Incite Your Month: March 2021
At CTQ, we kick each month off with a 5 min collection of ideas & recos from the team’s recent curiosity diet. It helps us ‘incite’ the rest of the month. Here’s this month’s edition.
(You can watch instead of reading this.)
One insightful book
Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
This is an insider's view of what makes Amazon tick. The title comes from the Amazon philosophy for launching a new feature or product - start by writing a press release about it and work backwards to figure out what will it take to deliver what you're promising in the press release.
Top takeaway: The success of Amazon is not because of the genius of one leader but commitment to and execution of a set of principles, systems and practices.
Check it out if: ...you like reading about what "being Amazonians" means!
One article
How to Finish What You Start
What: How should you think about projects that will help you finish more of them? And how should you reframe the problem so that you don't feel guilty about the ones that you should give up on?
Check it out if: ...you want to finish more projects, learn how to recategorize projects to become a master finisher!
One Trend
Non-fungible token
What exactly is NFT and why should you know about it? Creators and celebrities are selling NFTs as collectors items. Nike has patented a method to verify its sneakers' authenticity using an NFT system. You might find a use case of your own. I'm not introducing an NFT for this email yet - I'm assuming my lame jokes will do the job for now :-)
One book summary
Broad Band - The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans
This book tells the story of the women who played significant roles in the evolution of computers and the internet. It is only now that we are able to discover the roles these women played - something we should know more about and celebrate.
One takeaway: Dame Wendy Hall innovated in the field of hypertext, which produced the World Wide Web.
Check it out if:...you like to read about the history of computers and the internet.
One podcast
Malcolm Gladwell – Those Dangerous First Impressions
Alan Alda is well known as an actor. But lately, he has been doing a lot of work in how to communicate better and teach others how to do it. In this interview with Malcolm Gladwell, they cover first impressions and how we often get them wrong.
One smartcast
'A VC's guide to stay future relevant' with Amit Somani
What: Amit Somani is Managing Partner at Prime Ventures, an early-stage VC firm. Amit has over 25 years of global experience in technology and internet industries, working in product leadership roles in companies like Google, MakeMyTrip and IBM. He is also a prolific reader. So this was the perfect combination for us to pick his brains on how to stay future relevant.
Check it out if: ...you are curious about how companies can build resilience, what Prime Ventures looks for in founders and how Amit reads.
Closing with our favourite reflective ‘FutureRing’ question from last month
“What hack have you tried in the last one year to improve mindfulness, productivity and fitness (mental and physical)?"
[We also have a video version of these recommendations here.]