Dileep Karri (@satyadileep)

The Art and Importance of Sales

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 03:14:09 GMT

Selling is an essential part of the human condition, an art to be embraced and honed rather than disrespected.

Let's understand deeper into what sales entails.

It is looked down upon as a skill and well-educated people have zero experience in this critical area that keeps the business afloat.

Great sales people are proud of what they do and excited to help people towards what they want.

Sales teach us about emotional intelligence and other attributes essential to both life and business.

Mix of verve, empathy, belief and optimism can take us further than any business program.

Best business leaders take time to meet their customers face to face.

Likeability, conviction, resilience and persistence - the exact skills a great salesman needs. Key skill: empathy. A smile and a story, conviction that what you are selling will benefit the buyer.

Great sales people don't avoid rejection; they welcome it as a vaccine against letting repeated knock-back get to them.

Sales is a percentage game; more unsuccessful portion we are using up, the closer we are to the win.

More a sales person hears no, the more money the end up making

Evey no takes us closer to a yes. The numbers don't lie.

It is a power that needs to be used widely.

Don't look at the wallet, look at the heart. It is about understanding the buyer. People are motivated by a personal hierarchy of needs. Adept at divining the hierarchy and working on it.

Selling is who we are as much as the prospect.

Sell what you believe in, and believe in what you sell.

Life's a Pitch by Philip Delves Broughton.

References:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23285438

https://twitter.com/AlexHormozi/status/1537193246677344256

I will be sharing my thoughts and frameworks to become a great operator and leader in startups. Follow @satyadileep for more such insights.

Interesting Thoughts

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 06:28:42 GMT

I love going through the unexplored corners of the internet and learning from other peoples' experiences.

Recently read the blog of @sc13ts, scattered-thoughts.net.

A few ideas that resonated with me:

When stuck on a decision, go through this process:

Does it matter? Toss a coin instead of wasting time thinking about it.
Do we have enough information to evaluate the impact on my goal? If not, figure out how to get the information

Which choice moves us closer to my goal?

In picking the right tools to use, prioritize by time saved or quality
improved.

Work in blocks of 2-3 hours during which we should not do anything else. Keep the distractions minimum and then take a break.

Shorten the feedback loops.

The longer it takes between making a mistake and finding out, the harder it is to track down - the number of possible causes grows and the context fades.

Writing down what we are trying to achieve and the plan to do it helps in clarifying the plans.

Reminding ourselves of the goal makes decision making easier. Writing the plan explicitly makes it easier to notice when we haven't thought something through.

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/satyadileep/oYHg5cv

Wu Wei and the Law of Reversed Effort

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 09:23:11 GMT

Did you know that there are many moments in life when trying harder makes things worse?

TIL about the Law of Reversed Effort and Wu Wei thanks to @bigthink.

First coined by the author Aldous Huxley, it suggests that the more we overthink, the more likely we are to fail.

If we overthink about riding a bike, the chances are that we lose our balance and fall. We need to step back once in a while.

A related concept, Wu Wei is to appreciate and recognize that there are forces far greater than us.

A few things in life need a lot of patience and space.

There are good days and bad days in life.

But when we keep replaying things in our heads and obsess over them, we get more and more anxious.

In such times, it is wise to step away and enjoy Wu Wei or inaction.

On Taking Risks

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:20:13 GMT

How to Take Risks Easily (And Quickly)

Another of @sama's principles of success.

Amazon's 1-way door 2-way door policy

One-way door decisions are irreversible. These decisions need to be done carefully. Two-way door decisions can be reversed.

Focus more time on the crucial decisions and take quick calls on the reversible ones.

Convert irreversible decisions into reversible ones.

Transform one-way doors into 2-ways doors by reframing the problem.

Not sure about pricing. Call it introductory price which can be revised later.

Regret Minimization Framework

It all starts with a question: In X years, will I regret not doing this? The thread by @SahilBloom explains this in a lot of detail.

https://twitter.com/SahilBloom/status/1364579425522622468

Asymmetric bets

These are risks with a significant upside and very few downsides.

Example - Job in an early-stage startup. If it succeeds, lots of growth. If it doesn't, lots of learnings.

Great read - https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/take-asymmetric-bets?r=7g3kh

A good corollary to asymmetric bets is a portfolio of small bets.

