Cue 18 – The Unreliable Experts: getting in the way of outstanding performance
“We also prefer the complex and artificial to the simple and unadorned. We are certain that investment success requires an incredibly complex ability to judge a host of variables correctly and then act upon that knowledge.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy
“It doesn’t matter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored. So think about it more! Independent thought is hard but it’s something you can get better at with practice.” – Sam Altman
“Money is not wealth” – Paul Graham
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Advice
“Make all the mistakes you want, just make sure you’re going to be there tomorrow.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Pygmalion Effect: Proving Them Right
“Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that leads to superior performance. But most … unintentionally treat their subordinates in a way that leads to lower performance than they are capable of achieving. The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them. If manager’s expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused subordinates’ performance to rise or fall to meet managers’ expectations.” – J. Sterling Livingston
“Attitude is the most important choice any of us will make. We made it yesterday and we get another choice to make it today. And then again tomorrow.” – Seth Godin
Fool Me Three Times And I Give Up
“What you should learn when you make a mistake because you did not anticipate something is that the world is difficult to anticipate. That’s the correct lesson to learn from surprises: that the world is surprising.” – Daniel Kahneman
“Growth is good, if only because runts eventually get eaten. But forced growth, accelerated growth, artificial growth – that tends to backfire.”
Leadership like righteousness, is a feedback loop. Your output determines your input.
Leadership like righteousness, is about doing the right things, in spite of context.
Leadership like righteousness, is about the example you are being, not the example you are saying.
Leadership like righteousness, is always on trial.
– Osasu Oviawe
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Homily:
The journey of righteousness has no end as long as we are alive. Temptations remain in our hearts and all around us. We flee from most, wrestle some and give in to others. We repent, ask for forgiveness and pray for the grace not to give in again.
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13
There are sins we commit unknowingly and sins we commit knowingly. But it does not stand as an excuse in God’s sight.
“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” – Romans 2:12
Always be on guard.
“Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” – 1 Corinthians 10:12
