to be in the middle of a generally complex set of activities, with the connotation that both the initial energy from starting out and the anticipation of an imminent conclusion are remote at the moment; may have neutral implications or can indicate that the subject is flustered or harried, as in “The engineering team won’t be making the meeting, with tomorrow’s deadline on the prototype they’re really in the soup”; evokes the image of a person swimming uncomfortably in a steaming pot of broth; cf. a lot of moving parts
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Extreme risk, extreme achievement
Lessons from a historic climb
Posted on May 29, 2019
Because it’s there
Alex Honnold is a mountain climber, but such an unadorned description is akin to saying that Pele could play soccer, or Einstein dabbled in math. The term does not adequately capture the reality-defying nature of what he does.
Honnold is the world’s foremost practitioner of a climbing style known as free soloing, which eschews equipment that could aid in progress, with the added disadvantage of no ropes or harnesses for protection in case of a fall.1 With a small chalk bag worn around his waist and snug footwear as his only gear, he scrambles up rock faces with the deftness of a mountain goat.
On June 3, 2017, he single-handedly extended the boundaries of human possibility, climbing the legendary El Capitan in California’s Yosemite Valley, following a route that scaled 900 vertical meters (3000 feet) in one shot. He surmounted one of the most imposing rock formations on the planet, which attracts climbers from around the world looking to conquer a pinnacle of the sport.2 Read more…
- Free soloing is not to be confused with free climbing, in which one ascends the mountain without using any assistive gear, but still using a harness and ropes for arresting a fall. These are both further distinguished from aid climbing, in which mechanical devices are used to augment one’s own strength and ability to maintain contact with the mountain surfaces. ↩
- Pinnacle, because it’s a mountain. You see what I did there. ↩
- Not to mention any number of events outside of his control, including stone that could flake off the wall without warning, or inclement weather, a spooked bird, rockfall, etc. ↩
- Along with usual personal attachments like a fixed dwelling, he also sacrificed many normal human relationships and hobbies. Such single-minded devotion to a task may be necessary for some goals, but the personal toll is steep. ↩
- Temporarily being the operative word, as the inexorable approach of death for everyone is a fact Honnold muses on philosophically when considering the risk involved. ↩
- Granted, the achievement here is pretty arbitrary: Bannister covered a distance of 5,280 units derived through a messy process involving the size of Roman feet and British tax and regulatory policy, in 4/60 of 1/24 of the time that the earth takes to rotate on its axis, give or take. ↩
- And yet new ones regularly open in that eternal triumph of hope over experience, which is a boon for those craving a cronut or whatever the next food fad might be. ↩
unlock
Posted on May 25, 2019
(noun) the solution, approach, or response needed to achieve progress against a particularly knotty problem, as in “We’ve identified three unlocks that will help the ministry make progress on the issue of primary education” ; similar to the solve or the ask, this jargon takes a verb and repurposes it as a noun; changing the usual part of speech is arresting, which is partly responsible for its popularity1
- The word has also been memorably bellowed during the testy Brexit debates by John Bercow, the unconventional Speaker of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. The meaning is different, since in that context it relates to a specific parliamentary procedure. ↩
Move less to accomplish more
Motion versus effectiveness
Posted on May 22, 2019
Slow and steady
Not long after his debut in the top levels of soccer, Lionel Messi established himself as one of the most effective players in the world. He quickly gained renown for his tactical prowess, ball-handling skills, and playmaking abilities. His prolific scoring soon resulted in a slew of club championships and cup victories in Spain’s top league as well as in Europe-wide competitions.
His career has since been punctuated with numerous awards recognizing his performance as the top overall player and scorer of the season. When conversation turns to the best soccer players of all time his name is permanently on the shortlist. As an Argentine, he has assumed the mantle of the legendary Diego Maradona for a new generation of fans.1
Given the level of dominance he has achieved, it would be reasonable to assume that Messi is a workhorse on the pitch, running harder and faster and simply out-hustling other players to the ball when opportunities arise. One would expect him to demonstrate prodigious stamina during soccer’s long matches, where substitutions and breaks are minimal.
