TRYING2UNDERSTAND

I was listening to an interview with a former chairman of a national bank. He explained how the future ‘FinTech’ businesses will have to operate. He mentioned the term brutal self-reflection.

I often remember that and reflect on the meaning.

I applied for a CISO role with a FinTech company. The CEO of a company asked me an interesting question. “What percentage of the available resources would you dedicate to persecuting and capturing perpetrators if a hack occurred?”

Less than 50 percent

I paused for a few seconds and replied: “Less than 50 percent.” My response surprised him. “Persecuting and catching criminal offenders is…

Robert Greene nicely described dependency in his book ‘The 50th law’:

“Think of it this way: dependency is a habit that is so easy to acquire. We live in a culture that offers you all kinds of crutches. Experts to turn to, drugs to cure any psychological unease, mild pleasures to help pass or kill time, jobs to keep you just above the water. It is hard to resist. But once you give in, it is like a prison you enter that you cannot ever leave.”

He also wrote we are more alone than we imagine and that it should…

TRYING2UNDERSTAND

Startup owners and small entrepreneurs frantically seek and chase ‘the low-hanging fruits.’ The popular buzzword often mentioned these days represents the easy money, the quick wins.

It reminds me of a poker saying:

“Everyone comes at the table to shear some sheep. If you can’t spot the sheep at the table, you are the sheep.”

Large animals feed on small ones

Startups and small companies often forget the basic rules of nature. The big fish focuses on chasing small fish, so the small fish must focus on survival and self-protection.

But smaller entrepreneurs and unskilled startups often try to outsmart the system and focus solely on…

TRYING2UNDERSTAND

Both choices in the title show strong characteristics being counterintuitive and paradoxical by nature. Like winning the lottery, every young entrepreneur dreams of becoming an overnight success. But that is not the best solution one could hope for to become and stay successful.

I was always intrigued by the extent of various areas and topics the Dunning-Kruger effect can cover or interpret. It is fascinating to research and see all the other analogies it provides.

Dunning-Kruger Effect for the uninformed

Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias — a term used in psychology, explaining how poor performers in various domains seem widely unaware of just how…

Yup, but the problem is that those accidental leaders have the time and resources to 'transform'. Like bad leaders, they learn to sing along the new leadership songs and end up fine (for them). Although, they never understand the lyrics.

It's always the same thing getting in the way...

TRYING2UNDERSTAND

Those are the words that often accompany the weird. We all crave for and want something special in our lives. But we always shudder at a thought of doing something of a kind.

Special is an anomaly by definition. If you want to attract anomalies, you have to open yourself to them. Gary Vaynerchuck described that with his profound common sense.

“If you want to be an anomaly, act like one. People want all these special things to happen to them but they are acting like everybody else.” — Gary Vaynerchuck

A chilling morning run

I love chilling early morning runs. Windy with freezing…

TRYING2UNDERSTAND

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

These days it is relatively easy to find a topic and read about it. You can find almost everything about anything on the internet. Not everything is valuable and trustworthy. But who cares, right?

To have an opinion or to know a thing about something became a walk in the park. You open a browser and search for a topic. Then you just filter out what you want to know.

And there you are…