@dvassallo has popularized this concept. A tweet-sized answer from him on what it means

https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1492717839362367492

One place we have to take risks is our careers. Especially while picking the right startup.

I like @thelindazhang's advice on the same. Here is a great summary on how to pick the right startup.

https://twitter.com/anusha_243/status/1491390772830437379

In summary,
- Frame irreversible decisions as reversible decisions and take quick calls.
- Make asymmetric bets and diversify the risk with a portfolio of small bets.
- One of the huge risks is joining a startup. Follow a framework set by others.

Get Good at Sales

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 04:04:02 GMT

How to get good at sales? A few thoughts
{{ img:cc6ec6 }}

First sales is not a bad word - Everything is selling.

Hiring. Recruiting. Pitching. Funding.

Even asking kids to do what is good for them.

Let's get started.

Communicate Clearly.

The best advice for this is to have clear thinking and use simple words and phrases to put your thoughts across.

Some thoughts:
https://twitter.com/satyadileep/status/1338326789467332608

@Kazanjy is someone I follow for anything sales related.

This advice on discovery is spot on.

https://twitter.com/Kazanjy/status/1434167927620575239

The next part of the selling process is negotiation.

Best negotiations are done with kids. Great advice by @anafabrega11 on negotiation.

https://twitter.com/anafabrega11/status/1482021087047262219

Resurrect lost deals by following these wonderful tips:

https://twitter.com/Kazanjy/status/1433417339802845184

Also very importantly, like any other skill - Sales too can be learnt and we can get better with deliberate practice.

Sales might feel distasteful at the beginning - but just think about it as helping people solve problems.

In summary:

- Be good communicators.
- Discover the pain points.
- Negotiate well.
- Try to resurrect and close lost opportunities.

Works well not just for business but other aspects like career, finding a mentor etc.

Independent Thinking

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 06:00:37 GMT

How do we develop independent thinking?

When faced with situations with no solution, how do we think and find a way out?

A few thoughts 👇

Independent thinking is a muscle that develops over time.

The easiest way to start: Read other people's thoughts.

Find great thinkers and follow them. This list compiled by @heyeaslo is a good place to start.

https://twitter.com/heyeaslo/status/1489780828741591048

For deeper learning, we need to have deeper conversations. So we need to network and make good friends.

How to network? Excellent advice by @joulee
https://twitter.com/joulee/status/1365331373314043905

To solve any problem, we can apply an assortment of mental models.

For anything on mental models - one person to follow: @ShaneAParrish

I also found this write-up by @SahilBloom and subsequent explorations to be very rewarding.
https://twitter.com/SahilBloom/status/1426882712690962433

To think well, we need to understand human nature.

The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene is the recommendation that keeps coming up.

The study of human psychology is underrated.

Last step yet most important.

Apply the various frameworks and practice them regularly.

👉 The more times we do, the more we learn.
👉 The more we learn, the more we get better.
👉 As we get better, we find the right solutions.

We will get knocked down many times.

Brush the dust, tend to the bruises and get back to work.

Grit comes from learning you can get back up after you get knocked down.

I wrote about a lot of principles like this earlier. (Shameless plug 🔌 )

https://twitter.com/satyadileep/status/1344122335666843653

Self Belief

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 09:18:26 GMT

How to develop self-belief?

Plucking my thoughts from others' wisdom.

The power of self-belief is underrated.

The most successful people believe in themselves obsessively.

But how do we cultivate it?

The first step to self-belief is self-awareness.

Knowing what makes us tick is extremely crucial to developing self-confidence.

The 16 personalities test is a good starting point to understand who we are.

The next step of self-awareness is to talk to people with whom you are close.

✅ Try to slide it in casual conversations and make notes.
🚫 Don't bring it up suddenly like a questionnaire.

Match that with the personality traits you have discovered.

As shared by @waitbutwhy self-awareness brings about the right balance of self-confidence and self-doubt.

This is the sweet spot of self-belief.
https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1473687939351785478

This quote by @peterthiel surfaced by @george__mack is also important.

There is a positive/neutral upside to self-belief but a definite downside to self-doubt.
https://twitter.com/george__mack/status/1334235656583831561?s=20&t=s4i_w7olsO-Vfp0zfCOpFQ

This advice by @HarryStebbings is top-notch.

