help to manage my mental wellbeing. So I pushed through difficulties at work with determination and willpower. But I was not prepared for the most serious challenges, and ended up burning out.
I thought if I wasn’t mentally strong it was a reflection on my character.
I still fight that perception but today I know that mental strength is a skill that I can train for.
I exercise to build a stronger body but mostly to keep it healthy. I have tried many different sports. Swimming was my first passion, then running, bouldering, yoga, rope jumping, cycling, weight lifting and rowing. In my doctor ’s words, “the best activity is the one that fits your lifestyle and you can do consistently.”
I dealt with unmanaged stress, anxiety and obsessive thoughts for years. Eventually I decided to find a way to take care of my mind like I had with my body.
Just as with exercising I looked into a lot of different things. I explored neurology, CBT, metaphysics, nootropics, yoga, Buddhism. The list is long and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Finally I landed on meditation and mindfulness.
Mindfulness resonated with me for many reasons,
- it is non-denominational,
- a personal and private practice,
- has a low barrier of entry (no equipment or club memberships),
- easily accessible (anytime, anywhere),
- effective (provided results in the short term),
- and scientifically sound.
Maybe I picked mindfulness because of it’s popularity in the Bay Area. Still mindfulness is the one practice that has had the most impact on my career. No doubt about it.
I exercise daily to keep my body in good health for as long as it is possible.
And just as well, I meditate daily to keep my mind in good health.
And avoid burnout.
Never wait to get started
Finding time to get things done is a chore. Specially for a perfectionist like me who likes to find the perfect environment, the perfect setup, the prefect mood, and above all, the perfect block of uninterrupted time.
This block of uninterrupted time is actually one of the major blockers (see what I did there?) to actually get anything done.
So I embrace micro-tasks.
I figure out the smallest steps I can take on that project. Next I try to fit one very little task whenever I have 15 minutes free.
Instead of waiting for the perfect time to focus and get started, I try to do as much busy work as any time allows.
It’s not plausible or desirable to try to get the world to go away for hours at a time, but it’s entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes. Writing a page every day gets me more than a novel per year — do the math — and there’s always 20 minutes to be found in a day, no matter what else is going on
Via Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction
Let’s say I have to write a document. I used to think I needed at least a couple of hours to get through a first draft. Since those hours always took a while to materialize, I would end up procrastinating. so instead I try to complete one of these micro-tasks whenever I have 10-15 minutes free:
- create a folder and save file templates
- open the file and write a document title and one sentence on theme
- write down a quick list of TO-DOs for your essay
- write 3 bullet points with core ideas
- write a draft of a hook for the opening of your paper
- write an simple idea that’s the key point for opening and closing the doc
- etc
I other words, I don’t wait for many free hours to get started and make progress.
And, if I’m lucky, sometimes I have done so much leg work that I don’t even need those many hours of focused time to finish. I can quickly wrap it all up.
Never wait to get started.
Reading to Calm the Mind
The two best ways to expand my views and change my mindset are traveling and reading. And the more I think about it, the more similarities I see between them.
One very clear memory is of reading an unauthorized xeroxed copy of On the Road on a crowded bus in Thailand and meeting a fellow traveler with another xeroxed book. We shared notes on Kerouac and marveled at the coincidence.
Traveling and reading about traveling. What a pleasure.
— Via Pew Research Center
What gets on my way of reading, more often than not, is a busy mind.
I have to have my thoughts in order to be open to let new ideas in. When I am going through rough patches at work on in life, reading becomes difficult.
I find it hard to concentrate when my mind is busy with chaos.
I read genre fiction for escapism. Books that promise entertainment above all else. The best genre fiction, however, tickles my intellectual curiosity. Sci-fi is great for that. Greg Egan comes to mind. I will pick up his books for leisure, and every time I will get inundated with fantastic new concepts.
And in some extreme cases, when I am under so much stress that I struggle to open a book, I treat reading as a kind of meditation. Both can change our mind patterns.
I often remind myself I don’t need to have a quiet mind for reading. Reading will calm my mind.
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