Surprise! An email on a Sunday. I know it's been two weeks since my last update, so I'm making it up to you with back-to-back editions. 😁 A warm welcome to my new subscribers, Kevin and AJ.
I'm in the final stages of refreshing my Midtown apartment—installing new lighting, adding a dishwasher, and brightening the walls with fresh paint. I'm also sorting through the logistics of rent for November and December.
On the entertainment front, I've tried out two cozy games: Mineko's Night Market and Surviving Mars. While Mineko's Night Market suffered from significant lag issues, Surviving Mars presented a steep learning curve. It appears that following the success of Animal Crossing, many companies are attempting to cash in on the cozy game genre. However, few have managed to create a game that combines well-designed gameplay and content. If you want to indulge in a complaint about capitalism, consider watching this impressive assessment, Which SIM game has the toughest economy.
What's scarier than Sunday Scaries for Halloween? 👻 Sunday scaries is a slang describing the anxiety of starting the next workweek. The best time of the week to think about quitting or quiet quitting. Steven Bartlett published an analysis for when should you quit a project, and when should you persevere, see below diagram and videos:
Deciding when to quit something—be it a job, a relationship, or a project—is a complicated and deeply personal choice influenced by a variety of factors. These can include:
A fundamental clash with your values and ethics
Negative impacts on your mental or physical health
A lack of opportunities for growth and a sense of disengagement
The presence of toxic individuals or a hostile work environment
Feeling underappreciated or unable to find meaning and purpose in what you're doing.
It's important to recognize that having the option to quit is a luxury that not everyone can afford.
Over the past 18 years, I've left several jobs before reaching the two-year mark, while also staying in some longer than I should have. In my experience, people generally know why they should quit; the real question is when. Bartlett simplifies this decision. It's when the reward isn't worth the effort or when efforts no longer producing desired outcomes.
What's your lucid definition of "reward"?
When it comes to defining "reward," my perspective as a UX designer is to take a scientific approach in assessing desired outcomes and potential gains. Is the potential purely monetary? Not necessarily. While money is a basic need for paying bills and supporting a family, the definition of "reward" can also include intellectual satisfaction, recognition, or social status—these are highly individual interpretations of purpose and happiness.
When I say, "Money is not my driver," whether to my manager or friends, I often preface it with, "I know this might sound cliché, but it's true."
I'm after intellectual satisfaction. I navigate through ambiguous problems, formulate hypotheses, and brace for failure, which is a common outcome in the scientific method. In science, 9/10 times things fail. These failures are not setbacks but rather opportunities to pivot, reflect, and take corrective action. There is no endpoint to improvement—it's a constant cycle requiring years of sustained effort, often without immediate gratification.
For example, when it comes to leadership or managerial roles, becoming a "fearless leader" means you're constantly learning about leadership. The same applies to being a designer—it's about resilience, gaining new perspectives, and finding support.
I realize I lean towards "staying in discomfort" and celebrate grit as achievement. I am thinking about experimenting my ability to quit sooner than getting to "I overstayed my welcome."
I recently came across Obsidian, a localized writing application with an incredible feature: it visualizes your thoughts and patterns through a dynamic graph. Using this tool, I analyzed the last six months of our newsletter content, which led me to ponder how we process and store information in what some refer to as our second brain.
0:00
/0:30
Cool ain't it? Or am I a nerd? 🤓 From my analysis, I've found that content typically undergoes four phases before becoming a core memory:
Ad Hoc Notes: Quick scribbles and initial impressions.
Researched Notes: In-depth notes sourced from formal references such as research papers or subject-matter experts.
Crystallized Notes: Early synthesis of ideas and findings.
Formal Notes: Fully processed content, often resulting in published articles or finalized thoughts.
Publishing formal notes requires a level of rigor that I can't maintain weekly, so expect the content to largely fall within the first three categories. How do you process the information you consume daily?
A Trending Theme: Influence Without Authority
This week, an interesting pattern emerged. I received the same question from three different people on the same day:
A new designer struggling with a challenging assignment outside of their desired design tasks.
A designer clashing with stakeholders who are imposing unwanted changes.
A researcher looking to advance their career and gain broader adoption for their vision.
All of these questions circle back to one theme: Influence Without Authority. This means you are not in a position to give orders, make decisions, and have little control of the outcome. I've been contemplating this topic for the past two months, particularly focusing on people with low agency—those who procrastinate, lack confidence, and avoid risks because they feel powerless. They lacked knowledge about how to influence.
Six Pillars of Influence
Assume Allies: Consider everyone to be on your side, even if past interactions have been challenging. You make their goals yours.
Clarify your Goals & Priorities: Make your objectives transparent and help others see your perspective.
Understand Barriers: Be aware of the obstacles in the other person's world, such as different working styles, responsibilities, pressures/worries, career aspirations, how they are measured?