Control your learning and rate of development and the self-belief adjusts itself.

https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings/status/1125532140169506816

Occasionally try things outside the comfort zone. Start with small things.

Instead of a marathon, try a little jog early morning. Embrace the win and slowly start doing more.

I love this profile brought forth by @polina_marinova on unshakeable self-belief.

Compared to the peaks conquered by Nim Purja, our challenges seem minimal.

Just go for it.

https://twitter.com/polina_marinova/status/1471209832397123586?s=20&t=s4i_w7olsO-Vfp0zfCOpFQ

In summary, for cultivating self-belief

- Be more self-aware.
- Be more positive.
- Do little things outside the comfort zone.
- Have a learning mindset.

Compounding in Career

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 12:08:17 GMT

How do we compound ourselves in career?

A few thoughts inspired by @sama and @profgalloway

The principle of compounding is the best. Little changes pay huge dividends. 1.01^365 = 37.8 >> 0.99^365 = 0.03.

Optimize for learning instead of earning initially. Explore the bold bets and take early risks in your career.

Identify the sweet spot at the intersection of

- What you like to do

- What you are good at doing

- What a company wants you to do.

Initially, only one or two might intersect. But with continuous iteration, we will eventually get there.

Like in the stock market, people with a long-term view of their career are truly rewarded.

Don't let initial discomfort distract you from the learning that you can achieve.

I like Scott Galloway's thoughts which I would slightly modify.

Focus on what matters - your long term career.

Be a Stoic in the face of temptation - evaluate opportunities on trajectory too instead of compensation.

Use Time to your advantage - be patient and hold on.

Diversify your skills - there can be many engineers, but engineers with an understanding of marketing are fewer.

To summarize, compound yourself by learning new things, applying them and chasing opportunities that catapult you in your career.

Productivity Conundrum

Fri, 28 May 2021 02:48:16 GMT

The Productivity Conundrum: Why do we feel most of our days are unproductive?

I kept thinking about this issue for quite some time.

Went on a quest to find what others are telling about this.

1st stop: This excellent illustration from @lizandmollie.

You prioritize well and but anyways work on the wrong things.

Anxiety follows every quadrant and make us miserable.

2nd stop: $10k work by @khemaridh.

Identifying the task with highest leverage is tricky - the gains are not immediate.

Hence our brain picks work with immediate gains and we miss out on high leverage work.

The realizations keep making us miserable.

https://radreads.co/10k-work/

3rd stop: @AliAbdaal's thoughts.

True work feels painful in short term giving gains in the long term.

Doing what you enjoy can't make a career in the long term.

Majority of things we do are not things we LOVE to do and so the resistance is normal.

https://youtu.be/FbSNfj2S6Pw

4th stop: @noahkagan's chat with productivity YouTubers

This has been extremely revealing.

Nobody is grinding 24x7. They have avenues to chill without feeling the guilt.

Thinking of work systems instead of work output seems to be the key.

https://youtu.be/SX-7K5eM5VA

Takeaway 1: Set a threshold to define a productive day.

Though I don't work directly on product, I try to approach everything from the product lens.

Like MVP, we need Minimum Viable Productivity.

Define ONE imp task - Once done, define the day to be productive.

Takeaway 2: Chill guilt free

Keep rewarding ourselves with a timeboxed chilling schedule.

Sneak in things we enjoy in between things we work on.

Only doing things we enjoy might not be practical.

Takeaway 3: Ok to be suboptimal

If you are able to operate at 80% efficiency and enjoying yourselves, that is good enough in the long run.

Always operating at 100% might burn us out.

Caveat: We need to work on ourselves to keep improving.

TLDR;

- Feeling unproductive is more common than we think.
- No need to feel guilt in occasional enjoyment.
- Simple metric: Define a productive day if you can get ONE thing done.

Execution over Strategy

Sat, 22 May 2021 18:56:04 GMT

Learn to execute really well and don't fixate on strategy in the early stages of PM career.

My biggest takeaway from the excellent session by @lennysan and moderated by @vikramadhiman. Organized by @TheProductfolks.

Sharing my notes from the session below 👇

Q - Who is a Product Manager?

Someone who delivers business impact by marshalling resources (means you are not authority) of the team to identify and solve a customer problem (figure what needs to be built).

Q - What is the Skill and competency map for a PM?

