Schedule Time To Think

I schedule time to think. This blog is part of my schedule. I don't tell a lot of people. In the office-warriors culture, it makes you seem lazy or unproductive. But like a chef that needs to craft new recipes or a musician that needs to write new songs, you probably need to think about new ideas. And when do you do that?

“It sounds counter-intuitive but if you want to increase discretionary time and reduce stress you need to schedule time to think. The tiny fragments of time many of us find ourselves with have a negative effect on our ability to think deeply about a problem. Furthermore they impede our ability to learn — we stay at a surface level and never move into a deep understanding.”

Audiation

I learned a new word today: audiation. It's the equivalent of having a vision for something, but in a musical context. You can imagine the music even if it's not there yet. Even if you don't know how to read music or play all the instruments. You internalize it and feel it before it's even played.

“Audiation is the foundation of musicianship. It takes place when we hear and comprehend music for which the sound is no longer or may never have been present. ”
— The Gordon Institute for Music Learning

And it's no surprises musicians like Jimi Hendrix had exceptional audiation skills.

Social, Trust & Tradeoffs

This is an interesting tweet by @heri. How would you rate social networks / messaging apps you use on a TrustMeter?

I don't use all of these tools but overall, I'd rate them in a similar order. 

So why are we sacrificing privacy (or trust)? Or what for? What are the tradeoff.  In my opinion, user experience & network are two important factor.

The user experience of the Facebook App is in my opinion 10x better than Signal's.
The network I have on Facebook is also 10x better than the one I have on Telegram.

Therefore, I'm ready to do the ultimate tradeoff and sacrifice privacy (or trust).

To Be Coached or Not to Be Coached?

How often do you write down on paper or say out loud what you expect out of your own professional life? Probably not often. We're very vocal about lots of things. We have strong opinions on Netflix shows, music bands, politics, celebrities, the school system, the health system, technology, etc. but we can barely talk about our own professional objectives, challenges, strengths, weaknesses ambitions, and actions.

Here are two quotes from a recent article on The Information, The Coaches Behind Startup Founders. You guessed it, startup founders are increasingly working with coaches to develop themselves.

“A growing number of startup CEOs are working with coaches to develop their leadership skills. These coaches provide a mix of therapy, skills training and business advice. ”
— The Information
“Coaches generally sit on a continuum: Some are former executives themselves who act more like business advisers, while others are similar to therapists who specialize in helping founders sort through mental and emotional issues.”
— The Information

That's why I'm an advocate of having a coach to help you do that. Even if doing it might result in having your friends and colleagues secretly laugh at you. I don't know many serious athletes who don't have a coach. I don't know many serious professionals who don't have a coach or a mentor.

There's always a risk of a misfit. It might not work. You might hire a bad coach too. But the cost of not trying is much higher than the expected value of finding a good coach.

Pancake Party X The Moonlight Club

It's Sunday and while everyone was brunching or just being lazy at home, my band The Moonlight Club did a live session at CJLO radio for a show called Pancake Party. You can see it here:

So many things can happen live. For example, we lost one voice/microphone on the second track. But you can't stop playing. You have to keep going. Anyways, that was a lot of fun. The guys behind this show, Dave and Etienne, are great up and coming artist-producers-DIY guys. Congrats on putting together such a nice experience for listeners and bands. Like I said to them: it's the kind of stuff you don't put on your resume but that's worth the most. Cheers.

A market is mature when...

This tweet reminded me how competitive app stores are. Mobile apps were once a brand new market with lots of opportunities and space for innovation. They're not anymore, as you can tell by this picture. 

A market is mature when it has reached a state of equilibrium. A market is considered to be in a state of equilibrium when there is an absence of significant growth, or a lack of innovation. When supply matches demand the price decided by the market forces of demand and supply is called equilibrium price. (Wikipedia)

Technology VS Branding

Following Facebook's data scandal (google Cambridge Analytica), the company is having a real PR/branding crisis. The same kind Uber had a few months ago. It's interesting that these big tech companies are now having such a hard time with what they probably once consider trivial problems: branding, public opinion and reputation. We're back to the 50's, branding matters, even if you're a huge smart tech-can-solve-it-all company. At this scale, you're no longer a startup and all of this matter. You can't get away with it 'because you have a good technology product'. People have expectations; people trust you. Or they don't.

Speed VS Velocity

A great read on Farnham Street this morning: Understanding Speed and Velocity: Saying “NO” to the Non-Essential.

“Velocity and speed are different things. Speed is the distance traveled over time. I can run around in circles with a lot of speed and cover several miles that way, but I’m not getting anywhere. Velocity measures displacement. It’s direction-aware.”
— Farnham Street

This image speaks for itself:

Motivation VS Ability

I had a great talk tonight with my girlfriend about motivation VS ability. When you or someone you work with produces something that's below average, you've got to ask yourself a simple question: is it a lack of motivation or ability? Is it that you don't want to do it or that you can't do it. Is it that she's not motivated to do it or that she lacks the ability to do it? You can first identify that and then dig deeper and ask why.

“If you conclude someone has the ability to behave appropriately but chooses not to, you’ve got a motivation problem. You can respond by helping them understand how their behavior affects others. You can impose consequences. You can help them see how it will undermine values they already hold. There’s a lot you can do to influence motivation. If, on the other hand, the person lacks ability, you can offer training or coaching. ”
— VitalSmarts.com

It's a good framework to have in your back pocket.

