Tag: podcast

Teaching in Verbs rather than Nouns

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There are two ways to teach chess, a master explained.

The first, is to teach chess principles that may apply to life. And the second, is to teach life principles that definitely apply to chess. 

“Could you give me an example of one such principle? Because I love in biology teaching not names, not using nouns, but instead teaching verbs. Because ultimately, if you want to understand, for instance, how the nervous system works, or the immune system, you teach the verb actions of molecules.

And the names of the molecules are important if you decide to go into that field professionally. But otherwise, the principles and verbs are what’s most important. So what’s an example of a principle of chess or a mode of action on the board that you think transfers?”

Yet we teach with nouns and employ nouns because nouns have a lower cost, even though they may not be the right tool for the job.

–

From Huberman Lab: Josh Waitzkin: The Art of Learning & Living Life, Jan 27, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/josh-waitzkin-the-art-of-learning-living-life/id1545953110?i=1000685629066&r=5936
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Living…for time

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Metrics tag.

A huge goal of living well is living intentionally. Do the things I do do align with the things I want to do. Intentionality is why design is such large issue.

We can get lost in the abstraction. Such-and-such leads to end-result but we focus on such-and-such to the detriment of end-result. When my daughters were younger we tried to have family dinners as often as possible. I planned, prepped, and cooked the food. Sometimes they wanted something different, sometimes they wanted to help, sometimes life got in the way and dinner was canceled.

Sometimes this bugged the crap out of me. I put all this time, and effort, and blah blah blah. It was pure ego. And I’d lost sight of the end.

Kelly Starrett has a good podcast with Andrew Huberman talking about this (and many other things!). Kelly frames exercise as “earning credits”. The point isn’t the exercise, the point is to go and spend credits – being physically active with the people you love. Don’t do burpees to see how many burpees you can do in twenty minutes. Do them to have a more enjoyable hike with your kids.

From Huberman Lab: Dr. Kelly Starrett: How to Improve Your Mobility, Posture & Flexibility, Dec 9, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-kelly-starrett-how-to-improve-your-mobility-posture/id1545953110?i=1000679727148&r=8703

Love and Trust and USA Basketball

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One theme here is that information is not enough.

In his book, 10 to 25, about communicating with young people, David Yeager writes that the compliment sandwich doesn’t work because its supply side not demand side.

JTBD works so well because it shifts the focus from me to you, a business to the customers.

The supply side version of a compliment sandwich is what Yeager calls “wise feedback”. Before young people can hear criticism they have to feel safe. Feelings matter. Being in-the-group matters.

Shane Battier tells a story about Coach K’s early Olympic experience. Coach has just come from Duke where he sets a standard. People like us do things like this. But there was one guy on the team who was not very good in pick-and-roll defense.

So, coach lit into him. “You let him know in no uncertain terms that this is not going to fly,” said Battier. “And at that moment, like, you could see the look on this player’s face. He had never been talked to like this.”

Battier had. “I lived it, so I understood where it’s coming from. It was coming from a place of love.” This is Yeager’s wise feedback. It comes from a place of wanting the best. The listener feels safe because the listener and speaker are on the same side – they’re in the same group.

Coach K wises up right way. “It clicked and you realize, oh, this is not appropriate for him at this moment.” He didn’t have the right relationship for that kind of communication. It takes trust and love which take time and effort. We evolved as group members.

Note: Another version of this idea is here: https://moontower.substack.com/p/jokers-everywhere

What are your patterns?

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My grandmother used to say call a spade a spade a lot. And she did. By the time I knew her, she was not afraid to speak her mind. She probably always was that way, only getting ornery as she got older.

One of our themes around here is to talk about the thing we want to talk about. Like Wharton professor Cade Massey interjects in his podcast, “let’s be precise“.

Another one of our themes is to think of things conditionally. Is something good or bad? It depends. Weaknesses are strengths and strengths are weaknesses (WAS A SAW).

Those ideas meet in Andrew Huberman’s podcast with Kelly Starrett, who (speaking about the human body) said:

“And I wouldn’t even say that weakness isn’t even the right idea. Just like here is a pattern that I’m not as effective at, as efficient at. So when we go into the gym sort of with this great curiosity, then it’s a really rich place and a really, frankly, the only safe place because there isn’t contact and sport and we’re not fighting and dancing and moving and we can really do this controlled formal movement where we can really see inputs and outputs.”

He’s talking about physical training but what a great idea!

  • It’s not that I lose my temper, but my impatience is a pattern that I’m not as effective at.
  • It’s not that I’m bad at math, but it’s a pattern that I’m not as effective at.
  • It’s not that my relationships at work are bad, but it’s a pattern that I’m not as effective at.

This framing also applies some ownership (another form of being precise). To take things back to Starrett’s conversation: our tight hamstrings are not a genetic pattern but something we can control.

For a science podcast, this episode (implicitly) covers a lot of spiritual ground as well as systems theory.

Perfume Customers

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“So how do I convince women to buy their own perfume? How could I get the American woman to buy her own perfume? I would not call it perfume,” David Senra quotes from A Success Story by Estée Lauder.

In the 1950s and 60s women didn’t buy themselves perfume. Instead, it was a gift and is an example of JTBD’s customers or consumers dynamic.

In Jobs Theory, producers have to solve the job for both the customer and consumer. No one gets fired for buying IBM articulates the customer angle – but leaves out the consumer. Does IBM serve the job for users (and later, investors)? ymmv

But Lauder did something different. Rather than address the concerns of both groups, she took a page (or inspired one!) from The 22 Immutable Laws of Advertising. Or in the words of Ricky Bobby, if you ain’t first, you’re last.

