Business of Architecture Podcast

The Parable of the Remote Control Doll (Just Ship It)


Listen Later

This morning my 7-year old daughter showed me a drawing that she did of a ‘remote control doll.'

Apparently this is what 7-year-old girls like to think about.

On one side of the page she drew a picture of the remote, complete with a viewing screen, speaker and microphone so she could talk through the doll.

On the reverse side of the page, she had a picture of the back of the doll with an outlet in her head (for charging my daughter told me).

Drawing of the ‘rumote cuncurll' Drawing of the doll. Notice the power outlet in the back of the doll's head for charging.

You'll notice that she's misspelled a lot of the words.

‘Rumote' instead of ‘remote.'

‘Toc' instead of ‘talk.'

‘Cis' instead of ‘kiss.'

At first I was troubled that my daughter who is 7 years old doesn't know how to spell simple words like ‘kiss' and ‘talk.'

Then I remembered that she's only 7 years old, and the way that she's going to learn to spell more words is by actually trying!

Interesting – the way we grow and progress is by actually doing stuff – even if we get it wrong!

Seth Godin writes about this concept and calls it ‘shipping' (refering to ‘shipping the product).

Here's an excerpt from a post that Seth Godin wrote talking about this:

Shipping is fraught with risk and danger. Every time you raise your hand, send an email, launch a product or make a suggestion, you're exposing yourself to criticism. Not just criticism, but the negative consequences that come with wasting money, annoying someone in power or making a fool of yourself. It's no wonder we're afraid to ship. It's not clear you have much choice, though. A life spent curled in a ball, hiding in the corner might seem less risky, but in fact it's certain to lead to ennui and eventually failure.

– Seth Godin

Where in your life or business are you holding back because you're afraid to ship something and get it out to the world?

Where in life or business are you figuratively curled up in a ball trying to avoid risk, but putting yourself on the path to failure?

Where in life do you have an idea, a project or a product that you need to ship?

Let's get after it today.

Enoch Bartlett Sears

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Business of Architecture PodcastBy Enoch Sears & Rion Willard

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

316 ratings


More shows like Business of Architecture Podcast

View all
Planet Money by NPR

Planet Money

30,874 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,237 Listeners

The Urbanist by Monocle

The Urbanist

290 Listeners

EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage by EntreArchitect // Gābl Media

EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage

158 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,381 Listeners

Revisionist History by Pushkin Industries

Revisionist History

59,341 Listeners

About Buildings + Cities by Luke Jones & George Gingell Discuss Architecture, History and Culture

About Buildings + Cities

264 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,438 Listeners

Inside The Firm by Alex Gore and Lance Cayko

Inside The Firm

116 Listeners

2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns by David C. Baker and Blair Enns

2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns

256 Listeners

Today, Explained by Vox

Today, Explained

10,118 Listeners

Life of an Architect by Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins

Life of an Architect

305 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,426 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,207 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,449 Listeners