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Ma21: Delusion Hunting 1 - Content Delivery

Margin by Retraice^1

We looked for delusions here and didn't find any.

Air date: Friday, 14th Oct. 2022, 10:35 PM Eastern/US.

Minor revisions: 2022-10-15 Sat 11:09

`typically a symptom of mental disorder'

This is the tail-end of a definition of `delusion'.

Data is anti-delusional

Those who write and talk about using data as the basis of decision making in business are managing the threats of delusion.^2 Although they can get carried away.^3

Getting to two hours

We're currently focused on shortening non-brainy production task time to less than two hours.

Time and the toothbrush test

Premise: gathering, processing and presenting intelligence (Retraice content) takes time;

Premise: the business demands we pass `the toothbrush test';

Conclusion: our 80/20 labor can either be: quality/production, production/quality, or switch back and forth as the effects of our work changes the environment.^4

Ultimately, we have to do whatever it takes to produce good content twice a day.^5

The upshot

The upshot would be that: Retraice content was good when we were 80% quality-focused (2018-2020, the first few segments). Then production became 80% and content suffered (some was thin/bad, but mostly we just didn't publish). And now, since we have the capacity to produce daily, content needs to be 80% and good again. That's what `get to 2-hour production' is all about, and why it is our goal now, but wasn't in 2020.

We might call 2021-2022 (the period of not publishing) either a reflection of the 80% production phase or the long consequence of the failure to heat-map the production steps (which would've revealed earlier that production speed cannot, at present, justify building the website, though there are other arguments for it).

But it's yet not obvious that '21-'22 was a long-term bad thing, though it was bad for short-term business. Transactions simply weren't done. But Jeff learned a lot of useful computing, automated almost anything that can be automated, and spent a lot of time fermenting (turning sugar into alcohol) the Retraice content, mission and plan. These things have to be good in the long-run, right? ...Right?

Where's the delusion?

It's not that I couldn't be wrong. It's just that I don't see any delusions here.

Perhaps comparing Retraice to similar businesses, if there are any, reveals what we're getting wrong, how we're deluded.

Most successful podcasts come from institutions or storied careers. We have neither. Even so, those who have succeeded without those two bases still seem very different from Retraice. This could be a very good or very bad thing.

But ultimately it's about care and constitution.^6 It seems nonsensical to talk about having done things `like other people do them'. Then again, these could be "a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with [me] like flies on a summer day."^7

_

References

Doerr, J. (2017). Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth. Penguin Random House. ISBN: 978-0241348482. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0241348482 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0241348482 https://lccn.loc.gov/2018002727

Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge. ISBN: 978-0521336116. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0521336116 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0521336116 https://lccn.loc.gov/87026941

Hamming, R. W. (2020). The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn. Stripe Press. ISBN: 978-1732265172. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781732265172 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9781732265172

Harari, Y. N. (2017). Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Harper. ISBN: 978-0062464316. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780062464316 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780062464316 https://lccn.loc.gov/2017380745

Koch, C. G. (2007). The Science of Success. Wiley. ISBN: 978-0470139882. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780470139882 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780470139882 https://lccn.loc.gov/2007295977

Norris, D. (2014). The 7 Day Startup: You Don't Learn Until You Launch. Dan Norris. ISBN: 978-1502472397. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1502472397 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1502472397

Retraice (2020/11/10). Re13: The Care Factor. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re13 Retrieved 10th Nov. 2020.

Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup. Currency / Crown / Penguin Random House. ISBN: 978-0307887894. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0307887894 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0307887894 https://lccn.loc.gov/2011012100

Russell, B. (1928). Sceptical Essays. Routledge, 2nd ed. This Routledge edition 2004. ISBN: 978-0415325080. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780415325080 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780415325080 https://lccn.loc.gov/2004000057

Schmidt, J. (2000). Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 0742516857. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0742516857 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0742516857 https://lccn.loc.gov/99053464

Yong, E. (2022). An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. Random House, Kindle ed. ISBN: 978-0593133248. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780593133248 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780593133248 https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046048

Footnotes

^1 https://www.retraice.com/margin

^2 Doerr (2017); Ries (2011); Norris (2014); Koch (2007).

^3 Harari (2017), chpt. 11.

^4 Hamming (2020), "If you optimize the components, you will probably ruin system performance." p. 362. I.e. don't over-optimize components. Side note: Isn't it true that we, as individual organisms, by means of memes and culture and thoughts and beliefs, can only adapt to our perceptual environments, not our actual environments, which are much richer and fuller than what we can detect and be affected by? Just a thought. Cf. Yong (2022).

^5 The `toothbrush test' is the idea that a good product idea is one that would be used by a customer twice a day. Larry Page once mentioned it in a speech.

^6 Schmidt (2000); Frankfurt (1988); Retraice (2020/11/10).

^7 Russell (1928) p. 16.