Author: Fabrizio

Ordinarily extraordinary

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We all are ordinary.

Ordinary is our fragility, our pain, our fear, our anger and our continuos search for a fix. Ordinary is the way we feel about others, the impression to have been set up against the whole World, the hurried decision we make about something that lasts. Ordinary is our joy, our excitement, that feeling we can accomplish everything anytime anywhere, followed by the sudden and inevitable realisation that it is not true. Ordinary are our surroundings, our contexts, our scenarios and situations, our homes, offices, gardens, restaurants, cafes and shops. Ordinary is the way we think of that, how we cling to it, the partly inexplicable desire to be measured according to how good that is.

The fact all of that (and much more) is ordinary does not mean we are not important. It means we are not alone. The moment we realise and practice that is the moment we become extraordinary.

It’s when we sit with the discomfort and end up laughing at it. It’s when we lend an helping hand to our neighbour, despite feeling shattered and not liking them. It’s when we are not carried away by easy ups, stay aware of the upcoming downs and focus on the long term. It’s when we treat the stuff we build around us, material or not, as temporary, mutable, ultimately not a reflection of who we really are. It’s when we understand that thoughts and feelings come and go, and what remains is now.

We all are ordinarily capable of achieving extraordinary things.

What’s your El Capitan?

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I’ve recently been very fascinated by the story surrounding the free solo ascent of El Capitan by Alex Honnold. The story is now a documentary (which I still have to watch), and you can also find interesting details in this very genuine TedTalk and in this interview.

Part of the fascination, for me at least, is because I am completely afraid of heigths. And part is because it is a great example of how to live ordinarily an extraordinary life (or challenge, or meeting, or presentation, or … fill in the blanks for what seems insormountable to you).

  1. Pick your field – Climbing is not very popular, free soloing (or any of the other tens of niches in climbing) even less. Alex Honnold did not choose climbing to be popular, yet while nowadays we tend to reach for the masses (internet giving us the illusion that everybody is around the corner), his story and that of the other climbers he mentions tell us that to be satisfied with what you do, it is not necessary to be a mass celebrity.
  2. Prepare – It was a long preparation, it took years for him to convinve himself he was ready for the task. The discipline he put into this is outstanding, there was no improvisation, no unexpected turns. In his TedTalk, he tells of his other out of the ordinary free solo ascent (Half Dome) and how it felt unsatisfying as he did not know how to prepare for such a challenge, and then decided to take a different route from the planned one right while he was climbing to the top. The preparation this second time was so meticolous that at some point he and a friend went down El Capitan to remove some stones from a crack to prevent them from falling during the climb and potentially hitting and harming somebody below. He thought of everything, so much so that when it was the right time, he just had to do it.
  3. Focus – He spent the week before the ascent in almost complete isolation. He disconnected from the World, as he wanted to be 100% focused on the task ahead. No distraction, if that’s the most important thing that is going to happen to you in a career (even though you’ll have more in the future, and you probably won’t risk to die if you make a mistake).

We can all learn by watching great successes, even those so clearly beyond our reach. Just make sure you pay attention to what comes before, not after. Again, journey not destination.

When free and everything are the norm

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Tripadvisor has made the news today for an unpleasant story about women behing sexually assaulted in hotels that are reviewed on the website. The article is missing a lot of important information, yet there are a couple of points worth making regarding web platforms and the type of expectations users have.

First of all, what we used to love about the internet (It’s free! You can find everything! Everybody has a voice! It’s freedom!) is gradually becoming more and more nuanced and problematic. People are increasingly asking for a different type of service, one that takes responsibility and action, a service that not only aggregates content, but also curates it and makes sure that it is of high quality on different levels. This is quite a huge reversal, and while I am not sure people really want the kind of restriction and control some are asking to counter the most sensitive problems, it is a growing demand that most internet-based services did not plan for.

Secondly, the very fact that services did not plan for this reverse makes them feel completely lost in the wake of similar requests. They lack this scenario from their DNA, and they are therefore extremely vulnerable. The “platform” mantra – according to which “we are just providing a platform to share content on, we are not responsible for the content itself” – is past obsolete by now. The attempt to respond by increasing the human control is often ineffective, partly because it is guided by the faint aspiration of addressing an emotional problem with rational tools. And artificial intelligence is demonstrating all of its current shortages when deployed to help in this area.

The way we look at internet-based service is clearly shifting. The shift is now driven mainly by extreme cases, that are often followed by extreme demands. There are huge gains available for the platform that will quit putting out fires and start planning for a long term scenario in which free, freedom, and everything are the norm, and the quality and humanity of the service (again, on various levels) will make a difference. I am extremely curious to find out who this player will be.

Renewing trust

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The automatic renewal feature, enabled by default in plans that seal an agreement between a service company and the final consumer, is not designed to improved the user experience.

Despite the bullshit about “continuity of service”, that particular feature is designed (and enabled by default) to leverage our tendency to forget, and therefore fictitiously increase the recurring revenue metric.

It feels like yet another instance in which companies that invest loads of money in second-guessing personalisation of marketing messages (ads, newsletters, offers, etc.), fail to design their services and operations in a personal way when it would actually be easy.

Hi there, we have noticed that your plan is expiring in 30 days.

We do not do automatic renewal, as we believe in how good our service is. And on this note, this is what we have done for you this past 11 months (*list of features that the user has used, articles the user has read, videos the user has watched, …).

We’d like to continue delivering this and more, and to renew we ask you to answer two questions on this online form (the questions being: Do you want to renew? Is your credit card still valid?).

On the other hand, if you decide not to continue with us, we respect your decision and hope to have you back soon. We would still like to know if it’s something we’ve done (link to online feedback for churn).

Thanks for being a valuable member of our community. For any question on renewals, just reply to this message or call us at xxx.xxxxxxx.

Have a wonderful day!

A word of encouragement

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If you are about the long term. If you put in the work, every day, relentlessly, even though there is no guarantee of success. If you care about the way things are done more than you care about the things done. If somebody watching you does not change the way you behave. If you spend time trying to understand what went wrong and how you can make it better, before you jump on to the next thing. If you are focused, fierce in giving attention just to the things that matter. If you know that fear is just another way to understand what you should do. If you feel that others around you are living through the same pains and joys, excitements and disappointments, ups and downs, and that for this reason they deserve the same respect on their path as you do on your. If you believe in your resources and know that, eventually, things are going to turn out just fine.

It is going to be difficult.

The World we live in does not respect the way you see it. And that is ok. Just go ahead, grind, continue, persist, do not give up. We need you.