Build Relationships: Establish a likable rapport with those you aim to influence.
Trustworthiness: Cultivate trust by consistently following through on your promises and assuming good intentions.
Reciprocity: Go beyond your job description to solve challenges for others, and substantiate your claims with evidence.
When we make an elevator pitch, focus the benefits about the recipient, not ourselves. “Why should they care about what I have to say?” State your most important idea up front and elaborate only if needed, then minimally. Postpone all complications and elaborations if it's prompted.
Though it's tough, I've found that practicing succinct articulation improves clarity and influence.
Surprise! An email on a Sunday. I know it's been two weeks since my last update, so I'm making it up to you with back-to-back editions. 😁 A warm welcome to my new subscribers, Kevin and AJ.
I'm in the final stages of refreshing my Midtown apartment—installing new lighting, adding a dishwasher, and brightening the walls with fresh paint. I'm also sorting through the logistics of rent for November and December.
On the entertainment front, I've tried out two cozy games: Mineko's Night Market and Surviving Mars. While Mineko's Night Market suffered from significant lag issues, Surviving Mars presented a steep learning curve. It appears that following the success of Animal Crossing, many companies are attempting to cash in on the cozy game genre. However, few have managed to create a game that combines well-designed gameplay and content. If you want to indulge in a complaint about capitalism, consider watching this impressive assessment, Which SIM game has the toughest economy.
What's scarier than Sunday Scaries for Halloween? 👻 Sunday scaries is a slang describing the anxiety of starting the next workweek. The best time of the week to think about quitting or quiet quitting. Steven Bartlett published an analysis for when should you quit a project, and when should you persevere, see below diagram and videos:
Deciding when to quit something—be it a job, a relationship, or a project—is a complicated and deeply personal choice influenced by a variety of factors. These can include:
It's important to recognize that having the option to quit is a luxury that not everyone can afford.
Over the past 18 years, I've left several jobs before reaching the two-year mark, while also staying in some longer than I should have. In my experience, people generally know why they should quit; the real question is when. Bartlett simplifies this decision. It's when the reward isn't worth the effort or when efforts no longer producing desired outcomes.
What's your lucid definition of "reward"?
When it comes to defining "reward," my perspective as a UX designer is to take a scientific approach in assessing desired outcomes and potential gains. Is the potential purely monetary? Not necessarily. While money is a basic need for paying bills and supporting a family, the definition of "reward" can also include intellectual satisfaction, recognition, or social status—these are highly individual interpretations of purpose and happiness.
When I say, "Money is not my driver," whether to my manager or friends, I often preface it with, "I know this might sound cliché, but it's true."
I'm after intellectual satisfaction. I navigate through ambiguous problems, formulate hypotheses, and brace for failure, which is a common outcome in the scientific method. In science, 9/10 times things fail. These failures are not setbacks but rather opportunities to pivot, reflect, and take corrective action. There is no endpoint to improvement—it's a constant cycle requiring years of sustained effort, often without immediate gratification.
For example, when it comes to leadership or managerial roles, becoming a "fearless leader" means you're constantly learning about leadership. The same applies to being a designer—it's about resilience, gaining new perspectives, and finding support.
I realize I lean towards "staying in discomfort" and celebrate grit as achievement. I am thinking about experimenting my ability to quit sooner than getting to "I overstayed my welcome."
Read Next
Sunday Post-Thanksgiving
How do you assess the system and decision matrix?
How to tell a story
Six storytelling arcs you should know about
November AMA: Ask Me Anything relevant to your interests
Subscriber lead question post for November.
I recently came across Obsidian, a localized writing application with an incredible feature: it visualizes your thoughts and patterns through a dynamic graph. Using this tool, I analyzed the last six months of our newsletter content, which led me to ponder how we process and store information in what some refer to as our second brain.
Cool ain't it? Or am I a nerd? 🤓 From my analysis, I've found that content typically undergoes four phases before becoming a core memory:
Publishing formal notes requires a level of rigor that I can't maintain weekly, so expect the content to largely fall within the first three categories. How do you process the information you consume daily?
A Trending Theme: Influence Without Authority
This week, an interesting pattern emerged. I received the same question from three different people on the same day:
All of these questions circle back to one theme: Influence Without Authority. This means you are not in a position to give orders, make decisions, and have little control of the outcome. I've been contemplating this topic for the past two months, particularly focusing on people with low agency—those who procrastinate, lack confidence, and avoid risks because they feel powerless. They lacked knowledge about how to influence.
Six Pillars of Influence
When we make an elevator pitch, focus the benefits about the recipient, not ourselves. “Why should they care about what I have to say?” State your most important idea up front and elaborate only if needed, then minimally. Postpone all complications and elaborations if it's prompted.
Though it's tough, I've found that practicing succinct articulation improves clarity and influence.
I hope you find these insights useful.
How to get better at influence
What is needed to create influence...