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Trigger Your Mind’s Coprocessor Through Mundane Tasks

Have you ever noticed that your best ideas come when you’re not actively trying to think about them? Maybe you’re taking a shower, or going for a walk, or doing some other mundane task. And suddenly, you have a brilliant insight into a problem you’ve been struggling with.

Remember Tim Urban’s procrastination monkey? It needs to be kept busy on stupid things, so that the real brains can focus.

After a run, swim or bicycle ride, I have a long list of items I came up with. You may find me with my bicycle stopped at a traffic light speaking a reminder or note into my Apple Watch. I wish I could easily tag time stamps in a podcast for later.

Doing mundane tasks can be so helpful for creativity and problem-solving. When you’re running, swimming, or doing the dishes, your brain is free to wander and come up with new ideas. So next time you’re stuck on a problem, try taking a break from thinking about it and do something mindless instead. You might just be surprised at what you come up with.

July 31, 2023

Ed Catmull and Pete Docter, in Conversation With Adam Grant

One of my favorite books about working as a team and building a culture of experimentation and creativity is Creativity Inc by Pixar’s Ed Catmull.

Ed Catmull was recently interviewed, together with Pete Docter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer and Academy Award winning director and screenwriter, by Adam Grant. (transcript)

A few takeaways from the interview:

  • Creativity is a process, not a destination. It takes time, effort, and collaboration to create something truly great. Take one step at a time, one problem at a time.
  • Feedback is essential for growth. It’s important to be open to feedback, even if it’s critical. Steve Jobs used the phrase Strong opinions, loosely held often. You should be able to manage two seemingly conflicting points of view at once: Hold onto something tight, and you should be able to let it go at the same time. Just because you express your opinion strongly doesn’t mean you can’t also be holding it weakly.
  • Getting feedback is a lot more about diagnosing a problem, rather than taking in the proposed solutions. Sometimes people think you are dismissing their feedback. Instead you may be solving the newly unearthed problem in a different way. Yet you are incorporating the feedback differently.
  • Have a challenge network: your braintrust who brings you the critical feedback. (There is a lot in the Creativity Inc book about the Pixar braintrust.)
  • A culture of trust and respect is essential for creativity to flourish. People need to feel safe to share their ideas, even if they’re not fully formed.
  • Leadership is about creating an environment where people can do their best work. It’s not about micromanaging or dictating from the top down.
  • Peer pirates - let department representatives argue the case among themselves, rather than the department heads to avoid changing the dynamics of the room.
  • The importance of how a team is run over the team composition. And the role of storytelling to build the culture. Storytelling of successes, failures, and principles.

July 26, 2023

The Winner of the Tour De France 2023 Is Netflix

Every night for the past 3 weeks I watch Belgian TV’s Vive le Velo. I either listen to it on my commute home or watch it at home before going to bed. Vive le Velo provides a summary and analysis of the day’s Tour de France stage, interspersed with behind the tour mini documentaries and touristic escapades. The latter makes it an attractive balanced show and much different from a typical post-race ESPN analysis. It wides the audience beyond the die hard cycling enthusiast. I suspect it is the highest rated television show in Flanders at the moment (unless there is some reality soap on another channel I am not aware of. Ex-on-the-beach?).

The fact that a cycling show scores in cycling-crazy Belgium is no surprise. Yet also internationally, cycling is gaining in popularity. Lance Armstrong’s The Move and Geraint Thomas’ Watts Occuring are both highly popular podcasts. And more importantly, like a sprinter in the wheel of their lead out, Netflix and the Tour de France: Unchained timed it perfectly.

The Tour is sex and rock ’n roll - no more drugs. Full gas from day one and every day. Woef’ing a la Victor or Wout. Attacking like Tadej. Time trailing like Jonas. Sprinting like Jasper. Young guns are putting it all on the line. What a sea of difference from the Indurain or the Sky-Froome years!

Netflix has a front seat to it all. We got a first taste in June of what happens inside the team busses. Even for a fanatic like myself, this was new and interesting to watch. I can not wait until June next year when Unchained season 2 comes out.

