In this issue: How to train people fast The Italian Tech Week My Singapore book signings Quotes of the week How to train people fast A recurring topic I'm asked to consult on is how to train people fast and how to teach not just procedures but also agency and good judgment. Here is a short overview of how I do it (an excerpt from this essay of mine). The problem A core reason employees don’t receive enough training is that it is very time-consuming, and many teams are already overworked....
26 days ago • 3 min read
Culture Wars (read this on my blog) The real culture war isn’t left vs right, urban vs rural, capitalism vs communism, etc. The real culture war is between people who want to win (a more prosperous country) vs people who want to win the argument (more status even if it means less prosperity). Positive-sum vs negative-sum people. Who won the elections? If you look within a country, it’s easy to see who won the elections. It’s either this or that party. However, if you look from outside the...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Someone recently asked how to tell a good manager from a bad one, to which I replied in a recent blog post. Below is its integral content. Five telltale signs of good managers #1: Good managers dig deep They know metrics are crucial but incomplete without first-hand observations. Hence, they regularly visit operations, observe customers, and engage with workers at their workplaces. This is not just because learning about the details of the business uncovers problems and opportunities (and...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
In this issue: Adulthood Derisk, derisk, derisk, Resources for teachers Blog updates + tweets & quotes Derisk, derisk, derisk Good risk management is like car brakes: used not to go slow but to enable going fast. Similarly, it is paramount to review risks periodically, but not in such a way that it slows you down; rather, by figuring out your top unaddressed risks and what you can do to reduce them to acceptable levels. I routinely work with entrepreneurs and business leaders to help them...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Three podcasts I recorded over the last month got published over the last few days, just in time for the summer holidays (we Italians take them later than most of Europe, I know). Jim O'Shaughnessy re-invited me to discuss long-term thinking and how to get an organization's employees to adopt it (podcast & transcript, YouTube) Tobias Carlisle and Jake Taylor invited me to discuss ergodicity and reproducible strategies (YouTube; at 28:51, my favorite moment of the show, on how the winners'...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Training agency A few months ago, I published an essay on training agency. As it got more popular recently, I also recorded a video on the topic. New podcast episode Bogumil Baranowski, host of the Talking Billions podcast, interviewed me on my latest book, "Winning Long-Term Games." You can listen to our conversation on Spotify or watch it on Youtube. Winning Long-Term Games Two months ago, I published my latest book, "Winning Long-Term Games." Sales have gone very well, with a volume about...
3 months ago • 1 min read
In this issue: The Dellanna Diagrams: a visual tool to understand antifragility Short-term activists and long-term games Schroders interviewed me on ergodicity Short-term activism (read as a blog post) Activists vandalizing paintings and monuments are short-term players. They pick their tactics based on short-term evaluations (how much engagement they generate today) and neglect long-term considerations (how much they antagonize the population whose support they need to achieve their goals)....
4 months ago • 2 min read
In today's edition: 5 thoughts on management What's the title of a management book you'd buy for your team if it were good enough? [A question for my readers] Educational material for pandemic response and prevention Tweets and Quotes 5 thoughts on management People perform up to your clarity People believe you up to your consistency People listen to you up to your helpfulness People are motivated up to the rewards they experience What gets discussed, not merely measured, gets improved Of...
4 months ago • 1 min read
In today's issue: My latest short post: The Arrow of Time My latest talk: Winning Long-Term Games @ VALUEx BRK 2024 (reposted in high quality) Tweets and quotes The arrow of time Some people believe that the world has gotten worse. I disagree. Observe what would happen if the arrow of time reversed. We would progressively lose tech, social rights, access to services, and abundance that we now take for granted. For example, go back in time 30 years, and we lose smartphones and the internet....
5 months ago • 1 min read