Month: April 2023

The beauty of compression

Neera

In December 2008, Juergen Schmidhuber, a German computer scientist, published a paper titled Driven by Compression Progress. This very influential paper, in the study of cross-disciplinary creativity, argued that the simple principle of compression is at the heart of everything.

Schmidhuber and his team point out that a simple algorithmic principle based on the notions of data compression and data compression progress informally explains fundamental aspects of attention, novelty, surprise, interestingness, curiosity, creativity, subjective beauty, jokes, and science & art in general.

In simple words, what does compression mean?

Compression says that ideas need to be boiled down to their most pure, dense, rich essence.

“The world can be explained to a degree by compressing it,” says Schmidhuber. Basically, our brain prizes efficiency. If it can remember one thing instead of ten, it’s happy.

Good communication is often compression, packaging up tangled thoughts into neat little words with agreed-upon meanings.

Love is compression, fusing a series of experiences, memories, feelings, and thoughts into an exhilarating state of mind.

Einstein changed physics with an incredibly succinct equation E equals MC squared.

Jokes boil down just to the punch line.

Compressed ideas can travel farther and faster. Not only through the communication channels like the internet but also through human minds.

One of the most famous and clear examples of compression is Picasso’s Bull. Picasso was a master of compression. He painted a series of 11 lithographs, his goal – to find the “essence” of the beast in a series of progressively simpler images.

He starts with a lively and realistic drawing of the bull. Next, he adds expression and power, making the beast even more evocative.

And then he stops building and starts dissecting. He keeps the lines that follow the contours of its muscles and skeleton and takes away everything else. In the subsequent images, he is simplifying and outlines just the major parts of its anatomy.

The compression continues in the final 5 images, as Picasso starts to understand the balance of form in the animal, and how weight is distributed between the front and the back. He removes structural lines of support that are no longer needed. He finishes the drawing with a final image, encasing what he has discovered are the most essential elements in a taut, nearly continuous outline. Along the way, he drops the bull’s head to emphasize the horns.

The result is a stunningly simple line drawing that somehow still captures the fundamental spirit of a bull.

“A picture used to be a sum of additions. In my case, a picture is a sum of destructions.” Pablo Picasso.

Picasso did line sketches of several animals. I tried to copy his sketches, but it was hard to get the line control. Picasso, too probably wouldn’t have achieved this in one step –  the learning curve would have been too steep. He once described this process as “charging up” his arm with the essence of the animal. He often wouldn’t keep the whole sequence, turning the canvas upside down and painting over it at each stage.

Nike compressed its entire marketing philosophy down into just three words, Just do it. And then they compress that slogan into a symbol that is so recognizable all around the world, but it doesn’t even need the Nike’s name.

All of these examples show that compression is at the heart of creative excellence in every field.

When you compress your ideas, they automatically get better.

When you remove the parts that are merely good they no longer dilute the parts that are truly great.

We, writers, are compressors by profession. Our role is to explain complex ideas. To distill them down to the basics so that readers can get the gist of them without getting tangled in the fluff.

Building in blocks

Neera

Since building my “second brain,” my whole approach to writing has changed.

I no longer do the “heavy lifting,” where I would pick a task and stay on it until it’s finished.

I used to write articles on a single stretch, spending hours on it, not starting another one till it was done and published.

I used the same method for writing books. Working on one book at a time.

Now I am working on several.

This approach is called “slow-burn.”

I am working on several projects in parallel, where I am slowly gathering ideas in the background.

Over time, I will have a rich collection of interesting anecdotes, insights, examples, facts, and illustrations to compile my books.

Besides, all those building blocks can be reused in articles, blog posts, LinkedIn posts and even building courses.

Each day I spend one to two hours inside my “second brain,” my Personal Knowledge Management System, and create or refine “notes.”

These “notes” are self-sufficient, reusable, knowledge articles. I like to think of them as atomic essays.

It has been a transformative shift in how I think about my work.

This new way of working is more adaptable, more innovative, more effective, and stress-free.

There have been 5 benefits of this way of working.

1. I am interruption-proof since I am working in one small building block at a time.

2. There are natural breakpoints where I can get feedback rather than waiting till the end of the project.

3. I can create value in any span of time I am working.

4. Big projects and goals have become much less intimidating.

5. Over time, I’ll eventually create so many building blocks that I’d be able to complete entire projects just by assembling previously created blocks.

This is a magical moment.

Once you experience it, you’d never want to start anything from scratch ever again.

This was the place I wanted to be with my writing.

Building my second brain

Neera

I am building my second brain.

Not because my primary brain is not functioning well, or it is not smart enough to handle all the tasks I undertake. But because I want to free it from doing things it was not designed to do.

Our brain is not designed to remember dates, facts, or pieces of information we have read somewhere. And it was never meant to memorize the books I read or the tens of articles I consume every day.

What it is good at is creating, connecting, visualizing, imagining, and coming up with good ideas.

My second brain is going to hold all the knowledge I gain from reading, listening, watching, and contemplating.

Rather than sitting in my digital folders, this information is now in a central repository where it is interacting with other ideas,
my insights and stories, my perspective and forming unique connections.

Building a second brain is the best productivity exercise I undertook in my writing career. And I want to teach it to others.

I will be holding five workshops from Monday 8 May to 5 June. The details are here.

A learning technique

Neera

I came across a brilliant method to learn and retain new information. It is from Shane Parrish of the blog Farnam Street. Basically, when you are learning something new, from a course or a book, take out a blank sheet of paper and write down what you already know about the topic/subject – in a mind map form.

