Posts

Posted on

Extractors and Fillers

Steven Freidkin posted about the tension you find from being in the privileged place of being good at solving problems that also counterintuitively will bring you more problems to solve. Check it out linked below.👇 I’d like to riff off that for a moment.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7206267953606995970/

There’s an old jewish proverb: “if you work with your mind sabbath with your hands and if you work with your hands sabbath with your mind”

Because of the dynamic of never ending problems generated by growth:
-I’ll never not be a dad again
-I’ll never hold a position in a business again where my job will not be to simply look at problems and solve them. (Frankly, I think I’d be miserable if this wasn’t true.)
The work seems never ending and that can be an exhausting thought.

In that i’ve found that if I do something in the opposite realm (flipping from mind to hands) allows me to see something finished. The ability to see a finished work at least one day a week adds rest back in a way that gives me energy for the next round of problems the coming week.

With all the extractors, what is your filler activity that sets you up for the next week, the next round?

Posted on

Empty Space

How redlined are you?

Empty space is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Some call it shower time, I think in terms of social gears where this is gear 1. It’s a big deal. It’s in those moments that your brain is able to cycle out and solve some deeper work problems that otherwise wouldn’t be solved by thinking harder about the problem.

Most of us get in a rut, not when we have too little to do, but too much to do. What about life being too full is a bad thing? Think of it like an engine (sorry Tesla fans). The gas isn’t actually what makes the car go. Combustion is what makes the car go. Combustion is the combination of several things. Sure gas is required, but so is oxygen. It’s actually the empty space that makes the engine fire.

Problems to Solve + Empty space = Brilliant Breakthroughs.
It sounds too simple to work, and it simply does. Proven, over and over.

Practicals though: For me, i’m in an extremely full season so it’s difficult to create that kind of space. I’m sure many of you can relate to that. On a ground level in a busy season this is done by two activities. Long runs and a daily creation of the bullet list wherein I must prioritize my daily activities. I’ve found that one gives space for deep thought and the other gives clarity of priorities that move problems closer to solutions.

What about you? What are your activities that help you solve deeper problems and be thoughtful?

Posted on

TPG and Ntiva

I started with The Purple Guys late last year knowing that our previous PE partner was towards the end of their hold time. That can make some people nervous, but all I’m seeing is greater opportunity invest in others and participate in creating an incredible organization. Since joining TPG I’ve only grown more excited about that as i’ve continued to see an organization that is committed to people, both internally with our team and external with our clients. This event only sets us in a better position to create and scale that incredible organization for the benefit of others.

Very exciting things to come!

https://hubs.li/Q02vLMr30

Posted on

Desk Setup

I love the pics insta sends my fees of really slick desk setups. Would love to be one of those people with the really nice. The thing is, I don’t think mine will ever get there. It tends a bit messier than I’d prefer. The reality is mess is where the work happens. So while I’d love a photo worthy desk, I don’t think it’s in the cards for me. Have some work to do.

What about you? Is your desk clean or do you have some projects to roll through?

Posted on

Automate the Intern Tasks

I’m running an experiment this year. Anytime there is something that is simple and might be delegated, I see if it can be automated by tech instead of given to an intern.

I’ve been hesitant to do this over the past year due to a value for developing others, so i’m also looking for new ways to intro others into a career that involved more valuable and less busy work.

My start on it was a report I get daily. We’re in the O365 platform so I used Power Automate to
1. drop the pdf to Sharepoint
2. archive the email
3. when a new pdf shows up use a trained ai model to pull data
4. add the data to an excel doc

It’s a daily 5 minute task that won’t have to be repeated by anyone ever again. The way I figure it I’m saving about $140 per month on that one task.

AMA.

Posted on

Capitalize on the Tools

I’ve been thinking about AI a little more lately after some recent conversations. Since OpenAI launched ChatpGPT, it’s arguably taken more investment dollars relative to the return than any other investment vertical in history.

There’s a lot of buzz around it. Buzz is fine and value is better. I’ve spent the past several months working within a few AI driven tools and here’s the thing i’ve found. What’s here today, is not tomorrow’s answer. This is not a statement about the quality of the tools, it’s an assessment of the stage of the industry. We’re still incredibly early.

Let’s take co-pilot in office as the example. It’s fine and it’s limited. If I want to write a formula faster then that’s great. It does that. Honestly that’s not where most of my brain energy is spent though. Email, it’s kind of terrible. Doesn’t have the context I do for what I’m writing to the point that my feedback to Microsoft one night was that “A monkey on cocaine could write an email better than this.” Really I was missing the point. It’s a Co-Pilot, it’s not going to do my job for me yet. At the same time a human co-pilot would be better.

Predictively guessing at what I want to say next has been a thing for years that Google already gave us. When you think about how you work, that feature isn’t really that helpful.

So, as i’ve had opportunity to use it, the better value has been found in applying that to automated tasks I don’t like. Stuff like:
-capture the data from this pdf report into excel every afternoon
-find empty time on my calendar and preschedule this
-give me the tasks from this meeting

Writing my email for me though? That’s a ways off. So the question is, what’s the IRR we’re looking for on this money being thrown here and how can you capitalize on the models beyond basic use of a Chatbot GPT?

Posted on

Regrets and Perspective

Let’s talk about regrets for a minute. Sometimes, looking back, I wish we would not have sold Unicom. Sometimes, I wish I wouldn’t have removed my position in some property holdings and renegotiated the payment service of the position instead. In the end I did those things. Some of the playout of that was not my favorite, an exit from the purchasing company after many months of deliberation, higher debt service payments, etc.

While that’s all true, I also find myself at a firm that seems to be a better fit for me, and the capital released in several of the transactions from the past several years has served to allow us other freedoms and new ventures. This pic is from a fire pit with one cousin on our property across from our house during Christmas. While i’m not always excited about some of the playouts, I am excited at how it’s allowed me to invest in my family in ways that I otherwise would not have been able to.

Just know that regret isn’t as straightforward as it seems. It’s usually a mix of the good and bad that comes with making decisions with your life. When you look at it all I hope that you, like me, aren’t too upset about the outcomes of your decisions from the past year.

For now i’m going to go back to watching kids around fires. Learn for your past and appreciate your present.

Posted on

LastPass and What To Do Next

Breaking the News

For those of you who don’t follow this type of stuff….LastPass was breached. http://blog.lastpass.com/2022/12/notice-of-recent-security-incident/
First, why does that matter to anyone? It’s a good question if you don’t follow any security news, or maybe don’t know what LastPass is exactly. The short version is it’s largest company that allows you to store passwords for all your things online. If you’re like me you already see the problem here, but to make it clearer I’ll just say that 30 Million people use this service to keep their passwords safe and secure. That kind of treasure trove is like the internet version of Smaug the Dragon’s horde of gold in the Hobbit. You’re just inviting attacks, and that’s exactly what happened.

Wait But Why?

Why would you store your passwords online? Well, there are other alternatives for how to store your passwords.

Continue reading “LastPass and What To Do Next”