That assumption, while plausible, would be completely wrong. Read more…
- One notable sore point in Messi’s career is Argentina’s lack of World Cup success with him at the helm. ↩
- Who are not being paid nearly as much as the players they oversee, it’s safe to assume. ↩
- Add in the fact that by virtue of his name a Buffett investment can swing markets, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. ↩
- As well as small personal armies of assistants, cooks, maids, drivers, pilots, yacht crews, etc. ↩
- So if you’re the one who’s demanding yet another version of that analysis, remember the toll you’re imposing on your team. ↩
- Excluding stoppage time, of course, which adds a vague buffer at the referee’s discretion, to the bewilderment of fans of other sports where the game clock is transparent and final. ↩
that ship has sailed
Posted on May 15, 2019
and you are left on the pier, alone, to wave forlornly as it recedes into the horizon; indicates that an action or decision has been irrevocably taken and that there is no sense in further attempts to alter it, as in “Don’t bother trying to convince the CMO about the rebrand, that ship has sailed”; stems from the fact that when ships have left port, to return to dock would be laborious and expensive and so is rarely if ever done, much to the chagrin of modern cruise ship passengers who failed to return on time after shore excursions and must now be helicoptered to the vessel if they wish to resume their itinerary
The advantage of the hard restart
Back to basics
Posted on May 15, 2019
Is this thing on
The world of stand-up comedy is known for its grueling circuit of obscure shows in small venues, where thousands of anonymous hopefuls work through their material with the aim of building a following and one day getting their name on a theater marquee. A select few who sit in the right intersection of talent, timing, perseverance, and luck can find themselves with a full-time career in the field. They often become known for a specific brand of humor.
Much like musicians with their hit songs, these comedians develop trademark bits or catchphrases that become core to their image. A sufficiently well-known artist can build a persona around them that is popular enough to sustain a long and reasonably stable career. These core routines can keep the crowds buying tickets throughout long tours. It makes sense to leverage what you’re known for—after all once you have a few hits, wouldn’t you want to milk them as much as possible?
Yet a select few commit to a more counterintuitive path. They periodically throw out all their existing content—which helped them achieve success—and rebuild their core set entirely from scratch. This appears foolhardy: why jettison the very thing that made you famous, likely honed over hundreds of laborious hours, in favor of content whose reception is uncertain? Read more…
- It’s one of the reasons that comedy across language barriers is very difficult, as the rules of wordplay and punch lines can be very different across languages. ↩
- Depending on how cultural norms evolve, groundbreaking comedy from just a few decades ago can be cringeworthy when viewed with modern sensibilities. ↩
- Amazon has even named an office building Day 1, just as Facebook with its vaunted “hacker” ethos sits literally at 1 Hacker Way. Incidentally Apple resides at 1 Infinite Loop, which is a generally undesirable condition in computer programming, so not sure what the message is there. ↩
- Post-crash it took Amazon’s stock price a decade to regain its peak 1999 level. During that time the success of Amazon’s strategy was not taken for granted by nervous investors. The company’s valuation is now dancing around the $1 trillion level. ↩
- Including some notable misfires like the Fire Phone, which was perhaps more appropriate as a name for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, which had the unfortunate tendency to burst into flames. ↩
- Or even literally—this is a reason why international rotations are so popular in large multinational organizations. There are some things that are very hard to understand unless seen and experienced firsthand. ↩
- One airline CEO was known to periodically serve as a flight attendant, recognizing that pushing a drink cart through the aisles was far more representative of the company’s work than taking meetings in generic executive suites. ↩
- Causing startups to alternately tremble at the prospect of being crushed by Amazon or salivate at the thought of becoming attractive enough for Amazon to acquire. ↩
Hard conversations and ensuring success
Feedback and forth
Posted on May 7, 2019
In the bubble
As Paul Wolfowitz stepped out of his suburban Washington home one spring morning in 2007, he was greeted by the unusual sight of journalists camped out on the curb. The past weeks had seen intensifying scrutiny of Wolfowitz and the actions he had taken shortly after assuming the presidency of the World Bank in 2005. Politicians and leaders from civil society had begun to weigh in on the situation, and it was unclear how the institution’s Board would respond.