5 skills in a pyramid, (from bottom to top):
• Communication - meetings, docs etc.
• Collaboration - coordinate and get stuff done.
• Execution - Ship stuff
• Customer insight - what ppl want
• Strategy - what to build

Q - How to identify the product culture in an org?

Who has the final say in the shipping decisions? It is based on the competitive advantage that companies have.

Example
• Salesforce - sales driven
• Stripe - engineering driven
• FB - product driven

Another way to understand the product culture is see the background of the founder.

An interesting question to ask - who are a few ppl who succeeded in the company and why?

Q - How important is execution skill vs strategy?

Execution is extremely imp for it makes the team successful.

A new PM must focus on this skill the most. Everyone wants to spend time on strategy but do work to ship the product.

Q - How to get the first 100 users?

identify early adopters and craft a value prop that will appeal to them.

Inserting a tweet thread from @_shahedk on the growth of the first few users on @loom.

https://twitter.com/_shahedk/status/1364964378332823552?s=20

Example:
• Dropbox value prop - replace your thumbdrive
• Robinhood - commission free trading.

More ideas - DMs on Twitter, Online communities.

Dropping Lenny's article here - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-biggest-consumer-apps-got

Q - What are the diff growth paths for PM?

5 paths
• Traditional path to VP, and head of Product
• Principal PM / individual contributor (rare)
• GM (manage other functions like engg, data etc)
• Founder (start new companies)
• Pivot to other roles (engg, sales etc)

Q - How to grow as IC in product?

• Decide what field you are interested in (Security/Infra/Growth) and go deep. (There is a danger of being typecast.)
• Talk to the manager and make sure there is an official career path.

Q - What skillsets are important for PM nowadays?

• Nocode - show prototypes.
• Growth & Distribution - very imp esp for product-led growth.
• SEO and Performance Marketing
• Sales

Q - Some companies push people too hard? How to avoid that bring a little mindfulness culture?

So hard to make a successful business. Only intense companies succeeded (so far).

Can't change the way a founder thinks/works so if not a fit move on.

Q - How much time to spend outside work on writing, etc?

In early career, value comes from actual work. Don't obsess about your following.

Write/tweet to crystallize your thinking and find joy in work.

Q - How an early stage PM can succeed?

Balance strategy with execution. Make sure you are doing a good job with shipping things.

Build things but think why you will build those and write it out.

Ask the leaders why they did something or the decision they have taken.

Young PMs optimize on execution and mid career ones on strategy n vision.

A good book to read
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B005331U7Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

BONUS: 1st PM at a company is difficult. Very difficult since you are sandwiched between the founder and team. Could be tricky/challenging.

What Lenny wants to do - focus on newsletter x community.

Superb session overall. Might have missed few points due to internet glitches towards the end. Thanks to @MotwaniSuhas and @FittestGeek again for making this happen.

And if you missed doing this, please donate to the Indian COVID effort https://donate.indiacovidresources.in/

Product Lens

Fri, 21 May 2021 17:14:46 GMT

Develop a product lens in everything you see.

My biggest takeaway from the excellent session by @shreyas and moderated by @vikramadhiman. Organized by @TheProductfolks.

Sharing my notes from the session below 👇

Q1 - Who is a Product Manager?

Lot of confusion here and the cause is - Product is defined as one of these:

- Role (what to accomplish)
- Job (day to day work)
- Title (official title)

Role NOT EQUALS Job NOT EQUALS Title.

Who is a PM? (a right answer)

Define product and coordinate actions across org to get success.

Success is defined as user adoption and business impact.

Q2 - How does a PM grow?

There are 2 ways to grow:

- Keep getting better at the work we do. (80%-90%)
- Spend time outside of work on learning. (10%-20%)

Try to maintain this ratio to keep growing while making impact.

BONUS:

You grow as a PM (in fact every role) by

- Being able to focus on the task at hand.
- Learn cognitive empathy.

Q3 - PM in a startup vs a big company

For a startup, be clear with the founder - what you are expected to do, and what founder will do w.r.t product.

Adapt to the stage of the product and have a rigorous conversation on expectations.

Follow the 3X framework.

eXplore - finding the right product to build Prod-Market fit (early-stage)
eXpand - take the product through fast growth
eXtract - from maturity think how to monetize further (large company)

What works in a large company won't work in an early-stage company.

