Random Walk Newsletter, Issue 7#
Due to a busy week last week, I didn't have time to write the newsletter. Also, there was a time when I completed it under time constraints and was not satisfied with it myself, so I didn't force myself to write one last week. Today I have some free time, so I can make up for it. It seems necessary to store some resources in advance to avoid being unable to update on time again.
Actually, some of the newsletters I subscribe to are not written regularly every week or every two weeks by the authors, but according to their own pace. I have also thought about this approach, but I feel that I am not at that stage yet. At the beginning, I still need to put some pressure on myself, otherwise, it may be easier to give up.
Listening to Books & Reading#
The Trap of Metrics
When reading this book, about 60% of the content resonated with me. When I came to the current company, I started to come into contact with the concept of OKRs and various quarterly and annual summaries. The most common thing I heard was that work needs to be quantifiable. However, the author of this book believes that various metric assessments have three obvious problems:
- It leads to cheating.
- Easily quantifiable goals can overshadow non-quantifiable goals.
- Abstract numbers can override concrete experiences.
Regarding problem 1, as long as a number is given, the person being assessed will do everything possible to achieve it. Sometimes even cheating to complete the task is not surprising. The author's example is about the medical industry. If their surgical success rate is assessed, doctors may avoid treating patients with high surgical difficulty to avoid lowering their own surgical success rate, which is obviously not a behavior worth advocating.
Regarding problem 2, it is simple. For example, when schools assess teachers, they use factors such as college enrollment rates and test scores, but a child's creativity, curiosity, good behavior, etc., cannot be reflected through a specific number. For example, in previous news, subject teachers would also occupy physical education classes or other non-subject classes due to assessment pressure.
Regarding problem 3, I won't go into detail, the literal meaning can also be understood. In addition, the author also mentioned that most easily quantifiable goals are short-term goals, while goals that are not easily quantifiable are often more important in the long run.
The feeling this book gives me is that someone has spoken out some of my thoughts. The book also mentions "The Blue Blood Ten Heroes", which talks about 10 young people who played an important role during World War II through the perfect application of numbers. They also benefited from their outstanding contributions. One of them became the Secretary of Defense. However, during the Vietnam War, due to excessive obsession with numbers, it brought him the most painful failure. I understand that the author is not completely denying quantitative indicators, but rather excessive obsession and reliance on them. Not all industries are suitable for speaking solely in numbers. Just as the book says, we cannot overly rely on or even be obsessed with the certainty brought by numbers because sometimes the uncertainty that exists in the surrounding environment is more important.
Appropriate Self-Esteem
I have read another book called "The Pleaser Syndrome" before, which talks about people with a tendency to please others. People with this tendency deliberately seek recognition from others and attach too much importance to others' opinions of themselves, fearing that others will think they are not good or dislike them. This book is about how we should obtain appropriate self-esteem. A person's judgment of themselves is mainly influenced by their family environment, which is essentially the education a family provides to their children. How to establish a child's self-confidence from an early age, and if you want to have self-confidence, you must face failure correctly and treat it as a normal thing. One piece of advice that can be shared with everyone, which I myself didn't pay attention to before, is whether a child trying new things will receive the same appreciation as success. In addition, to avoid the pleaser syndrome, one must learn to refuse, because complying with others to do things they don't want to do will harm their self-esteem.
Observations & Insights#
Plane Crash
Last week, everyone must have been paying attention to one thing, which is the plane crash of Eastern Airlines. So far, the authorities have announced that all passengers and crew members have died.
Both black boxes have been found, and hopefully, they can unravel the mystery of the accident.
About Anxiety
Why do people feel anxious? There are several characteristics:
- Catastrophic thinking, often imagining the catastrophic consequences of things, but the probability of them happening is extremely small.
- Filtering thinking, only seeing negative information or magnifying negative information.
- Extreme thinking, seeing things as either black or white, if it's not perfect, then it's worthless.
- Overgeneralization, for example, if someone experiences motion sickness once, they will never dare to do it again. People with this tendency often use words like "always" and "never".
- Guessing others' thoughts, especially others' opinions of oneself. For example, if someone unintentionally says something or greets without much enthusiasm, they start to think that the other person dislikes them.
- "Should" statements, always feeling that one should be this way or that way, having high demands on oneself but unable to meet them.
Based on the characteristics mentioned above, I believe many people may feel that they also have these tendencies. As the saying goes, the first step in solving a problem is to face it squarely and find out where the problem lies. In my case, I do feel a clear sense of characteristics 1 and 6. Let's work on improving them.
That's all for this issue of the newsletter. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Thank you for reading.