1483: Fragile Plan vs Robust Plan AND Human Intervention as a Competitive Advantage by Derek Sivers

[00:00:00] This complex financing talk is very challenging. Do I get my depot ever?

[00:00:06] But you already have a depot.

[00:00:08] No.

[00:00:09] Yes, you have the Vodafone Gigadepot.

[00:00:11] That's right! And I have myself in the hand how big my depot is.

[00:00:15] Now with the Vodafone Gigadepot and the data volume of耐用 in the next month. Go on in the 5G-Net of Vodafone.

[00:00:22] Vodafone. Together we can.

[00:00:26] This is optimal work daily.

[00:00:29] Fragile Plan vs Robust Plan by Derek Sivers of Sivers, S-I-V-E dot R-S.

[00:00:37] When I first had the idea for Wood Egg, publishing 16 books about 16 countries every year, I thought I would write them all myself.

[00:00:45] Visit 16 countries for 3 weeks each doing intensive research the whole time.

[00:00:49] That's 48 weeks so I could do it again each year.

[00:00:52] But I had a baby on the way, so that idea lasted about a minute.

[00:00:56] Then I thought of a journalist I know who would love that kind of life.

[00:01:00] I asked, she said yes, she flew to Singapore and started working.

[00:01:04] But it was a really bad fit.

[00:01:05] So after 5 weeks, we called it quits.

[00:01:08] Then I decided to hire one writer per country.

[00:01:11] 16 authors to write 16 books.

[00:01:14] This went okay at first.

[00:01:16] Mohit Pawar did a great job with India and Cameron King did a great job with Taiwan.

[00:01:21] But the people I hired for the other countries flaked out.

[00:01:24] So I realized this plan was still too fragile.

[00:01:27] Making a robust plan.

[00:01:29] I really wanted this to work.

[00:01:31] I had to be smart.

[00:01:32] I had to make a better plan.

[00:01:34] I re-read my notes on E-Myth, The Wisdom of Crowds, Crowdsourcing, and Here Comes Everybody.

[00:01:40] In fact, I re-read my notes on 130 books.

[00:01:43] It was an enlightening week.

[00:01:45] I learned a few things.

[00:01:46] One, if you want to help, it helps to get specific.

[00:01:50] And two, a plan that's too dependent on any one person is too fragile.

[00:01:56] Getting specific.

[00:01:57] Before, I had a very vague outline of what I wanted the book to cover.

[00:02:01] I asked the authors to include sections on culture, government, business setup, hiring, banking, and marketing.

[00:02:08] That was it.

[00:02:08] The details were up to them.

[00:02:10] Go.

[00:02:11] In hindsight, I can see how daunting that was.

[00:02:14] Too wide open.

[00:02:15] I've written about the need to get specific before.

[00:02:18] See my articles, get specific, and restrictions will set you free.

[00:02:22] But I had forgotten to apply it to this.

[00:02:24] So, I spent a couple weeks and came up with 200 specific questions.

[00:02:28] Now, to write the book, we just had to answer those 200 questions.

[00:02:32] It's infinitely easier to find someone to answer a specific question

[00:02:36] than to find someone to impart wisdom on a vague topic.

[00:02:39] It puts the burden on the asker to come up with a good question

[00:02:42] and lifts the burden from the answerer.

[00:02:45] Multiple people.

[00:02:46] So that the book was not dependent on any one person and the book was not one person's opinion,

[00:02:51] I made a system where each of those 200 questions had to be answered by three different people.

[00:02:56] Ideally, one local, one foreigner, and one other.

[00:03:00] 16 countries times 3 researchers equals 48 people.

[00:03:03] I used upwork.com to find people in each country.

[00:03:07] Of course, some disappeared, some never finished, and a few gave bad answers.

[00:03:11] But that was okay.

[00:03:12] Life happens.

[00:03:13] People's circumstances change.

[00:03:15] I understand.

[00:03:16] But it won't hurt my plan.

[00:03:18] If any one person is gone, I can still carry on.

[00:03:21] When all 200 questions had three answers each, 16 times 200 times 3 equals 9600 answers,

[00:03:27] I hired a few writer editors to combine the answers into one essay per question.

[00:03:32] Again, one person disappeared, but it was easy for another to step in.

[00:03:36] And that was the robust plan that got it done.

[00:03:39] Note, I was also visiting every country myself and contributing my own research to the books,

[00:03:44] but it was important that the plan didn't require me either.

[00:03:48] Lessons learned?

[00:03:49] If you're starting a project or company,

[00:03:51] 1.

[00:03:52] Don't expect anyone to care as much as you.

[00:03:54] 2.

[00:03:55] Don't require them to think as hard about this as you have.

[00:03:58] 3.

[00:03:59] Do expect them to change their mind and disappear.

[00:04:01] 4.

[00:04:02] Make a robust plan that includes numbers 1 through 3.

[00:04:05] As the founder, the burden is on you to come up with a great plan,

[00:04:08] to lift the burden from the people helping you.

[00:04:11] Then, when you find some brilliant people, it's a great bonus,

[00:04:14] instead of an absolute necessity.

[00:04:20] 4.

