The 39th Edition - On Yacht Problems, Orient in The OODA Loop & David Lynch’s Advice on Making Slide Decks

Did you know what the people of Central America were terrified of during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire?

Did you know that the Spanish only sent a small number of soldiers to help defeat the Aztec Empire from 1519 to 1521? But they had heavy cavalry, which scared the people of Central America and made them run away when they were attacked by a smaller enemy force. (source)

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Read: The Wisdom Beyond The Amazon Decision Framework

I posted about how product work can be simple. It did pretty well.

The idea of “two-way door decisions” resonated with some folks

I wanted to write about it more.

But it’s been written about before.

So I did some more research and crafted an even simpler decision framework.

I think you should check it out!

Watch: How To Draft Screenplays Presentations

A short one today.

I’ve always maintained that movie directors were like product people.

So it’s only right that the best advice on crafting presentations comes from David Lynch (“Dune”, “Twin Peaks”):

Remember

The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It is paved with lack of intention.

Dr. Gabor Maté (source)

A hater will see you walk on water - and say it's only cause you can't swim.

Kevin Gates (source)

Consider

Are You Solving a “Yacht Problem”?

I wrote recently that one of my controversial views is that you need to forget about scale before you have something to scale.

Laura Klein (“UX For Lean Startups”) calls them “yacht problems”.

“Yacht problems are things that you're probably worrying about too early.”

(source)

“Orient” in the OODA Loop

Got reminded that John Boyd’s "Orient" function in OODA made it very clear that making your mental models explicit instead of implicit and curating them is a key to surviving and winning.

In other words, if you haven’t exposed your mental models (about strategy, etc.) to your team, you will lose.

(source)

Talk About Progress Even If You Fall Short

A recent study discovered that if progress falls short of our objectives, we don't notice it. We label progress failure if it doesn't meet our expectations. If we want to hit a 50% reduction, but get only 40%, we consider it a loss. So it’s a must to remind ourselves how far we’ve come. After all, goals are inherently uncertain. (source)

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