Next stops: Glasgow (world championships) and the Vuelta a Espana. The Vuelta may give us a preview of what to expect in the Tour next year. This will be more than a battle between two. Geraint, Jonas, Primoz, Remco, Juan, and Enric are all heading to Barcelona.

July 22, 2023

New Product Management Acronyms

In the continuing series of new or sometimes lazy lingo, I learned about these product management related acronyms.

  • WTP - Willingness to Pay: the maximum price a customer is willing to pay for a product or service.
  • JTBD - Job to be Done: shorthand for what an individual really seeks to accomplish with your product.
  • DOR - Definition of Ready
  • MVE - Minimum Viable Experiment (sometimes Minimum Viable Experience): an experiment to test the central premise of your business idea. It is a much better term than Minimum Viable Product (MVP), as an MVP is clearly a misnomer: it is neither product, nor viable. MVE captures the true sentiment better.
  • LSD - Lean Software Development: ok, I just like to listen to the Grateful Dead at work from time to time.

July 17, 2023

2023 Tour De France - Part 2

Ten seconds, that’s the difference between the number one and two in the overall standings, Jonas Vinegaard and Tadej Pogacar. Although Tadej and the UAE team tried on several climbs this week, Jonas turned out to be a tough cookie. He held on and fought back. He has surprised me. I also expected a bit more from Pogacar.

There was that blocking incident with the motorcycle from the French television, which could have given Tadej more seconds on bonification. Let’s hope this incident will not decide the tour of 2023.

The exciting fight continues on Tuesday with a time trial and two more mountainous stages in the final week. I anticipate some gutsy riding from Pogacar. We may even see Jonas on the attack too to break the Slovene mentally.

July 16, 2023

2023 Tour De France - Part 1

Last year, after some amazing riding by Wout Van Aert and a great battle for the yellow jersey between Jonas and Tadej, I wrote

“This has been the best Tour de France in years!”

“Hold my Ketone”, says the Tour de France 2023.

With a little help from the parcours builder, this year Tour de France is not for the weak. There is no first week dilly dallying by the GC contenders. Gone is the crazy cobble stone stage, which only causes spectacular, yet unfortunate, crashes. Week one hasn’t been merely an appetizer, soup, and some sprinter amuse bouche. Week one has been one raw piece of El Capricho from the area of San Sebastián. The Yates brothers, Jonas Vingegaard, and Tadej Pogacar, were the first to sit down at the table. “Let’s eat!”, they all shouted in unison.

We’ve seen some gutsy riding. Jonas Vingegaard skyrocketed on the Marie Blanque pushing Tadej against the ropes early, dropping him one minute. We all let go a big sigh of relief when we saw the counter attack from Tadej the next day. This is far from over. The battle just got started.

Then there is the fight for the polka dot jersey, the green jersey, and the stage wins. Every day, it has been a spectacle. Wout has been unfortunate and yet oh so close. The Vlam van Ham, Jasper Philipsen, with the help from Mathieu van der Poet, picked up a lot of green jersey points, when the grabbed three sprint stages. The polka dot jersey is a battle between Powless and Gall.

There has also been some drama with the crash and subsequent departures of Mark Cavendish, Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Luis León Sánchez, US champion Quinn Simmons or Belgian’s Steff Cras.

If all this were a summary of the entire Tour de France, we would be happy. This is only a quick summary of the first week of racing.

There is plenty of raw meat to be served in the coming days. Some will argue the long mountain stages favor Jonas. Still, I am rooting for Tadej, and Wout.

July 9, 2023

Air

I love a great against-all-odds documentary. The story of Sonny Vaccaro is exactly that. Ever since watching the trailer of Air, I wanted to watch the movie. Initial movie reviews weren’t stellar. However, I’ve come to realize that my movie taste often clashes with that of the expert.

The movie by the Boston brothers, Affleck and Damon, is wonderful. The script is easy: there aren’t any major subplots. And while I already knew the story, it was still entertaining. The clothing style is awfully familiar. More fluo! Masquerading Jordan’s face is plainly awkward. I give it four out of five waffles.