Q4 - How do I discover what kind of PM I am?

Think on what aspects of the PM work puts you in a flow. (Be very honest about it)

Two frameworks : 3 Essential Senses: Execution, Analytical and Product

https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1055720052064833536?s=20

Don't ignore your weaknesses. Try to work on projects outside your comfort zone and grow.

Another framework: @sachinrekhi's Builder, Tuners and Innovators.
https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1328372392566030336?s=20

Q5 - Manager or Individual Contributor as a PM

Initially Shreyas was hesitant since he did not have a good experience in the first time.

But during his stint at Google, his mgr told him to look at it from the org perspective and become a leader to develop more PMs like him.

Think of what you want to do vs what is good for the company.

If there are no mgmt roles:
- pick up projects with a lot more scope.
- offer mentorship.

Q6 - How do you balance depth of product vs speed of delivery?

- moving fast vs product quality
- moving fast vs right product (see what works)

You want to make the decision based on what the brand is about. How much the brand needs to be about quality?

Establish the agreed target quality framework.

Broken < Flawed < Expected < Pleasant < Impeccable

You need to rigorously arrive at the right answer.

Q7 - How does Shreyas develop the quality of thinking?

From the 10-20% of non-product work n learning.

Dissect beyond:
- What do we need to do?
- How do we do it?
- Who will do it?

Think
- Why is the situation the way it is? Be more introspective

A key reason for success:

Self-awareness. Completely understand why I do what I do? You will be able to regulate emotion and understand others.

Bonus Qs:

What Shreyas likes to watch - Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm
Growth in 5-10 yrs - Advice and Invest in startups.

Great session overall. A lot of value. Thanks to @MotwaniSuhas and @FittestGeek for making this happen.

And if you missed doing this, please donate to Indian COVID effort https://donate.indiacovidresources.in/

The ideal resume

Mon, 17 May 2021 13:25:00 GMT

A resume needs to be short, sweet and to the point.

Advice around resume has to be the same. Brief and illuminating

Finally found 2 great resources.

@manas_saloi's advice on the resume is practical and to the point. No fluff. Points I liked:

- Resume is a filter. Focus more on interviews.
- Your dance participation certificate might be irrelevant to your job.

https://manassaloi.com/2021/01/05/resume.html

@thelindazhang's article is awesome. Key points I liked:
- Highlight reel > List of Achievements
- Specific outcome > General output

https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/product-manager-resume-with-examples-keywords

BONUS: @RandallKanna's advice on how to better your resume in various time intervals is super.

https://twitter.com/RandallKanna/status/1287950733380218880?s=20

I also distilled others' advice on the different aspects of career.

https://twitter.com/satyadileep/status/1355391839982014464?s=20

For the next few days when I write threads and share learnings, I only have a single CTA.

Donate for India Covid Relief. https://donate.indiacovidresources.in

Please spread the word and HELP. We need everyone's support here. (These are genuine and some accept international donations too!)

Good Cold Email

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:22:26 GMT

The Art of Writing a Good Cold Email is highly underrated.

It is effective for
- Business Development
- Job Search
- Finding Mentors

Students, Job-seekers, Entrepreneurs and Marketers will greatly benefit from this skill.

How to develop this skill?

Nothing other than practice can help sharpen this skill.

I wish to facilitate this skill among like-minded people in 7 Days. Once the 7 days are done, the group will be dissolved.

What you will get:
- Daily reads of curated resources on the best advice to write a cold email
- Mini-assignments to do and submit by end of the day.

What is expected of you:
- 35 mins of your time over the next 7 days.
- 30 mins for self-learning, 5 mins for giving peer feedback.

This is community-driven learning, and giving good feedback is a great skill to acquire.

This is a personal learning experiment. Expect a raw but earnest attempt to help.

I am doing this to empower people to learn and refine an important craft that can take them to the next level. (It helped me a lot!)

Interested in levelling up in the art of Cold Email?

Join me - http://bit.ly/7DayColdEmail. Tomorrow 21 Apr is Day 0 and we start on 22 Apr.

Fill in the details to help me know you better (just 4 questions) and join the Whatsapp group (link in the form description).

Career Decisions

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 12:42:35 GMT

Reading a great article by @iambangaly from the @reforge blog on a framework for making career decisions based on impact.

A few points from the article stood out for me. Sharing my thoughts on those.