Feedback

I've always liked to document what I do. I've been recording pretty much everything my music band The Moonlight Club has been doing since day 1. It's notes, music sheets, iPhones recording, GoPro videos, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, etc. And we share a good chunk of this publicly. We keep a lot for ourselves too.

A lot of people think we do it for exposure or for visibility. But they underestimate the power of feedback. Documenting what you do, publishing it and looking back at it accelerates the feedback loop. You might have an opinion on how you're doing but your paper (read: digital) trail is the reality. And it creates this virtuous circle of looking back (and in our case 'hearing' back') on things we've done and wanting to do it slightly better. And this can compound over many years. That's the beauty of feedback.

✌️ @terrassesopen
Ce soir : Trois-Rivières / 17h15, on joue un p’tit 45m à l’événement Terrasses Open 🌙 🙏 http://themoonlightclub.com
Vendredi // @terrassesopen à Trois-Rivieres 🤞 http://themoonlightclub.com 🎵
New studio, new stuff🤞
Un an jour pour jour / one year already 🤞 not too late to add to your playlist 🌝 @olicharland 👏 SPOTIFY: spoti.fi/2rZMa85 SOUNDCLOUD: bit.ly/2nvOi2Q APPLE: apple.co/2ELuHC2 GOOGLE: bit.ly/2nEVf0S YOUTUBE: bit.ly/2nEuRns
New vibe, new sounds. . #themoonlightclub #mtl #montreal #montréal #montrealcity #mtlmoments #mtlblog #mtlband #montréaljetaime #mtllife #montrealer #rock #rockmusic # music #band #studio
2019 🤞
✌️ 2018
Vinyls, 20$ 👋🌝 www.themoonlightclub.com
Vinyls, 20$ 👋🌝 www.themoonlightclub.com
the boys going all in for new profile pics 😂 #rehearsal
First film photo of @frankrousso by @john_papi at @breakglassstudios | 📸 🥁 . #themoonlightclub #mtl #montreal #montréal #montrealcity #mtlmoments #mtlblog #mtlband #montréaljetaime #mtllife #montrealer #drums #drummer #rock #band #mus
😃😃

Independent Thinkers

To be a good entrepreneur, investor or strategist, you have to be an independent thinker.

“You have to be an independent thinker in markets to be successful because the consensus is built into the price. You have to have a view that’s different from the consensus.”
— Ray Dalio

Because the consensus is built into the best practices and the best practices produce average returns (now that they've been established as best practices). I'm sure that in a lot of other jobs, you need to be an independent thinker too. I'd like to meet more of them. I get along well with them. They make for great conversations.

But I had never thought about « thinking » this way.

Thanks Mr. Dalio.

The Small Stuff

The video is super cheesy but I've always loved this metaphor. For me, the important part is what he says about the small stuff. It's hard not to sound like a jerk when you say no to opportunities, events, things, information, news, conversations, meetings, etc. But it's truly necessary.

This is by far one of the most valuable lessons for a happier life. After reading the story by Steven Covey I decided to produce this video to share the message with others. Get inspired with this short film of a professor explaining to his class the importance of using one's time wisely and setting priorities in order to have a fulfilling life.

Making the simple complex

I like this post by Tom Goodwin:

If you're in the business of making the simple complex, you might have had a good run in the past years, but there's a new wave of companies that are coming for you. So think about it, are you making the simple complex or the complex simple? It's two good business models, but the first one supposes that customers or clients are dumb, and I don't think it's a great way to do business.

Struggling Advertising Companies

Here's a tweet by Josh Wolfe that caught my attention this morning:

Facebook & Google are the new advertising gatekeepers.

If you're a small business and want to advertise, you can pretty much bypass all middlemen and do everything through Facebook & Google. They'll help you setup your owned channels, develop your creative, refine your targeting, produce dashboards and will handle all the payment.

If you're a big brand, it's still a bit messy to do it all by yourself but it is becoming a thing. We know that. But the concrete effects on the market are not necessarily visible.

Some hedge funds are not just talking about it, but are committed to profit from future struggling advertising companies competing with the two giants.

Being a board member

I'm still figuring out how to be a good board member. I'm involved in small companies where the structure is minimal. The role of the board is theoretically to hire and fire a CEO. Well if you're running a 5-25 person small business or startup, the board is more likely to be partners, key employees, advisors or investors. And their role is more likely to be 'help in anyway they can'. Anyways, here's a great tweetstorm by Ryan Caldbeck on being a good board member. I created a Twitter Moment (for the first time) to gather all the tweets and embed it here. Kinda cool!

Tonight

Very cool DIY video projet by my friend and fellow band member Frank Rousseau. Montreal by night, captured on VHS film (yes, for real), for the 3rd single of The Moonlight Club's debut album, 'Tonight'.

"Tonight", the third single from our self-titled debut album. SPOTIFY: http://spoti.fi/2rZMa85 SOUNDCLOUD: http://bit.ly/2nvOi2Q APPLE: https://apple.co/2ELuHC2 GOOGLE: http://bit.ly/2nEVf0S YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/2nEuRns http://instagram.com/TheMoonlightClub http://facebook.com/TheMoonlightClub http://themoonlightclub.com -- TONIGHT I'm on my way to the show / I left everything behind The clock and the keys to the door / I feel like going out tonight I don't need anything I own / I'll fall in where I belong How can I miss out this one?

Powerball & Bitcoin

Nuances matter though.

The state of advertising

I'm lazy and I'll let smarter folks talk about the state of advertising. Here are two tweets that sum it up pretty well.