Breakfast Notes #47 (Humor, Feedback, Coke)

Good morning friends.

Here is what I want to share this week.

• Working Reads. I have been focused on reading books lately. From now on, interesting links will be placed in each breakfast note. 🙂
• Quote of the Week. James Clear in everyone’s favourite self-help book, Atomic Habits  - 'Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.’

Here is the 47th serving of the Breakfast Notes.

Reads Of The Week

Here are the reads of the week.

• Ode To The Library Museum. A trip to the Chester Beatty Library, where there are books made entirely of jade causes the author to reflect on the significance of a physical book.
• George Yeo and his Trees. A former Foreign Minister gives his thoughts on how Singapore’s leaders ought to tend to the garden that is our home.
• Why You Must Read. We live in a knowledge economy which means that value must be extracted from knowledge. The more valuable your insight, the more economic value you get to reap. Writing can be ridiculously asynchronous. This means an uncovered piece of knowledge hidden in books is waiting for you to uncover it.

Humour

Boston-based auction house RR Auction just sold this letter from Steve Jobs for almost $500k.

Steve Jobs had an underrated, dry sense of humour.

I guessed that it pays to be humorous. Turns out, I was right.

It is so important that in this 1958 study - over 90% of men and 81% of women reported that their life partner must have a sense of humour.

How can stakes be any higher?

The Value of Good Feedback

How to be an Effective Executive, is an inside look as to how Keith Rabois, one of America’s most successful company builders led in the business.

• Who’s Keith? Not me. Keith led companies like PayPal, Square, OpenDoor, and LinkedIn.

I loved how Keith took constructive feedback seriously.

‘In his first few months at PayPal, Reid Hoffman sat Keith down and told him that Peter Thiel didn’t think Keith was quantitative enough when making arguments. For the next six months, Keith made sure to include metrics in all of his arguments and still thinks about that feedback 16 years later.’

First, I thought it was kind of Reid to give hyper-specific feedback in a one-to-one setting. Second, I thought it was incredible that Keith did not retaliate, argue or start a civil war. Instead, he acted on it.

An A* feedback giver gives good feedback.

An A* feedback taker acts good on feedback.

Visualization Of The Week

I love magazine ads.

They are a masterclass in writing, design and humour.

Here is my favourite diet coke ad from 1981.

Why I like it: They turned tired cliches into great ad copy.

Video Of The Week

President Xi Jin Ping said, ‘China’s hope lies in youth.’

Yet, the widespread disillusionment of Chinese youths in the workplace seems to dim that hope.

CNA makes banger documentaries.

This one is no different.

Thank you for reading this and truly, may the sun shine upon your face,

Keith