[00:04:20] Human Intervention as a Competitive Advantage by Derek Sivers of SiversSive.rs

[00:04:28] The Listening Algorithm

[00:04:30] A year after I started CD Baby when it was still just me in my bedroom,

[00:04:34] the CEO and VP of a hugely funded Silicon Valley online music company contacted me,

[00:04:40] saying they wanted to fly out to New York to meet me.

[00:04:42] I said okay, and we met a week later for dinner.

[00:04:45] Dinner was a lot of blah blah blah small talk, and I wondered what they really wanted.

[00:04:50] Then, they finally got to the real point.

[00:04:52] The reason we flew out to meet you is because we've been looking at many music recommendation engines,

[00:04:56] and the one that's powering CD Baby.com is one of the best we've found.

[00:05:01] Could you tell us a little something about the algorithms and data points you're using?

[00:05:04] Uh, I was confused and asked what they meant.

[00:05:07] They said, the music recommendations on your site don't seem to be sales driven like Amazon.

[00:05:12] The music matching algorithm comes up with incredible recommendations.

[00:05:15] What software are you using for that?

[00:05:18] Ah, I get it.

[00:05:19] I smiled and pointed to my ear.

[00:05:21] No software, I just listen to everything that comes in and recommend other good stuff like it.

[00:05:26] Now they look confused.

[00:05:27] But how will that scale?

[00:05:29] You can't just listen to every single album.

[00:05:31] What will you do when you start getting 100 albums a day?

[00:05:34] I said, maybe hire someone just to listen.

[00:05:36] I don't know, I'm not there yet.

[00:05:38] I'll worry about it then.

[00:05:39] And that's what I did.

[00:05:40] When we were getting 100 albums a day,

[00:05:42] it became someone's full-time job to listen to every new arrival

[00:05:45] and do the internal recommendations.

[00:05:48] Minimizing or maximizing.

[00:05:50] When everyone else is trying to automate everything,

[00:05:52] using a little human intervention can be a competitive advantage.

[00:05:55] The problem is when business owners see it as a cost instead of an opportunity.

[00:06:00] Trying to minimize costs instead of maximize income,

[00:06:04] quality, loyalty, happiness, connection,

[00:06:06] and all those other wonderful things that come from real human attention.

[00:06:10] You can buy a fancy phone routing system so people have to listen to 9 options,

[00:06:14] choose option 5, then listen to 6 more options.

[00:06:18] Or you can hire a charming person to pick up the phone on the first ring

[00:06:21] and make a great impression.

[00:06:23] Which one do you think will win you new fans?

[00:06:25] You can put rules into your online forms.

[00:06:27] So if someone puts a dash in their phone number or writes coming soon as their URL,

[00:06:32] it tells them they're wrong and makes them do it over again.

[00:06:34] Or you can have new submissions be checked over quickly by a real person.

[00:06:39] It's worth the 10 seconds of human effort to keep the end user experience easy

[00:06:43] but the internal data correct.

[00:06:45] It's fun for techies to try to find the tech solution to everything.

[00:06:49] But don't forget that even a tiny touch from a real person can be the best algorithm

[00:06:53] and a massive business maximizer.

[00:06:56] Who should do the work?

[00:06:58] I understand the mindset.

[00:06:59] It's saying, by having our software and our users do most of the work,

[00:07:02] we can keep our business efficient and scalable.

[00:07:05] But if you want them to pay you, if you want to be more valuable,

[00:07:08] you have to take on more of that work.

[00:07:10] I meet so many entrepreneurs who are convinced their thing will be as big as Facebook

[00:07:14] so they can't afford to have a personal touch for all those billions of users that are going to start flowing through their app.

[00:07:20] But by removing all human contact, they're making their app less valuable.

[00:07:24] They'll never get big enough for how does it scale to matter.

[00:07:31] You just listened to the posts titled,

[00:07:33] Fragile Plan vs. Robust Plan and Human Intervention as a Competitive Advantage.

[00:07:38] Both by Derek Sivers of Sivers, S-I-V-E dot R-S.

[00:07:42] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

[00:07:45] We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn and that sense of wonderment they have while doing it.

[00:07:51] But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity.

[00:07:54] Well, if there's something you've been wanting to learn,

[00:07:57] know that therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder.

[00:08:00] Because your back-to-school era can come at any age.

[00:08:03] And make no mistake, therapy is for everyone.

[00:08:06] Whether or not you've been through significant trauma,

[00:08:09] therapy can be a great tool for setting boundaries, learning new skills,

[00:08:13] and ultimately becoming the best version of yourself.

[00:08:15] If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

[00:08:19] It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

[00:08:24] Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist

[00:08:27] and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.

[00:08:31] Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp.

[00:08:33] Visit BetterHelp.com slash WorkDaily today to get 10% off your first month.

[00:08:39] That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash WorkDaily.

[00:08:44] And big thanks again to Derek.

[00:08:46] He often writes about productivity and even personal development,

[00:08:50] so he's narrated pretty frequently over on Optimal Living Daily,

[00:08:53] and you can check out that show for a lot more from him.

[00:08:56] But that's going to do it for me today.

[00:08:58] I thank you so much for being here and for clicking subscribe if you haven't done that already.

[00:09:02] And I'll see you right back here tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.