#Linkybrains by a Linkybrainer
“Those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.” Nietzsche
How it started?
I Initially saw Doug Scoutt’s Linkedin post that resonated a lot with my way of thinking. Linkybrains notion is the brainchild of Doug Scoutt, Alex Dunsdon and Chris Tottman which I have never met personally. I’m a proud Linkybrainer. It is time to acknowledge what we have.
What the heck is this #Linkybrain thingy? (or at least my take)
Linkybrain is a space between your thoughts. Linkybrainers reason from the ground up, understand and explain from first principles and tend not to bother to fit in. They strive to connect unwired dots. Their mindset is a permanent Beta, always need to be learning and make continuous improvements. They are people who think differently, behave differently and feel differently (contrarians by nature — explained later). People who are inherently curious, paranoid and ambitious at the same time. People who challenge opinions and the status quo. Their thinking tends to be deep, complex and convoluted. People who can’t easily fit into the square corporate box.
Being a linkybrainer is a double edge sword which comes with both opportunities and challenges. Society both values and despises linkybrainers. Linkybrainers are in music, art, architecture, tech, business, politics, finance, writing, sports, military, comedy, everywhere.
Leaky brain vs Linkybrain
On the other end of the spectrum there is Leakybrainers. People who like to reason by analogy. They tend to think the same way as other leakybrainers and often reach the same conclusions. Their thinking usually is — I’m at point A and I have to go to point B in the shortest way that other people have done it in the past. They are followers even when they are in “leadership” positions. They look to copy recipes of success. They are practitioners of Keynes saying “it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.”
Humans are herd animals. It’s in our DNA to be a leaky brainer in order to fit in with a tribe, to follow the orders of the tribe elders who know more about surviving. Our primary goal is survival and this is why we live in a leaky brain society. Since we are born, being a leakybrainer is the first thing we are tought, i.e. through mimicry we learn languages and how to behave. The biggest risk is when people are raised without strong reasoning skills and independent identity that leads to the blind leakybrainism.
However, this is not black and white, it’s more like a spectrum. I don’t think anyone is a 100% linkybrainer at all times, not even Elon Musk, and no one is a pure leakybrainer. The reality is that we move throughout the spectrum depending on what stage we are in our lives, what mood we are in, how much sleep we have etc…
The Confession
Here is my confession:
1/ I’m addicted to learning and suffer from information anxiety. I have to know all the dots just in case I need to connect them later. Any new piece of information can lead to a Butterfly Effect and can change my live forever. You’ll never know from where the next big idea gonna come from.
2/ I’m curious by nature. When I was 11 years old I built a PC game because I wanted to know how games are build. I’m a true believer that the foundation of all the wisdom is curiosity.
3/ I’m biased towards Linkybrainesque traits in my teammates and I demand progress. Back in 2016 I created a framework for one of my startups (JOOK) called LILO (Listening, Initiative, Learning, Obsession) to measure my team’s and my own performance.
4/ I suffer from the Red Queen Effect. Everything is always a work-in-progress and there is always a room for improvement, but I don’t believe in perfectionism. To me that is an abstract concept.
5/ I’m contrarian by nature. Some people don’t like me because of it. By contrarian I don’t mean that I always object. I like to reason independently from the ground up and resist the pressure to conform in a truly stubborn way. The truth is I like people to agree with me, but at a later stage.
6/ I find it easy to come up with new ideas and concepts. I find it frustrating when other people don’t find them obvious.
7/ Authenticity is key. I find it ironic that the person we love the most is ourselves and we still care more about other people’s opinion. We owe it to ourselves to be 100% authentic.
8/ I’m not a rule breaker. Although, I almost got expelled from school, twice!
9/ I’m an eternal optimist which can be a double edge sword.
10/ I have learned that it is easier for me to embrace the chaos and live with it.
11/ I don’t shy away when it comes to risk taking i.e. I turned down Investment Banking for entrepreneurship.
12/ Over obsessed. There are times where I become psychologically obsessed with an area and I go really deep into it. I know that I have become obsessed when every person I’m close to asks me to shut up about it.
13/ When I was a kid, my teacher once asked me whether the glass is half full or half empty. I asked her if I could sell the water to her and/or I could sell the water of the pessimist to the optimist. Other kids thought that was stupid and that I didn’t answer the question.
14/ I have imposter syndrome and quite often feel like the dumbest guy in the room.
15/ I constantly put my brain in overclock mode and l’m addicted to problem-solving.
16/ I love helping people and I don’t expect anything in return, but I stop doing it when they abuse it.
17/ I love building things. My first venture was when I was 11 in gaming, when I was 17 I build a student consultancy and in the last 2 years I have build 2 startups: JOOK, fashion influencer marketing/marketplace and a clothing brand, Social DNA (exited). I see entrepreneurship as my way to create value. Probably I will never retire and will build many companies.
For your next episode of #linkybrains see the links below:
The post by doug_scott started everything for me. Then I read Chris Tottman brilliant post and Alex Dunsdon one. Followed by Emily Degroot post and Alastair Campbell one