Compensation is the output, impact is the input.

A lot of times we make career jumps based on pure compensation but doesn't think much about the impact we can really make.

The huge impact we make drives career growth.

We can fall under multiple career traps.

1/ Shiny object syndrome

We try to work at a place/project that is cool, as opposed to the one where we get the maximum impact and learning.

2/ Imposter syndrome

When we look for a new opportunity, we only think about our skills - whether we are good or bad and what we wish to learn.

It is important to evaluate the environment also well.

3/ Short term thinking

We only think of the next project and job, while the ideal way to think through here is to think more long.

Instead of a project, we need to think of a career trajectory.

4/ Mediocrity

A mediocre team pulls down our performance. Here is a thread to identify mediocrity.

https://twitter.com/kunalb11/status/1363006984396529664

5/ Perception and Truth

We get lots of advice. But at the end of the day, we have to take a call with our own framework.

A role perceived as bad based on peers' advice might turn out to be a great one. Get independent perspective to separate truth and perception.

Impact = Environment x Skills

Environment - everything that enables great work but outside our control.
Skills - things in our control that enable success.

Simple equation but very profound.

A lot of variables make up the equation: manager, team, compensation, culture, communication, skills etc.

We need to think through the variables carefully, assign weights and then plug into the equation to think through the decision.

Lots of value and details packed in the great article. A must read for all. https://www.reforge.com/blog/how-to-make-career-decisions

Value Creation

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:40:12 GMT

Some thoughts on the invisible value creation initially shared by @julianweisser

The usual product-market fit question to users: Will you be very disappointed if we didn't have the app/solution in our life?

The results might not be straightforward to interpret.

Some apps make our life easier without making their presence felt.

Like an antivirus that runs completely in the background and keeping the system safe.

Imagine if the anti-virus is silently preventing malicious attacks without us being aware at all.

A little while later, we feel we won't be disappointed if the app stopped working because, from our pov, nothing is happening.

Sometimes we might need to nudge the users of the value being provided and make it visible.

Yes, the popups are irritating, but they remind me of the value of the app.

I like how Grammarly shows the weekly stats of mistakes made by aggregating micro value.

Also, it is important to involve the user in operating the app and take input.

That way, the user is involved with the app.

Sometimes it is good to show the presence and remind the user of the value.

How to Achieve Flow

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 04:42:52 GMT

Sharing a few ideas as a corollary to my ideas on how to achieve flow.

The source is a youtube video by Anas Nuur.

#90DaysOfProse Day 39

1/ Clarity of goal

We cannot get into flow state without understanding why we are doing what we are doing.

We need to have
- micro goals - which is the goal for the work session
- macro goal - what to achieve in next few weeks.

a micro goal must map well to the macro goal.

2/ The work needs to be challenging.

Skill vs Challenge combinations would decide how involved we will be.

Hard challenge and low skill would be frustrating.
Easy challenge and high skill would be boring.

Highly challenging work with high skill is right combination for flow.

3/ Distraction keeps us away from the flow state. We need to avoid distractions as much as possible.

https://twitter.com/satyadileep/status/1350284642017009665?s=20

4/ It takes time to reach flow. If challenged enough, it becomes a part of our identity.

Our work must tie back to the identity - what we do must take us closer to who we wish to become.

Here are more thoughts on the subject that I wrote earlier.

https://twitter.com/satyadileep/status/1337244088509325312?s=20

On Sleep

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 16:41:07 GMT

How do we fix our sleep cycles?

Interesting thoughts based on the podcast by @hubermanlab.

#90DaysOfProse Day 38

To fix our sleep, we need to first understand it well.

Adenosine - a molecule that creates a hunger for sleep. Caffeine blocks these sleep receptors - so avoid coffee at nights.

Circadian rhythm governs when we are asleep and when we are awake.

It ensures that the chemicals that help us sleep and get up are released at the right time.

In simple terms, it helps us get up without an alarm clock.

The most important factor affecting the circadian rhythm is light - natural light.

It ensures the timely release of cortisol which then sets rhythm for the chemical melatonin that makes us fall asleep.

The proper cyclic release of these chemicals ensures we have a good sleep.

It is critical that natural light reaches our eyes in the morning to set the rhythm right.

