The Ways We Work

Over the last week, there have been three nights where I have got less than two hours sleep and due to work, I haven't had a chance for any naps either. It has been a long week. There are several reasons for this for which I won't go into with detail, but the last few days have been pretty tiring. This morning though, I was able to get a couple extra hours and feel better for it.

After waking up "late" I took Smallsteps out to the park. The original plan for the weekend was ice skating, but she sliced her foot a bit the other day and it is healing under a band aid. As upset as she was about not being able to skate - she was glad to be out playing. We tried sledding first, but it was too icy as we have had some pretty extreme temperatures this last week, with lost of snow early, before dropping to -24C (-11F) and then 24 hours later, up to +5C (41F), a warmth we haven't had for about two months. This left a lot of slush that has now refrozen and is slippery AF.

When younger, I used to get so much sleep but didn't really feel that great either, but worse than that, I got next to nothing done - at least nothing of value. These days, I tend to constantly be working at something that does have value, which is interesting in regards to a meeting I had yesterday at work regarding user profiles.

At work, there is an ongoing project looking to define user journey and part of that is to identify a range of user profiles in order to best engage, enable and retain them long term. This is coming from a training perspective and it is far more than just their level or role in the organization and it has been interesting to be a part of it over the last two years. While not my "actual job", I think I keep getting included in the process because I am able to bring a fair amount of value to the discussion - because I am many of the users and, interact with many of these personas daily - on Hive.

Yesterday we were referencing the "product adoption curve", which I think most are all familiar with to some degree, but if not and interested in how adoption works in general, it is worth having a look into. It is handy to map something known onto it, for instance, the uptake of mobile phones or the internet.

But, what was interesting was that at the end of the session, a colleague asked which we identify with out of the range and I put myself into one of the "Laggard" profiles, which surprised them, considering this particular small group we were working with know me well. However, this was coming from a training perspective and therefore the "learning" associated with it and I explained that I just don't have the time to learn new things unless there is considerable value* in doing so. Within a lot of organizations, that is not the case.

My new supervisor (who is also my ex-supervisor also) then fleshed this out a bit and added how she can see the difference in some people who for example, run a side business of some sort (they do this also) as it takes time, energy and resources, meaning that tin order to learn new information, there is a very real opportunity cost involved.

Precisely.

And, this is the future. While the "laggards" of the past are people who just don't like change, there is a growing group similar to myself who aren't going to jump on every little trend because, we have better things to do that offer an ROI. Why the hell would I be on TikTok when it brings nothing of value to my life, but takes away already established potential for generating value?

While there might be some value potential in getting on the bandwagon of the new, if the work load is too high to ramp up, it just isn't going to happen. For most though, because they are continually chasing the next big thing, they end up not committing to something for long enough to realize the value or, chase everything thinking that it is an "investment diversity" strategy, without realizing that they are spread too thin to actually see significant return on their investments.

If an investment isn't high enough, while the percentage gain might be brilliant, the realistic gain is not. For instance, 10% a year on a million is a 100K gain. But, 1000% on 100 is a 1000. Of course, having the "million" takes work, but this is what I was saying just above with the concept of "established" potential. And, this is why so many traditional investors and especially the largest, are pretty negative on crypto - because they don't have the time to learn about it, care about it, use it - because they already have large footprints that are earning them massive amounts, even if percentage-wise, it looks inferior.

However, this is also why crypto is so valuable for the unestablished investor, because there is room to learn and grow, without having to compete against the high-level experience of the established, nor their artificial gateways and hurdles to keep the "plebs" out.

But, this is all context-based consideration, as while I am a laggard in many aspects of life (for example new software being introduced or the latest upgrades to phones), if there is something that I see value in or something that can support my already established experience streams, I will dive in happily and learn and leverage what I can. But, time is limited and I will tend to require a far degree of "proof" of potential, meaning that I might not be someone who actively seeks the new opportunity, but thankfully due to my reference group, I do hear about many that I could have potential and because they know me, are likely to present what I am likely to enjoy.

As said, this kind of "laggard" is not the traditional laggard at all, but it is the kind of person who is valuable to onboard as often, they have a network that is valuable, as they are parts of multiple networks and not only take in references, but also influence others also. The network effect potential of these kinds of people is higher in many ways than the innovators and early adopters, because part of their profile is not born from curiosity alone, it is also based on practicality. This means, usecase.

"Trendy" or "Nice to have" isn't enough to warrant time and expenditure investment, but utility that adds value is highly interesting. What that "value" is might change depending on the person, but often there is the financial and time-saving value that can be targeted, because this is where they are established financially and having more time, means being able to generate more income or, generate the same income with less resources.

To close though, while it surprised some of my colleagues who see me as an early adopter because of crypto or an innovator based on what I do at work, the context matters. How I explained this is by separating across another plane, splitting it into "creator and consumer", with me being more of an early adopter or innovator on the creative side, but a laggard on the consumption side. In order for me to "invest myself" into something new, I essentially need to be taken out of my daily grind and given the space to be trained as I am unlikely to find out for myself, since I have such a weak consumer mindset. This is obviously a pro and a con, depending on context.

What I do think is important for an individual investor is, knowing what kind of investment personality one has, because that can help not only build the portfolio, but also the network that could inform that portfolio. Having a strong "reference group" can do wonders and this is one of the strengths of participating on Hive, as it is easy to build information diversity, but still stay within certain boundaries of interest. Not only that, there is a track-record that can develop a "confidence score" on information sources too.

Most of us live in a time of "not enough time", but being busy isn't the problem, unless busy doing nothing of value. Again, what that "value" is can change across individuals, but I feel a lot of people take a huge amount of value from consumption of information and shiny new things, but don't seem to temper it with their experience or what they actually get out of it at a practical level. They want different results, but spend their time doing what they have always done.

We all have our "established ways of working" but it doesn't mean they actually work for us.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]