Product & Startup Builder

My 3 Wishes

Added on by Chris Saad.

If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

For me I’d try “unlimited wishes”

If that wasn’t allowed I’d wish for “the power to grant my own wishes”

If that wasn’t allowed I’d wish for the 3 things that basically give you the power to “wish” and get what you want in today’s society

1. Healthy: The ability to optionally and intentionally control the life, death and health of me and everyone else (to be able to live a very long, healthy life)

2. Wealthy: Unlimited wealth stored in whatever form is most relevant to the period and place that I’m in

3. Wise: The ability to optionally and intentionally see the truth

 

Originally posted on Facebook

US 2020 Debates

Added on by Chris Saad.

Watching the US 2020 debates...

- Warren and Sanders: Everyone will get healthcare

- Debate hosts and Republicans: But they’ll lose their health insurance!??

- Warren and Sanders: But... Everyone will get healthcare!

- Debate hosts and Republicans: But what about all those amazing health insurance plans!?

*blink*

Boggles the mind.

No one wants health *insurance*. They want health *care*.

The argument isn’t that they will lose their current health insurance. Current US health insurance sucks. The argument is that no civilized country has abolished private health insurance just because they have a universal public system.

The public option provides a safety net and the private system provides luxury perks for those who can afford it. It’s really quite simple.

Originally posted on Facebook

How to Solve Global Problems

Added on by Chris Saad.

Right now large global summits (like the Paris Climate summit) are organized on an ad-hoc basis. This can be inefficient because they occur at uneven intervals and the format and deliverables change each time.

Instead, there should be multiple standing “summits” each year where all the leaders of all the countries of the world are invited to work on the largest issues of the year.

The format and the dates should be preset and standardized.

One yearly summit for each major subject. For example

- Climate

- Defense

- Trade

- Immigration

- etc

The emphasis should not be on trying to get leaders and countries to sign things or pass “resolutions” but rather simply to do a best effort to draft a basic consensus on the current state of affairs and policy refinements for the year to come. The emphasis of the drafting process should be to get rough broad strokes down on paper with the end of the summit acting as a forcing function (e.g whatever we have will be released at the end no matter what).

The world would then have a document that represents broad, shared directional understanding. A simple tool to focus conversation.

Countries can (and likely will) choose to ignore the details - but if these documents create even lose alignment they will be valuable.

This process will also force counties to come to the table with something of a global perspective multiple times each year.

This is similar to how teams inside companies work to drive consensus by using standing meetings and rough consensus. No one has to sign anything, they just get a good idea of next steps and move on with their day.

Originally posted on Facebook

Fighting For The Right Thing

Added on by Chris Saad.

They say the older you get the more conservative you become. For me, I’ve certainly calibrated some of my views more conservatively but mainly I’ve become more sensitive to the way conservatives see the world while still largely rejecting their world view.

This video is a great example. Liberals see a young warrior fighting for the right thing (climate change). I imagine conservatives see a girl being manipulated by adults and the “liberal media” us a low and tight camera angle to avoid revealing just how small this protest is.

When I hear Castro or Beto talk about their immigrant American Dream and speak Spanish on stage, I know us liberals feel excited by a diverse and shrinking world. But I imagine conservatives freaking out - yelling at the TV “this is why we want fewer brown people in America - they’re taking over!”.

Personally, I find it mind numbing that we need this girl to say plainly obvious things to corrupt, shameless old people in a vain attempt to jog them from their ignorance, apathy and/or corruption.

When It Comes To Facing Challenges, There Are Two Kinds of People

Added on by Chris Saad.

Most people live very practical and pragmatic lives. They go to work and do the job they’re assigned.

There are two other kinds of people, though.

1) There are aspirational people who demand that they work on specific types of projects and problems. Big and impactful things that make them feel excited, important and inspired! This is typically a positive thing - but it can sometimes become unbalanced and lead to a situation where they are unable to execute on pragmatic, commercial things. It leads to a kind of execution paralysis.

