She’d been told that childbirth was going to be painful. But as the hours wore on, nothing bothered her — even without an epidural.

“I could feel that my body was changing, but it didn’t hurt me,” recalled the woman, Jo Cameron, who is now 71. She likened it to “a tickle.” Later, she would tell prospective mothers, “Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as people say it is.”

It was only recently — more than four decades later — that she learned her friends were not exaggerating.

Rather, there was something different about the way her body experienced pain: For the most part, it didn’t.

Source: At 71, She’s Never Felt Pain or Anxiety. Now Scientists Know Why. – The New York Times

I
I was reminded of this counterintuitive concept when chatting with Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier, on our Heartbeat podcast. Though his company today is thriving with over 200 employees and over 2 million users, Wade admitted how he struggled in the early days as a CEO when an employee would come to him with a problem:

“When you [jump in and try to solve the problem yourself] you’re actually mistaking your roles. You’ve hired this person to solve problems. And if they’re unable to solve the problem, you’ve probably hired the wrong person.”

In other words, your role as a manager is not to solve problems. It’s to help others solve problems, themselves. Leadership is stewardship. It’s navigating your team through treacherous waters, around jagged rocks, to the desired destination, and making sure folks feel nourished and rested along the way. But you can’t be a good steward if you’re scampering around trying to paddle all the oars faster, yourself. To take the boat analogy one step further, a great manager is a coxswain, not a rower.

Source: Don’t solve the problem. – Signal v. Noise

Dani Rodrik: The Good Jobs Challenge: “[For] developing countries… existing technologies allow insufficient room for factor substitution: using less-skilled labor instead of skilled professionals or physical capital. The demanding quality standards needed to supply global value chains cannot be easily met by replacing machines with manual labor. This is why globally integrated production in even the most labor-abundant countries, such as India or Ethiopia, relies on relatively capital-intensive methods…. The standard remedy of improving educational institutions does not yield near-term benefits, while the economy’s most advanced sectors are unable to absorb the excess supply of low-skilled workers. Solving this problem may require… boosting an intermediate range of labor-intensive, low-skilled economic activities. Tourism and non-traditional agriculture… public employment … non-tradable services carried out by small and medium-size enterprises, will not be among the most productive, which is why they are rarely the focus of industrial or innovation policies. But they may still provide significantly better jobs than the alternatives in the informal sector

How to Be More Ambitious

March, 2019

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Recently I got an email from a reader asking how he can become more ambitious. He feels like he could do more with his life, but he doesn’t have strong desires for the usual sorts of things that seem to motivate people: wealth, success, fame or prestige.
I thought about this question a lot, because in some ways it’s semi-paradoxical.
It’s perfectly normal to want things (e.g. “I want to be rich”). It’s also normal to not to want things you’re unlikely to obtain (e.g. “I wish I weren’t so hungry right now”). But it’s odd to want to want something you currently don’t. It almost feels like asking for an itch so you’d have something to scratch.

Source: How to Be More Ambitious | Scott H Young

Wrote best-selling author and speaker Dr. David Schwartz: “All around you is an environment that is trying to pull you down to Second Class Street.” Much of the thinking around you is small-minded. Many people live on pain-avoidance and fear-avoidance, and encourage others to dwell in that mindset, too.

Source: Want To Succeed More Than 95% Of Others? Begin Before You Think You’re Ready.

If you begin before you think you’re ready, you’ll achieve more success than 95% of others. Why? Because most people are perfectionists who take years to produce a “piece of art” that’s, frankly, mediocre. Their 2nd attempt will be better, their 3rd attempt even more so. But if you never publish your first attempt, you’ll never get there.

Source: Want To Succeed More Than 95% Of Others? Begin Before You Think You’re Ready.

what does this mean for your average policy maker? It’s a simple answer that is tricky to implement. Assuming that transport network efficiency is your goal, it is to deliver programmes of work that hit as many of these aspects of spatial and temporal efficiency as you can. Whilst meeting wider goals as well. Mapping these different elements is tricky. Thankfully for you dear reader I have made a start on the factors for you to consider when thinking of efficient transport networks, something that you can

Source: Space/Time and Transport Planning – Transport Futures

A New Style of Leadership According to the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, “It is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations, and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.”
The founding principles include nine behaviors:

1. serve first,
2. add value to others,
3. build trust,
4. listen to understand,
5. think about your thinking,
6. increase your influence,
7. demonstrate courage,
8. live your values, and
9. live your transformation.

4. Listen to Understand

It’s not about listening to decide when to chime in with your own opinion, it’s about listening to ACTUALLY understand. Leaders should practice active listening, and make sure they’re not interrupting people during meetings or 1:1s. Try these two questions to listen to understand: “Tell me more” and “Help me understand.” These questions open the door for others to share their perspective, without feeling like they’re being undermined or doubted.

5. Think About Your Thinking

Servant leaders evaluate how they think about messages, situations, behaviors that they experience. Is input or feedback received in a negative way or as a positive opportunity for improvement? The trick is to differentiate between useful thoughts and non-useful thoughts, and re-frame negative beliefs. For example, don’t use absolutes like “always” and “never” when describing situations or behaviors.

Source: The 9 Traits of Highly-Effective Leaders – DZone Agile

Two key messages — and their caveats

These stories and our research findings reveal two key messages: First, when it comes to effects on health, working long hours is not as bad as obsessing over work. But this warrants an important disclaimer: The employees in our sample worked a maximum of 65 hours per week, and therefore we do not know the health outcomes of working longer hours. It may be quite difficult to detach from work, engage in recovery activities, or get enough sleep if one works 70 hours per week or more. Still, it seems that more than hours, our thoughts and feelings about work impact our subjective well-being and health risks.
The second key message from our study is that workaholics who love their jobs are somewhat protected from the most severe health risks, and this may be because they feel that their work is worth all the hard work they put in. But this brings up another caveat: Although we found that engaged workaholics had lower physiological health risks (lower RMS) than non-engaged workaholics, they still reported more depressive feelings, sleep problems, various psycho-somatic health complaints, and a higher need for recovery than non-workaholics. These are all signs that well-being among workaholics, regardless of how much they love their job, can be impaired.

Source: How Being a Workaholic Differs from Working Long Hours – Harvard Business Review – Pocket

This suggests that loving your work can mitigate some of the risk associated with obsessing over it. We also found that engaged workaholics reported having more resources at home and at work compared to non-engaged workaholics. Engaged workaholics reported receiving more social support (e.g., advice, information, appreciation), from their supervisor, co-workers, and their spouse, than their non-engaged counterparts. They also scored higher on communication skills, time management skills, and general work skills, and they reported much higher intrinsic motivation for work than non-engaged workaholics.

Source: How Being a Workaholic Differs from Working Long Hours – Harvard Business Review – Pocket