What We’re Reading
He’d been solidly in the second quartile every year for 14 years in a row. And where do you think that put him for the 14 years overall within his competitive universe? 4th percentile. In normal life, we say, well, if you range from 27 to 47, where are you on average? About 37. And the answer in his case was 4. By being in the top half for 14 years, he was in the top decile for the whole period. And I thought that was a great realization.
Code:
Software is a lever on the real world.
Someone writes code, and all of a sudden riders and drivers coordinate a completely new kind of real-world transportation system, and we call it Lyft. Someone writes code, and all of a sudden homeowners and guests coordinate a completely new kind of real-world real estate system, and we call it AirBNB. Someone writes code, etc., and we have cars that drive themselves, and planes that fly themselves, and wristwatches that tell us if we’re healthy or ill.
“Research indicates that five hours is about the maximum that most of us can concentrate hard on something,” says Alex Pang, founder of Silicon Valley consultancy Strategy and Rest and author of several books examining the links between shorter working hours and productivity. “There are periods when you can push past that, but the reality is that most of us have about that good work time in us every day.”
Workers have had more than a year to reconsider work-life balance or career paths, and as the world opens back up, many of them will give their two weeks’ notice and make those changes they’ve been dreaming about.
Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs.
“I don’t envy the challenge that human resources faces right now,” says Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University.
Have a good weekend.