2) There are other people who fail to act (or act well) because they feel afraid. They procrastinate or self-sabotage. This is due to a wide range of reasons that they rarely even understand themselves - but irrespective of the reason, it ultimately also leads to execution paralysis.

I suspect, in both cases, these people could benefit from recalibrating the role of “feelings” in their lives.

Part of crafting a successful life requires that you don’t over-index on feelings.

It might sound harsh, but In some cases, they need to harden up and be an adult. They need to look at the world with sobriety and meet the market (and it’s challenges) where it is, not where they wish it to be.

This is not to say that the aspirational people have to give up on optimism and ambition, only that the most effective way to achieve their optimistic goals is typically through very pragmatic and incremental means. Of course, the trick here is to understand where the line is, and have the right balance of impatience, stubbornness, and pragmatism. A difficult but critical balance to strike!

This is also not to say that afraid people can simply have their fear absolved - but rather that they need to act bravely to break out of their shell to provide for themselves and their families.

Originally posted on Facebook

Wasted Time

Added on by Chris Saad.

There are a lot of hidden fees and charges in life. Little taxes and tips that often go unaccounted for. By far, the largest one of these is wasted time.

Ironically, time is the most expensive and precious resource we have. Both as individuals and as leaders of companies.

Do the things you love, do things that are high leverage and productive, spend endless time with loved ones, watch and read things that inspire you - but try to avoid choosing the cheapest option or the menial chores over getting the best service and professionals to help.

What you’ll spend in cash you’ll make up for in quality of life, momentum, and leverage.

Originally posted on Facebook

The Letter Travis Kalanick Never Sent

Added on by Chris Saad.

The letter linked below represents the Travis we all got to know a little at Uber - either through personal interactions or weekly, candid, all-hands meetings. Bold, ambitious, comprehensive and open to tough conversations on any topic. Not the caricature the media painted. Breaks my heart he never got to send it and we never got to see what Uber might have become under his leadership.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Judgment

Added on by Chris Saad.

There’s been a lot of talk around me lately about judgment.

The cliche/easy answer is “I don’t like to judge”

The reality is that, as humans, we are pattern matching and judgment making machines. That’s how our brains work.

We make determinations about what‘s safe and what’s dangerous, what’s productive and what’s unproductive, who we are and who we want to spend time with. We are constantly making judgments about the world. It’s the only way we can function.

What’s dangerous and toxic about being “judgmental” is not the judgment, but rather the judgment applied without empathy, context, and perspective.

This is much, much harder than it sounds. The people you are making judgments about are the hero of their own story. They are going through an emotional journey that you can likely never understand, and are dealing with past traumas and future anxieties they can barely rationalize to themselves much less explain to you.

So for you to make high empathy and effective judgments about others is extremely difficult. This reality demands that, as you make judgments about them (and you will), you give them generous quantities of latitude and forgiveness on a regular basis. However, you ultimately will need to make judgments about whether they belong in your orbit - whether their contribution is a net benefit or net negative to your life and in the life of your family.

What’s particularly pernicious, though, is when some people pretend that they are free of judgment and use that as a cloak to suppress judgment about themselves, while they themselves are in fact judging people all the time. This is a lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy that creates a self-referential feedback loop that takes them nowhere.

Ultimately, making good, rational judgments about how to spend your time, where to invest your money, who to let into your confidence and how to answer the millions of questions and challenges that spring up in life are the difference between success (however you define it) and failure.

So don’t be afraid of judgment. Be afraid of poorly informed judgment that lacks empathy and effectiveness in the world.

Originally posted on Facebook

Personal Feedback Results - 2019

Added on by Chris Saad.

I recently asked my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks to give me feedback by filling out a survey. I also said I might share the results. Here they are...