Established in the aftermath of World War II, the Bank was designed to finance the rebuilding of countries devastated by the conflict, only later evolving to take on its current broad anti-poverty mission.1 From the beginning, tradition held that the government of the United States would choose its leader. When Wolfowitz was nominated by President George W. Bush it was expected that he would serve at least one standard five-year term, if not two.
But less than two years after he began, engulfed in ethical and policy controversies and facing mutinous sentiment from the Bank’s staff, Wolfowitz was forced to negotiate his resignation, bringing his tenure to an abrupt and inglorious end. Read more…
- The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the Bretton Woods institutions, were established during a conference that took place in a New Hampshire town of the same name. The latter is often called on to help countries facing financial crises, making it a higher-profile target for critics than the World Bank, which to the layperson is often presumed to be a purveyor of checking accounts. ↩
- Despite its American location the Bank’s staff was heavily European, and many held unfavorable views of the Bush administration, of which Wolfowitz was formerly a part. ↩
- A few months before his ouster Wolfowitz was found out to be wearing socks with holes in them, revealed unexpectedly when he removed his shoes to enter a mosque on an official visit. Instead of being admired for his thrift he was relentlessly mocked in the global press, an early sign that public sentiment was not on his side. ↩
- Keep that in mind when you are tempted to write off something critical as inaccurate. ↩
move the needle
Posted on May 6, 2019
to generate some impact that is tangible or meaningful, as if the activity in question is being measured by an analog gauge with a needle sweeping across the gradations marked off on its face; used to refer to something that will have impact that is sufficient to justify the effort it requires, as in “I think that quality training program could really move the needle in terms of improving our defect rates”; in an increasingly digital world this expression has less purchase on the imagination
The surprising backstory of an industry pioneer
Pivoting and jumping
Posted on May 1, 2019
Level up
The Japanese company had been in the business of making playing cards for over 75 years, but its core market had become stagnant as customer preferences changed. It had produced few significant innovations in recent decades, aside from the successful introduction of plastic cards, plus a licensing deal back in the 1950s that brought Disney characters to its children’s products.
Its leader clearly saw that without drastic change the future of his enterprise would be one of irrelevance or decline. To forestall this, his team experimented with scattershot forays into new markets as varied as taxi service and noodle soup. These and similarly implausible attempts went nowhere.
By the 1970s it was clear that analog objects like playing cards were being supplanted by new technology-driven devices, particularly those that took advantage of emerging digital capabilities to draw in younger users. The company’s connections in the toy and game industry were fortuitous, as it was well positioned to observe these new products and their distribution patterns. Read more…
- Contrary to Nintendo’s modern family-friendly image, its original business had more shadowy connotations, due to gambling. ↩
- This article has generally aged well, although not in some of its specifics. Notably the prediction that utilities could be displaced by small power plants in houses powered by as-yet-unimagined technology remains firmly in the realm of science fiction. A river of mid-20th-century techno-futuristic utopianism runs through it. ↩
- Well, maybe a subset of people did, just like some still hold on to their rotary dial telephones because of their tactile and vaguely hypnotic interface. ↩
- All that remains is a rump corporation focused on the niche market of thermal labels. ↩
- He could get away with it. The rest of us probably need to do some more market research.↩
- Or befuddle, or enrage, depending on your political predilections, sports team affinities, etc. ↩
- Nintendo playing cards are apparently still sold by the company. #roots ↩
chase the ball
Posted on April 30, 2019
to undertake an effort that may be draining or thankless but is sometimes necessary; this expression has its roots in generic ball sports, in which the rapid and partly unpredictable movement of the central object means effort and diligence are needed to track and control it; this is especially true when there are opposing factors at work, such as in soccer; can be used in a negative sense, referring to a line of inquiry that is not worth pursuing further, as in “Sure they expressed some interest in sharing data, but do we really want to chase that ball?”, or more positively as a gauge of energy or enthusiasm, as in “Now we have to make sure we get time on the VP’s calendar this week, who wants to chase the ball?”
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