Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
The Real Magic of Rituals
In this very insightful article in Nautilus, Dimitris Xygalatas, a well-known anthropologist, writes about the power and impact of rituals.
Here are some key takeaways from the article:
Most of us must have seen an elaborate set of rituals of Ralph Nadal on the court match after match. Is this superstition?
It looks like these rituals help an individual overcome anxiety, and studies show that this is true.
When you see sportspersons, business people, or some of our family members do some predictable and repetitive rituals, either before they start something new, leave home, or leave for a match, they look structured. They are also often repeated the same way all the time.
Studies show that when people experience uncertainty and lack of control, they are more likely to see patterns or regularities where there are none.
When there is high uncertainty, we experience anxiety.
Repetitive action patterns in rituals function as cognitive gadgets that help us cope with stress.
Next time you see your favourite cricket, football, or tennis player do some standard repetitive rituals on the field, you will know why they do it!
You, too, could develop the habit of some rituals to remove anxiety before client meetings or presentations.
Read the article here.
Rethinking the way we educate our children
Mike Solana is Vice President at Founders Fund, focused on community and brand. In this mind-altering chat, Mike talks to Ryan Delk, Co-Founder and CEO of Primer, about how kids’ education ought to be but is not.
Here are some key takeaways:
Schools must kindle children's interests, and learning paths must be based on subjects kids are excited about. This can be different for different kids, and the need to recognise that is important.
Academic outcomes are more important than just passing a grade.
Are we outsourcing learning to schools and expecting teachers to compensate for parents’ lack of time and their challenges of living in cities to give adequate attention to the learning process?
The best education must give the kid the best shot possible to reach their potential.
Whatever the kids are excited about and interested in must be made available - one kid at a time, by giving access to infrastructure and teachers who inspire them by making them do or discover rather than putting them in a rigid box of factory model learning methods.
Seth Godin - Everything You (probably) DON'T Know about Marketing
Seth Godin’s simple and lucid explanation about what marketing is is just refreshing! No jargon, no high-sounding words or concepts or definitions!
Here are some key takeaways:
Marketers need to understand the difference between a logo and a brand.
A brand is nothing but a promise made to the people, and they have distinct expectations, but they also experience them consistently every time they do business with the brand.
Brands need to understand customers in every zip code and their personas.
Marketers should not be unduly worried about the slogan or the spokesperson but worry about the substance.
Seth Godin talks about the importance of a ‘Small Viable Audience’ and ‘Creating Scarcity’.
Unfactory Thinking
The first industrial revolution started in the 1760s and lasted until the 1840s. The second industrial revolution started in the 1870s and went on till the 1914s. The third industrial revolution began in the 1950s. And now there is talk about the fourth industrial revolution.
However, the way we think, learn, and work has not changed at the same pace and depth. Many things we believe and do are still based on the old industrial era using factory-driven mental models. This has to rapidly change if many of us have to remain relevant in the fourth industrialised age. Mentioning it as a fourth industrialised revolution must be stopped as it triggers similar mental models and rituals that we tend to follow or shape our thinking.
Factory-based thinking of the industrialised era is based on mass production and efficiency. This had influenced education, workplaces etc. But as technology and Information Age began to dominate, over the last 50-60 years, education and workplaces have not undergone a significant change. Schools are built for factory-model learning, and workplaces are built for factory-model working methods and processes. This needs to undergo a massive transformation. The industrial era was all about ‘Producing more of the Knowns’ while Information or Technology era is all about ‘Making products and solutions from more Unknowns’
But, imagine the schools and colleges of today are creating assembly-line students who can solve only known problems. Workplaces have assembly-line working professionals who solve every task, like assembling a component. When a specific sub-modules of the task comes to them, they fix it. Many are neither bothered about the end output nor show curiosity in knowing it.
Unfactory Thinking at workplaces is the urgent need to Unassemble people working like an assembly line in large offices. In the industrial era, product blueprints were built by a few people(in the design room), and every individual part needed was converted into an engineering drawing. Each section in the manufacturing produced that part, and finally, it came to the assembly section where all the parts were fitted for the finished good to be ready. The painting section does not know enough about the engine assembly section, and the engine assembly section does not know enough about the gear assembly section and so on.
However, there are no blueprints in the information and technology era as most products have hardware and embedded software. So, at every work desk, the product is being built and assembled! So, working professionals must know to disassemble and assemble in the same workbench. They must understand how their work affects the rest of the workbenches. But, essentially, work is treated like a giant factory set-up, even today. People at work must have the ability to disaggregate and synthesise at the same time.
In the industrial era, machines and parts had to be changed because new machines could produce products faster, but in the information and technology era, people have to Unlearn every couple of years to leverage these changes more quickly. Else like machines, they will be left behind or replaced. This is a cold truth as they are, for analogy purposes, like the machines of the industrial era.
Similarly, schools or colleges must transform to Uncover concepts, applications or theoretical principles in subjects of students’ interest at their own pace. Assembly line teaching is passé. This need is far greater today in the current Information Age than before. At work, nothing like a blueprint is handed over for them to supervise. They need to solve problems; hence, conceptual understanding is more important than ever. They need to understand the board room well as the machine room! Also, if schools or colleges produce such defective parts, in the industrial era parlance, they are rejected by the QC department, or there will be too many products recalls!
If you are young or middle-aged and working today, you must also extend that founders’ mindset at home. You can’t work with factory mental models of the past! Whether parenting, home care, investing or upgrading yourself, you need to try new things, take a few risks and experiment. This also affects how you think and do at the workplace. There is nothing called a ‘safe job’ anymore. If you were in Nokia, you would have thought it was a job for life, but things changed in just a few years. You need the wisdom and knowledge to assess if the product line you are building and assembling daily is fit and relevant for the market. To do that, you need to be fit and not end up building rust in your system. Restarting a machine that has not been running for years is tough.