June 19, 2023

Alc Packing List Notes

AIDS LifeCycle shares a good packing list and has in-person and virtual sessions to discuss what to bring and how to pack it.

The South Bay Blaze publishes their Picky Packing List which has valuable information from experienced riders.

In camp, I was surprised by some of the items folks had brought. I was equally flabbergasted how they actually got it stashed away in their luggage. Some folks brought a full size and voluminous sleeping mattress. Others even brought a sleeping cot. Those stood in stark contrast to my minimalist Thermarest. It didn’t really matter since I slept deeply after a long day of cycling. I didn’t even need any earplugs or eye cover.

There are a few things I would alter the next time around:

  • Different type of luggage - The wheels on a regular travel suitcase are barely suitable for the grassy fields. I should have heeded the advice for a roller bag with those skateboard-like wheels.
  • Crocs - I had brought both flip flops and sneakers. The flip flops are uncomfortable to walk in, and the sneakers impractical to get in and out of. I really only needed Crocs-like shoes: easy to get in an out of the tent and functional for the shower trucks.
  • More clips - I had brought 4 clips to hang cloths onto the tent. Pack at least 8 or 10 of them. You can quickly dry your cycling clothes as well as your towel. I didn’t wash my cycling gear and had a fresh outfit daily. Some folks did wash their clothes regularly and having many clips will be key in that case.
  • A large microfiber towel - A regular beach towel doesn’t dry fast enough and my small microfiber towel was very small. I made it work though.
  • Medicated blistex - while I had plenty of SPF lip balm, I ended up with a blister on my lips. Only when I got home and could apply some medicated Blistex did it heal. I did bring too much sunscreen. One tube is more than enough, instead of the 3 that I had brought.
  • Instead of my tube of Bengay, bring patches with lidocaine.
  • A beanie is warmer than a hooded sweatshirt, and you can use it also when going to sleep.
  • Outdoor tent light decoration makes it easier to find your tent. I left my waterbottle outside so that gave me a clue as well.
  • I did pack too many (3 large + 2 smaller) battery packs.
  • There was no need for swimtrunks.

Aside of these few tweaks, I felt well prepared. There wasn’t really anything I lacked.

June 19, 2023 ALC2023

Alc Showertrucks and Bathrooms

A week camping out means a week of porta potties. There are hundreds of them: at every rest stop, at lunch, and in camp. At the rest stops, they are even decorated in the theme of the rest stop. May the force be with you.

With this many people, hygiene is key. ALC hammers the practice from the beginning:

  • take of your snotty gloves at every stop
  • apply the two step system: use disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer after the bathroom and before any food or water stop. It all seemed to work well, and few folks got sick.

I used to be part of the “trowel club” along backcountry backpacking trips. So this was all fine for me.

The shower trucks were a pleasant surprise. After a long day in the saddle, you look forward to a nice warm shower. In camp there were about three long shower trailers and a few supply tanker trucks: male, female, all.

I was anticipating a lukewarm drizzle from the shower head. Instead, there was plenty of hot water in the private showers. Especially on the cold and rainy third day this felt great. I never had to wait for a long time to take a shower, and didn’t feel pressured to cut it short either.

June 19, 2023 ALC2023

Come for the Scenery, Stay for the Food

The food on ALC is plainly amazing. After burning thousands of calories on the bike, you hunker for a great tasting and plentiful meal. And that’s what the chefs in camp deliver.

As a pescatarian, I filed in the vegetarian line. It is a single and often the longest line. There is plenty of protein: vegetarian “meat” balls, grilled portobello mushrooms, smoked jackfruit. My plate was full every night with great tasting food: Mexican, Italian, French, and comfort American. Salad, main course, side dish, and desert. Two dinners are common and encouraged. Also the breakfast is amazing: you will need to protein and carbs on your ride. Lunch is typically prepared peanut butter with apple and jelly sandwiches or jackfruit burritos from Boudin, with a side of fresh fruit and salty chips (you need the sodium too!)

As many calories I burned throughout the day, I gained them back in the dining tent.

June 19, 2023 ALC2023