Sep 20, 2021

The Monday 6 - September 20, 2021

By Kyle Petzinger • Issue #29 • View online

Hi there, friend.

I missed my official 6-month Monday 6iversay (I started writing this on March 1st, 2021), but I wanted to thank those who read and find my silly weekly compilation funny, interesting, or otherwise worth your time.

Getting this out every week is sometimes a grind, but your replies, comments, and feedback make it worthwhile.

Here are the 6 for this week:

1. Borrow Free eBooks & Audiobooks From The Library

The Libby App by OverDrive

Libby is a completely free app (Android or iOS) that (when linked with your IRL library card) allows you to borrow eBooks and audiobooks without the need to visit the library at all.

You have to wait for the book to be available most of the time, but if you can be patient, you can enjoy your book for free instead of forking over money to Amazon.

www.overdrive.com • Share

2. Sage Advice About Delegation & Management

As a people manager, I’ve often struggled with how to properly delegate. I often fall into the trap of being prescriptive about how I’d like something accomplished, typically mirroring how I would complete a task. This article offers practical advice around delegation and some of the positives you can see from changing the framing.

My main takeaways were:

Delegate the outcome you want to see, not the activities that lead to the outcome.
Invite your team into both the thinking and the doing. I need to do this way more.
Not delegating is selfish; individual contributors are capable professionals, and not trusting them to find their way to outcomes starves their autonomy and lowers trust.

Great quote from the article (emphasis mine):

Delegation is about letting your report learn, and if you believe their approach has a fair chance to get to the outcome, then you must get out of the way.

Delegate outcomes, not activities.

For so many managers and leaders — especially those of us who are used to be the person doing the work and are now handing off the work to others — learning to delegate is, well, tricky, if not painful.

knowyourteam.com • Share

3. Coming Soon: Woolly Mammoths?

Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction

Scientists set initial sights on creating an elephant-mammoth hybrid, with the first calves expected in six years.

www.theguardian.com • Share

Honestly the only thing that comes to mind after reading this is:

I stopped to think about it: I think they should definitely bring back woolly mammoths.

4. Guard Against False Information

Check out this Tweet thread for some practical advice for how to guard against the “Illusory Truth Effect”, where our brains think something is true the more times we hear it, often to sinister ends.

Blake Burge 💡

@blakeaburge

Humans have a tendency to believe false information.

Especially upon repeated exposure.

It's called the "Illusory Truth Effect"

THREAD:
Why it happens and how you can train your brain to overcome it.

Let's get smarter 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 https://t.co/EA2jA7tCOq

8:16 AM - 26 Jun 2021

Truthfully, there are no shortcuts against believing false information; but like any bias, simply being aware is step 1 in guarding against it.

5. Sometimes, The Answer Is To Subtract

This podcast episode of “People I (Mostly) Admire” was eye-opening and worth a listen. Host Steven Levitt interviews author and engineer Leidy Klotz, focusing most of the discussion on the concept of removing things to improve efficiency and overall performance.

Have a process at work that keeps falling apart? Think about how you can simplify and take away steps.
Your financial life scattered all over the place? Maybe reducing the tools, accounts, etc. can help.

Give it a listen; I found it quite compelling with broad application.

Leidy Klotz on Why the Best Solutions Involve Less, Not More

When we try to improve things, our first thought is often: What can we add to make this better? But Leidy, a professor of engineering, says we tend to overlook the fact that a better solution might be to take something away. He and Steve talk about examples from Leidy’s book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, and from their own lives.

pod.link • Share

6. Sculpting Rice (?!)

This TikTok shows is a single grain of rice getting sculpted into a Godzilla. HOW. 🤯

Click below to watch the whole thing come to life.

@jewelry.lili | TikTok

That’s it for this week. If you found anything useful or fun, let me know! And if you have any suggestions, shoot them my way. 😊 See you next week!

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By Kyle Petzinger

Every Monday, you'll receive the 6 articles, podcasts, tools, products, and more that I found interesting that past week.

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