Five Things — January 2017
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Dear friends,
I hope this letter finds you well and you are having a good start to 2017.
This month marks two years I joined Deloitte. This was the most important decision I took in my career and looking back couldn’t have been better — everything I’ve learned, people I’ve met and cities I’ve worked has been incredible. Let’s see what the future holds.
If you want to read past newsletters, click here. I kindly request you to provide feedback to improve the next newsletters.
Thank you for your time,
Alex
#1 My Email Metrics
I don’t like email. I don’t like writing it and I don’t like reading it. Nonetheless it is a core tool for any professional of the 21st century. I was curious to understand my email behaviours — I used the plug-in Bells & Whistles for Outlook to scan my email’s metadata (off-line) and got some cool insights.
The next step is to compare my results with other people (team, peers, non-consultants) and try to find patterns eg. Are the length of emails and professional performance correlated? Do people who work longer hours send more emails?
Slideshow (Google, 6 slides)
#2 How Trump Invented Trump
Another Trump article! This is an in-depth essay from Bloomberg about Trump and how he created his larger than life persona. It was written in September 2015 after he announced his run for the US Presidency so does not include all the noise around “alternative facts”, Twitter or Russia. Worth a read to better understand The Donald.
Article (Bloomberg, 30 min)
#3 Stand-up: Bo Burnham — Make Happy
Bo Burnham is one of my favourite comedians. I’ve been following him since he was 16 singing is clever songs in Youtube. He now has 2 stand-up specials under his belt. The latest one (Make Happy) is available in Netflix and highly recommend it (see part of it here, Kanye Rant). The older one (What) is available in Youtube.
Make Happy [2016] (Netflix, 60 min)
What [2013] (Youtube, 60 min)
#4 It’s what you do in the dark, that puts you in the light
This Under Armour ad with Michael Phelps is my favourite 2016 ad. It is also one of the most inspirational ads I’ve ever seen — I want to buy Under Armour just by watching it. Reminds me a lot of Nike’s ad with Michael Jordan “Maybe it’s my fault”.
Under Armour — Rule Yourself (Youtube, 2 min)
#5 Passion is Overrated
Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, is a very smart man (Harvard Lunch Club agrees). In this keynote for UC Berkeley (Scott is a Berkeley’s MBA) he distills two concepts from his best seller book/bio:
- “Passion is overrated”: Maybe passion ins’t enough to cause success. Just maybe success causes passion.
- “Systems vs Goals”: You don’t need goals. You need simple systems that improve your odds.
If you liked the other videos from Scott, you’ll surely like this one (note: it has not Trump references),
Video (Youtube, 33 min)