Summer ~ 30s and other reasons ~2-3 mins is sufficient

In case, not possible - exposure to blue n yellow light is sufficient to trigger the effect. (not good at night, but ok in morning.)

Regular food intake with consistent timing and exercise defines the rhythm.

When we receive light (due to cellphone, tv, computers) from 11 pm - 4 am, habenula, also known as disappointment nucleus is triggered.

This suppresses dopamine (feel-good factor chemical).

Naps are good - can be done between 12 pm - 3 pm.

Can also do meditation during this time - when our senses are a little dull to relax and rejuvenate.

Overall advice:

- Sunrise and sunset is good to bathe in.
- No cellphone or TV from 11 pm to 4 am.
- Short naps are fine.
- Meditation is good to do.

Listen to the full podcast for a detailed discussion on what we discussed.

https://twitter.com/hubermanlab/status/1348640938944385025

Perfection Fallacy

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 07:00:30 GMT

What is perfection fallacy or nirvana fallacy and how can we apply it to a product?

Taking thoughts from @anthilemoon's recent article from @ness_labs

#90DaysOfProse Day 37

What is the nirvana fallacy?

It when we argue that a solution should be rejected because the problem is only partially solved with it.

It advocates completely perfect solutions over imperfect solutions.

We fall for this because we believe that a perfect solution exists.

What we fail to grasp - perfection is a journey, not a destination.

In pursuit of perfection, we fail to ship thinking that the product is not ready and there is a lot to improve.

Other problems with Nirvana fallacy:
- Flawed decision making with real life consequences.

Example: Since the mask cannot fully protect us, wearing a mask is useless.

What we miss: Masks offer partial protection. Some protection > None.

Applied to a product:

The product not ready for the market since it does not completely solve the problem.

Instead, take the product to market, listen to feedback and iterate.

I like hiten's tweet on how we dismiss early versions of a product by underplaying what is built.

https://twitter.com/hnshah/status/1357900969346883584?s=20

How to overcome nirvana fallacy:

- Don't try to be perfect. Try to be better through iteration.
- Ship regularly by setting intermediate deadlines.
- Reflect on actual progress and not on the mirage of perfection.

Irrational Thinking

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 12:42:29 GMT

Rational thoughts on irrational thinking.

Sharing a few thoughts from reading @danariely and @jehsmith's musings on irrationality.

#90DaysOfProse Day 36

Humans are hardly rational. Irrationality has guided a lot of our history.

In the past when a woman argued that men and women must have the same rules, her head was cut off.

Animals don't deliberate or hesitate in crunch situations while humans are paralyzed by self-doubt and anxiety.

It is a miracle that we have survived so long.

Rational thinking came from scientific breakthroughs.

The belief that if we can understand the system well, we can perfect it and make it powerful and predictable.

Society on the other hand is a complex system.

Our understanding is still incomplete.

We cannot apply rational thinking on a misunderstood system and expect returns.

It is difficult to attach a proper utilitarian value to lots of things in life that make it beautiful.

Like taking a stroll, talking to friends and reading a book.

When something is given for FREE, we are ready to queue and wait long.

But we don't think about the time we spent to acquire it. The true worth of something free is deeper than what we see.

We love what we already have and give it more worth.

We might purchase tickets for $20 but might expect others to give $200 or more for us to give it up.

We unconsciously perceive price and value in correlation with each other.

More % of people who pay full price for products report better outcomes than those who buy it at a discount.

A caveat: These thoughts have a lot of nuances and might not apply to all.

But understanding them helps in better designing and positioning of our products.

The Right Questions to Ask

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 11:40:33 GMT

The most powerful question to answer in product.

With insights from psychology and marketing

#90DaysOfProse Day 34

The six fundamental questions that we ask always are:

What, How, When, Where, Who and Why?

For a product, the most powerful question that we need to answer is WHY?

Without the why, the rest of the questions even if answered don't matter.

90% of the times, we don't use a product because we aren't sure why we need that product.

Here, even copywriting can make a difference.

1. Have a refreshing cup of tea.
2. Hot water never felt so good.

(Think which tea you would purchase and why.)

People inherently detest change but the product advocates a change in the way people do things.

For people to make the change, they need a strong answer to WHY?

The ideas in this thread are inspired from: https://www.psychotactics.com/marketing/the-power-of-why-your-psychological-ally-to-marketing-success/