While I agree with the conclusion of this article, I differ on the proposition. I think there is difference between advice and feedback. Advice is personal. Feedback is mostly on the work you do. Also feedback is given on something you have done. And advice is taken in advance.

You know the feeling. You have finally figured what you need to do. You know the steps to be taken and you know how it all fits into the broader scheme of things. That’s the perfect moment. You will never feel this good about this idea—ever again.

When you start to work, you discover the anomalies in your idealized theory. And that’s tough to swallow. Even if you come out of that you won’t feel that excited. And yet it’s never about that perfect moment. It’s always about the, often, uncomfortable journey.

We are anecdotal buyers. We buy stories more than we buy features. The hard part is that the story has to be different from what we already know.

It’s easy to give people what they want (a list of features they have in mind) than it is to teach them what they need (a story unheard).

It’s wonderful to be able to imagine a world that doesn’t exist as yet. It’s equally dangerous to start living in that. Irony of building a great business is that you have to be great at first and remarkably good at the second.

Tip: Know your strength. And hire people for the other.

“From the outside, the healthcare industry seems to be a potentially messy and unappealing tangle of insurers, hospitals, laws, regulations, bureaucracy, and antiquated technology systems. It’s not surprising that many designers shy away from the work because of regulations or slow moving institutions with little appetite for change.”

Couldn’t agree with this more. Design needs to get out of fancy apps and your next run of the mill IOT gadget. We have to marry good design with ambitious plans to make a change in the physical world around us. We are getting stagnant.

Why, What and How.

Answer them in exact same order. If messed up, start over. It’s OK if that feels scary.

Fortune on hunting the perfect sugar,

“When the history of sugar is written, 2016 may go down as the year its image turned.”

Indeed, I can testify to that.

Lessons learned from a tough day at work

1. Working with people remains the toughest job. Not because people are fundamentally bad but because all of us have a unique story going inside us each and every day. And accommodating someone in that narrative is tough. Even if you are being paid for that.
2. Nothing is done unless it’s done. Like, literally.

Culture is what people of a community commonly believe in. So it’s bound to change when people change. It’s not something in and itself to hold onto.

— from Sapiens

I really enjoyed this.