Working too much; Xiaomi's platform; Food wars

Milk, No Sugar #296

💡Think

I’m back on the decision making train again this week and thinking about the costs of our choices.

When faced with a few different routes when working on something, it’s easy to become crippled by choice, ultimately meaning we make no choice – which is, weirdly, still a choice (learned this from the movie Mr Nobody, highly recommended).

What we can do in these situations is to try and cost up our options. Ultimately, if we need to do something, and are presented with seemingly equal options, choosing the “lowest cost option” can push in a direction without committing too much energy or resource but giving us something we can test and run with.

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📷 Look

Camden, London – From my Instagram

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📖 Read

❶ Why do we work too much?

“In the modern office, stress has become a default metric for judging whether we are busy enough” – ouch. I would presume that this has actually increased during our remote work boom, with ‘presenteeism’ becoming more important for pressure bosses. This is a great article about our thirst for working more, and profiles a few ideas from people who are actively working to do the opposite. Growing at all means is not always necessary.

Read this article

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❷ Xiaomi reinvented what it means to be a platform

Despite being only 11 years old, and originally billed as a smartphone company, Xiaomi builds software that is used on over 300 million devices. That’s not bad, ey? Although quite business-heavy, this article takes a look at just how they did it in such a short space of time, looking at how Apple runs their ecosystem and what traditional businesses like Oracle do as well.

Read this article

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❸ The (protein) food wars

You’re right, this article isn’t about design or tech, but is interesting stuff. Have you noticed how recently everything in the supermarket now has “high in protein” on the label? Well, we can thank a company in the US for inventing tasteless protein that they are selling into everything from bread to water. This, as well as other bizarre turns, are what this writer is calling a “war” on our food, making it impossible for us to know what to eat to stay healthy and natural.

Read this article

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Bonus round

• Giphy, everyone’s favourite gif service, have someone managed to print a book of gifs. Don’t ask me how

• The weirdest thing I’ve seen this week is a new singing contest show, where the contestants are…avatars. It stars Will.I.Am of course

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🎧 Listen

Making better decisions

This is a great one to put on during a walk this week and let the knowledge drip into your brain. It’s an interview with a veteran (finance) trader and educator where they discuss at length how you can make better decisions by using data and, more importantly, looking at decisions at a stack rather than isolated situations. Breaking things down into decision, then decision, then another one is so much easier to see as a long term path rather than an explosive “this is a make or break” approach.

Listen to this podcast (73 minutes)
Apple Podcasts – Spotify

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🙌 Share

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🙏 Thanks

Have a great week,
Luis Ouriach
@disco_lu

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Founding member special shoutouts:

Kevin Fernandez (@kvnfz)

Karl Barker

George Sumpster