3 words that first come to mind when thinking about me

Screen Shot 2019-09-01 at 6.06.40 pm.png

My 3 best skills/personality traits/features

Screen Shot 2019-09-01 at 6.09.05 pm.png

My 3 worst skills/personality traits/features

Screen Shot 2019-09-01 at 6.13.05 pm.png

How likely are you to recommend me to others?

Net Promoter Score: 33 (Based on this method). Terrible!

My thoughts and interesting tidbits

Contradictions

The most interesting thing to me is the fact that some of my positive traits are at direct odds with my negative traits.

For example:

Some of the responses to my positive traits were as follows (note: The number in brackets represents how well they claim to know me.…

  • Approachable (10)

  • Confident (7)

  • Positive (9)

  • Smile/laugh (7)

On the other hand, some other people listed my negative traits as…

  • Unresponsive (5)

  • Low self-esteem (10)

  • Pessimistic (9)

  • Sullen (5)

Initially I thought this was maybe related to the fact that the negative responses came from people who didn’t know me well. I feel like this theory is debunked by the fact that at least 2 of the negative contradictions in this small sample above claim that they know me 9 and 10 (out of 10).

Another possibility is that I’m not as consistent as I hope and strive to be to all the people in my life.

The only other possibility I can think of is that people project onto others what they hate or see in themselves.

What do you think?

Authenticity

In my worst skills tag cloud, the word “Inauthentic” obviously looms large. The fact is that the word was only used once in the feedback, but I summarized another piece of feedback using that word because it seemed to be what they were suggesting (with many more words). Unfortunately due to the small sample size (22) even 2 occurrences make the words (good or bad) loom large over the others.

That being said, I’m going to take that feedback (and the others) seriously and check in with myself as to why I might be behaving in inauthentic ways, or in ways that might be miss-perceived as inauthentic.

Different Results

Added on by Chris Saad.

Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is no longer a sign of insanity.

With cloud devices like google assistant, asking the same thing can sometimes produce a new or surprising result.

The last few weeks I’ve been trying to get the Google Assistant on my Sonos One to play music for me and it keeps saying that it’s “unable to do this on this device”.

Every week or so I keep asking the same question hoping for different results.

This morning it started playing music. Win!

Originally posted on Facebook

Timing

Added on by Chris Saad.

It strikes me how much of success and contentment in life comes down to timing.

Personal Contentment: Can be significantly impacted simply by knowing where you are in your life's arc and not judging yourself too harshly (or generously) by other people's pace and place.

-- Personal examples: I've had a number of conversations in the last couple of years with old friends about money. People feeling like the absence or abundance of it from their life (particularly vs others) makes them feel uncomfortable, unworthy or unable to relate to someone. I've also had struggles and deep frustrations my whole life about not moving fast enough or achieving certain milestones at the right time.

Material success: Knowing when to save, when to spend. Knowing when to invest your time and money into a company/property that's going places.

-- Personal examples: As I start angel and property investing this is becoming more top of mind for me. It's also important as the word recession starts getting thrown around. But it's also been with me my whole career as I've evaluated which ideas to persue and startups to work for - and when to quit!

Relationship success: Spending quality time with your loved ones and having the right conversation at the right time. Meeting the right person at the right time for both of you - when you're both ready to receive and give what the other needs.

-- Personal examples: Many of my relationship successes and almost all of my failures have been about timing. And now meeting and getting married to Aliya has been so much about timing. We were both at the right time in our lives both physically and emotionally. And now the question of timing for kids becomes important!

Do you have any examples where timing has had a big impact in your life?

Side note: I'm trying something new in this post by providing more concrete personal examples. Helpful?

Originally posted on Facebook

DOW Plunges After Trump Tweet

Added on by Chris Saad.

It's really quite hillarious watching cable news try to decipher the ramblings and tantrums of a psychopathic 5 year old man-child like it's business as usual and there's some rational strategic through-line to analyze and discuss. The world is on fire and they're still sitting in front of fake backdrops with pressed suits sporting shit-eating grins having a casual chat