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Ma7: Reading and Writing Margin by Retraice

On detecting, navigating and creating reality in business.

Air date: Monday, 26th Oct. 2020, 6 : 40 PM Pacific/US.

1 Reading

On the one hand, we're trying to see clearly what is already the case.

Jobs on reading what's not yet written

The Jobs quote:

"Some people say, 'Give the customers what they want.' But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, 'If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!' ' People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page."1

Detection

He didn't just say he shows people what they want before they know they want it. He said he tries to read (figure out) what they want before others (customers, competitors) do. If he's reading, he's detecting something that's already there.

Ries says something similar.2

"What do people want?" "What's the version of what I'm doing that people want?" These are attempts to detect something.

Steering

What do you do once you detect something? You steer, navigate, move around and avoid obstacles and pursue promise. auto

True north

This is an idea that Ries and Doerr talk about, a sort of guiding ethos or mission.3 Ries equates it with his use of the term 'vision'.

Effecting is not detecting

Every move you make, or don't make, is affecting things. And effecting (change) is not detecting.

2 Writing You are writing the page

You might not be doing exactly what you set out to do, but either way, you're writing.

An alternative statement to Jobs' (?): "Customers don't want things until we cause them to want them."

You're changing the future—not fundamentally differently than anyone does, but you are changing it.

You're changing what's around you

Within the boundaries of nature is the stuff you care about, which you are changing. Bezos said something like: If we focus on what's not going to change, that's the sort of stuff that enables us to see around corners.4

We are in business to write

Yes, we want to read what's not yet written, and see around corners. But we are in business to write on the page, to build around the corner.

3 So What?

It's a terrible, invaluable question. It feels bad to not have a good answer.

Wrote-the-book is better than read-the-book.

When there are no widgets

We've conveyed an idea today, and if we take for granted that it was valid and successful, still we do not know whether it was productive. So what? There are no widgets. A stream, or an mp3, is not a widget, is it?

A question for every business

If you succeed, so what?

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

Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 978-1451648539. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1451648539 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1451648539 https://lccn.loc.gov/2011045006

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

Index Bezos, Jeff, 1

Henry Ford, 1

1Isaacson (2011) p. 567

2Ries (2011) p. 10 and throughout.

3Ries (2011) p. 22, Doerr (2017) p. 104.

4It was a video (YouTube) of a stage interview with Bezos. Write to us if you have the link.