4Ps: Procrastination, Performance, Post-its, and Pivoting
Hey there, if you missed hearing from me, apologies for the break.
If you were happy not to hear from me, apologies for ending the break.
Since we were last in touch a few months ago, a few things happened on the personal front. All good now, but let me say we were reminded of how much we all have and have to be grateful for. Have reasonably good health, food security, and a roof? You’re good.
Additionally, the news from India’s second Covid wave was heartwrenching and writing a newsletter felt wrong in times like these. But, in retrospect, I don’t think it is wrong. It’s difficult, but it’s not wrong. In fact, I’d argue that it’s needed- to imbue life with purpose against a backdrop of pain. Life needs to go on. I told myself this a few weeks ago, but the inertia had me procrastinating.
I’m glad we’re in touch again.
I’ve also been heads-down working on a new startup that some of my cofounders at my previous startup, Unmetric, and I started some months ago. It’s called WordsWorth.ai and we will be publicly demo-ing it for the first time tomorrow through a 20 minute freestyle rap and beatboxing show.
Who said software demos have to be boring? I hope you can join us. Please click here for details and the “add to calendar” links. It will be loads of fun, I promise.
I’d made this note to myself for the launch and hence had to invite you all—my friends. So, I needed to stop procrastinating and restart this newsletter…
Sometimes, we all need a forcing function.
Last month, Mr.Spencer Silver, 80, inventor of the glue that makes post-it notes stick, died. He failed in his initial goal of creating glue for aircraft construction and instead came up with glue that could easily be peeled off. Now armed with a solution looking for a problem, a chance meeting with a Mr.Art Fry at a 3M event saw one thing lead to another and finally- the post-it note that triggered this newsletter. Mr.Silver was nicknamed Mr.Persistent for his belief that he was on to something and the many years it took for Post-its to happen finally.
Some pivot there, eh? Imagine if this glue went into airplanes.
On a related note, 3M had a corporate golf club, bicycle club, and all forms of mix and match events to facilitate exactly this kind of random connection between people and ideas. We need to mix up stuff more to get to the good stuff. The fun is at the intersections. Remember this from a few newsletters ago?
Speaking of pivots, this newsletter is anchored in Name, Place, Animal, Thing, the book. And the concepts therein. I’ve been thinking aloud if that’s self-limiting, and if I’m boxing myself, and by extension, boxing you in too?
I expect to have a lot to say about the creator economy and livestreaming - the intersection that WordsWorth.ai lives in. And, lately, I’ve been experimenting on something called IdeaFolding - a concept I’ve flirted with for a few years now.
If you have any tips for me between changing the name of this newsletter into something more generic (Luxative, anyone), sticking to the topic of NPAT, rambling on under the NPAT umbrella, etc., I’d love to hear them.
Pls reply or comment. Thanks for helping.
Till next time (soon, and not months later, I promise).