David again, from A Success Story:

“I would call it Youth-Dew, a bath oil that dubbed as a skin perfume. That would be acceptable to buy because it was feminine, all American, and very girl next door to take baths, wasn’t it? And so think about the difference in size of bath oil, how many ounces you would sell compared to the size of like a perfume or cologne.

We created a mini revolution in the whole world. As I saw it took on a fresher, more stimulating aspect. Instead of using their French perfumes by the drop behind the ear, women were using Youth-Dew by the bottle in their bath water.

It doesn’t take a graduate school of business to figure out that that meant sales, beautiful sales. In 1953, Youth-Dew did about 50,000 worth of business for us. In 1984, that figure was over 150 million dollars.”

Beautiful.

Hockey Erosion

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“Tell me about training in general,” asked Rick Rubin, “How did, how was your training different than other hockey players from the time that you started?”

“I was ahead of the curve,” said Chris Chelios, ““because back then, even the guys that were supposedly in the best shape, all they did was bench press and jog or stationary bike. That was it in the early 80s.”

That’s good.

He saw results.

“And my skating improved so much and my strength and endurance. And unfortunately, TR got so many clients that became known throughout the league. And then he was training guys like Rob Blake…And then he wins the Norris Trophy, which is the best defenseman in the league. And I’m like, that’s not fair, TR. So I wouldn’t train with anybody else anymore…I needed another edge.”

Alpha erosion happens everywhere. If something is accessible (like finding the same trainer, paying, doing, etc.) people find it and the edges disappear.

Hard work isn’t an edge. Novel work is, for the moment, because alpha erodes.

Talent CAC Attraction

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Acquistion is a game of efficiency.

A friend told me his goal was to collect 100% of his potential customer’s contact information.

I told him that was wrong.

It’s difficult to identify your potential customers. Sure, everyone owns a refrigerator, but that doesn’t make everyone a potential customer for Maytag. That’s inefficient strategy.

What’s ideal is something we first identified from Warren Buffett’s letters. These marketing missives brought in Buffett’s brand of capital. They were people who thought like him and became his permanent capital base.

A few likely customers are better than many unlikely customers. This is not a Large N small p problem.

For hiring, Tyler Cowen recommends this, attraction. Books like, Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google, are a condition of correlation. Is it that Google hires people who are good at puzzles or is it that people who are good at puzzles drift to Google?

“Well, the Teal Fellows Program has a very good record of picking winners. But I think the biggest part of interviewing is not how you interview, but rather which candidates do you attract. So it’s what you’ve done before the interview to make yourself exciting so the good people want to come to you, be looking for you.

And the same is true of Google. A lot of the questions they asked back then actually are not very robust or very relevant. But what Google did succeed in doing was establishing themselves as the exciting place to be for obvious reasons, and they attracted talent.

And if you get talent coming to you, it’s actually not that hard to be at least a pretty good interviewer. So that’s the part of the problem I would focus on.”

From Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future: Tyler Cowen: The future of talent in the 21st Century?, Jun 12, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tyler-cowen-the-future-of-talent-in-the-21st-century/id1535212212?i=1000658723619
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Comedy Jobs Language

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Jobs to be done is built on the customers language. How do they define problems? How do they frame Solutions? How do they interpret the context?

Comedy is the customers language. Laughter is customer language. Comedians, says MORGAN Housel, are brilliant. 

“Comedy is a way to show you’re smart without being arrogant…the best comedians are some of the smartest people in society.

They understand psychology.

George Carlin understood psychology, I think, better than Daniel Kahneman did. That’s a bold statement, but I think that is actually true. They are so smart at understanding how the world works, what makes people tick, how people think.

But they’re doing it in a way where they don’t want to just impress you with their intelligence. They want to make you laugh. What could be better than that?”

From The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish: #195 Morgan Housel: Get Rich, Stay Rich, May 28, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/195-morgan-housel-get-rich-stay-rich/id990149481?i=1000657006147
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Amazon WAS A SAW

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”I think Amazon may have made a mistake about the choice architecture of Amazon marketplace,” begins Rory Sutherland

”They have assumed everyone wants maximum choice. And actually, one of the great values of a physical retailer is curation. We won’t stock this, unless it is reasonably repeatedly shopped for.”

Was a saw: Weaknesses are strengths and strengths are weaknesses. Amazon is THE EVERYTHING STORE and what’s a drawback of that? It’s hard to find things.

Amazon addresses this well, but Rory points out the contrast and we can use that. Things are un/helpful, better/worse, un/necessary depending on the context.

Brands succeed, Rory writes, not because they are good but because they certainly aren’t bad. New entrants compete on a new angle – upside, new jobs, etc.

So, what’s really a strength, what’s really a weakness?

Make it easy, CAC

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When I talk to young people, they often think a gatekeeper prevents a goal, outcome, or desired effect.

And when young, there often is a gatekeeper!

My advice begins with the suggestion of making it easy. How can they make it easy for their listener to say yes?

During some advising for highschoolers, a lot of it was about talking to their guidance counselors who could approve a class. The students who bought in and prepared their case ended up having their way.

Changes can’t only be logical, they have to overcome inertia. Things are the way they are for a reason.

A humorous example of this came up on the Stratechery podcast.

Talking about Netflix, paying for the rights for NFL games, a reader wrote in saying that Netflix specifically chose Christmas because that’s when boomer’s kids were home. 

That makes it easy!

Get the kids to set up the Smart TV, login, share a good show or two.

There is no better mouse trap. People do not beat a path to your door.

Things need to be sold, people need to be convinced, there is a hurdle for switching.

Often our point around customer acquisition cost is about finding the right customers. Where are the people who will say yes easily?

This is the heart of jobs to be done. This is the central tent pole of many successful businesses. This is where customer acquisition is either a cost or profit center.