After you finish a session (or a chapter), spend a few minutes adding to the map with a different color. Before you start the next session, review the page. When you’re finished with the course or the book, put this “mind map” into a binder that you periodically review.

I am doing a course Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte and started doing the mind map. It’s incomplete but looks something like this:

It works well because the blank sheet primed my brain for what I was about to learn. When I put down on paper what I already knew, it forced me to search my memory. As you went through the course I added to my current knowledge. I removed things that I thought were incorrect and added new things as I learned them. The method not only improves retention but helped me connect ideas.

One caveat is, to use your own words and not that of the author. Try to connect it to something you already know — a memory or another idea. Also, make note of any unanswered questions you have while learning. And, on the side, write down the main ideas of the book/course using your own words.

Embrace the suck

Neera

When I was learning to draw, I read a phrase somewhere, that was weird but powerful. “Embrace the suck.”

I instantly knew this will be my new mantra.

In order to become good at our craft, we have to, not just accept but ’embrace’ all the weird, annoying, inconvenient emotions that come with the creative process, including fear, self-doubt, vulnerability, and shame.

Moving through fear and other negative feelings requires accepting that they are normal and a natural part of the creative process.

Fear and self-doubt are trying to protect us. But in doing so, they also stall us.

Whenever I am stalled (like I am now) I set myself a challenge and then force myself
to create, no matter how bad.

I tell myself, ‘Let me create some rubbish.’ And then force myself to draw or paint just about anything. Or to write about anything.

That gets me going. And in no time, I am producing decent quality work. Stalling is part of the creative process too.

Embrace it and keep going.

Don’t fake it till you make it

Neera

How many times we have been advised, to “fake it till you make it.”

This cliche advice is often given when we are faced with a situation that requires confidence, such as a job interview or meeting a new client. The idea is to project an air of confidence, even if you don’t feel it inside, in the hope that eventually, you will start to feel more confident.

However, I have found that this approach has negative consequences. While it may work for some people, for me it leads to a feeling of inadequacy. As if I am a fake and will remain a fake because I have cheated others into believing something which I was not.

What if, instead of “faking it”, we acknowledge and address the underlying issues causing the lack of confidence? This can involve reassessing the situation and figuring out what we already know and what we need to know to build that confidence. As our knowledge and skills will grow we will be in a better position to become more confident.

The first thing to ask when you feel emotionally conflicted is, what are my strengths? Can I use any of those in this situation? Acting from your strength makes you work from your true self. Building knowledge, skills, and experience is not hard if you know your starting point and where you need to be.

But what if you miss out on the opportunity by “not faking it”? Well, invariably honesty and desire to learn and grow weigh higher than the fake persona you build up. Nothing makes you more confident when you act from a place of integrity. Sara Blakely’s story confirms that.

Sara Blakely designed a new kind of underwear, called it Spanx and eventually became the youngest female billionaire in America.

When she was growing up in Florida, she didn’t exactly dream of designing ladies’ undergarments. She wanted to be a lawyer. But when she took her LSATs, she failed twice. She ended up selling fax machines door to door.

If anyone has done door-to-door selling, they would know how demoralizing it is. Many times she would get in her car and drive around the block multiple times, just trying to convince herself to walk through the door. And sometimes she’d walk through the door, and then turn around and go back.

During one of her depressed moments, she came up with an idea of a new kind of hosiery item that will basically tighten and then smooth everything around your butt and thighs.

She did the research to find out the market need and lack of an existing patent for any such garment, then spent the $5000 she was saving from selling fax machines, to get a patent for what was basically footless pantyhose in the form of underpants.

Then she used her door-to-door selling experience to find a manufacturer who agreed to build her a prototype. She put that prototype in a Ziploc bag from her kitchen, printed a color copy of the packaging that she created on her friend’s computer, and went to see Diane, the head of the hosiery buyer at Neiman Marcus headquarters.

In the middle of the meeting, Sara could see she was losing her. She knew it was her only shot, so she asked her, would you come to the bathroom with her?

“What?” said the impeccably dressed woman who had the power to buy millions of dollar worth of stuff from hosiery manufacturers.

“Sorry. Please excuse me. I know it’s a little weird, but I want to show you my product before and after.”

The lady agreed and walked down the hall with Sara. Sara was wearing cream pants which were showing the lines of her underwear. Sara replaces her underwear with her Spanx and Diane looked at her, and went, “Wow, I get it. It’s brilliant.” And she said, I’m going to place an order, and I’m going to put it in seven stores and see how it goes.

This is a much shorter version of Sara’s story which she narrated in an interview on How I Built This podcast, but basically, Sara didn’t hide her inexperience, overcame several hurdles using her strengths and whatever knowledge and experience she had, and in the end, her honesty landed her the contract.

Gena Gorlin, a coach of startup founders, came up with an alternate framework to “fake it, till you make it.” She calls it the “remembering what you know,” framework.

“Remembering what you know,” is the opposite of faking. It is about zooming out to examine the wider landscape of knowledge that can and ought to be brought to bear on your situation, rather than getting faked out by unwarranted (or partially warranted, or misdirected) anxiety. – Gena Gorlin

Acting on your fully considered judgment, even in the presence of conflicting emotions, is not “faking.” On the contrary, it is staying real with yourself. It is bringing your full knowledge—including but not limited to what you’re feeling—to bear on what you choose to do. It is acting with integrity.