Weekly Mix #243 - Efficient Groups, Regret Lessons, Practice vs. Performance, Top Stories & 1 Question A Day

Efficient Groups, Regret Lessons, Practice vs. Performance, Top Stories & 1 Question A Day

​

Happy Monday!

The law of diminishing returns is one of the most famous economic principles.

For every extra bit of input—usually in a system like a factory—you'll get slightly less output, assuming all else is equal.

It's a well-known concept in software development too: adding another developer to a team increases the amount of communication overhead, disagreements, and training.

And of course there's the adage "if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

As companies or organizations grow, it's normal to start noticing those limits more.

I've been noticing the limits for group work lately. Things like brainstorming or debates, where opinions are required and it isn't just one-way communication.

And the productive limit is around 3-5 people.

Any more and opinions are too divergent, there are too many misunderstandings, and the communication loop is too slow.

Most times, the problem could be better solved by a few people, and then communicated in case there are any serious objections.

The others at the meeting don't have as much knowledge, or context, but because it's a live session, they feel like they should contribute.

So next time you've got a work session with more than 3-5 people, maybe think twice about what you want to accomplish.

Graham

​

Links

📚 Book Notes: The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink - Published my book notes for Daniel Pink's latest, a fun read about how we can use the regret in our lives for good. The book is based on the largest survey ever done on regrets, and covers the most common, as well as frameworks for how to deal with each.

📖 Practice Analytically, Perform Intuitively - David Perell - This is a technique I've been trying to implement throughout my life. When I'm practicing, I want to be 100% focused on doing things deliberately, to get the skill down so it's second nature. When I'm performing, I don't want to think about anything at all. This is applicable for golf, public speaking, communicating with colleagues, having conversations with friends, and all kinds of things in between.

📖 Pocket's Top Stories of the Past Decade - What's fascinating about this list is it seems to summarize our concerns as a society well. The topics change, but the concerns don't (kids, health, purpose, careers). How do we deal with the changing world around us?

🔧 One Question A Day - This is a calendar (you can add it to your own calendar system) which gives one question as a prompt each day. You can check the link and see the upcoming questions for a preview.

🎧 Atay & JAX - Some friends from back home in Nova Scotia just released two new pop/hip-hop albums which are their best yet.

​10 Tweets

​​A list of products, services and newsletters from builders on Twitter​

​Some learnings from the new crypto winter​

​7 lessons on selling from David Ogilvy​

​Daily affirmations to inspire creativity​​​

​