Weeknote #032

— 13 minute read

Not finding enough time for my weekly writing routine. I am waking up earlier every day, but always busy. This week I decided to write a few minutes during the mornings and invest more in note-taking. The draft started Wednesday, and I finished this morning.

The article for this week is a chapter from a book. It's about Choosing to be yourself. From The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

Good things permalink

Q4 DNA action plans permalink

While refreshing our roadmaps for Q4, we caught ourselves in a complex prioritisation exercise. Nathan and Fred are superstars, and madame Jane Austin jumped in to help us tweak a few parts. Job done, we have a plan.

Afternoon Design review with Uncle Warbz permalink

I've met Fred Warburton for a few hours this Friday. We talked many things. Some work-related matters and a lot about accessibility and inclusive design. I had the opportunity to walk him through a prototype for a new experience. It was like an informal design review - we have one planned with the Design System team. Fred's approach to design reviews is peculiar. He is able to spot affordance errors really fast. I've also noticed how his reactions were similar to Uncle Roger. Uncle Roger is a comedian, who reviews videos of western chefs cooking rice.

The joy of interviewing people permalink

Interviewing talented people every week keeps delivering frequent joy. I was in a zoom room with four people laughing and having a good time this week. Hanging our with content designers is a privilege.

Learned things permalink

Stretching to learn. permalink

A good old friend, Luiz Soyer, reached out this week and asked me to give a lecture to his team about Design Leadership.

I will never feel ready to talk about this subject, but I will do it anyway. I've learned that you have to create time and force yourself to talk about subjects you are not confortable with. Things that matter for your career, not for your current role.

It's going to be also an opportunity to kick-off a project for our design community. I don't have a name for this yet, but the core idea is to invite design teams from other companies to attend our Visual Stand-up. Each group presents one topic, and after the Q&A, we have some impromptu networking activities.

Things that bring me joy permalink

Watching her teaching things permalink

Leili is a natural-born teacher. Besides her resistance to doing that professionally. As a former business process analyst, she can understand how to do anything after listening and watching people. And she can document that later and relay to someone completely new to the subject. She once helped a friend to start cooking. This person never believed she could do it. After 2 hours with Leili, she completely changed her perspective.

Today she will be teaching a lovely girl how to make her own granola and the basics of food photography. Watching her explaining things and connect with people is great.

A bowl of granola and yogurt.

Healthcheck permalink

A few weeks ago, I had a blood test but never got the results. My expectation was to get invited for the yearly diabetes review, but that never happened. But I received an invitation to attend my GP practice for a flu-jab. There was no booking, and they invited everyone to attend Saturday morning. Definitely not going there, last time I've visited I got an annoying virus. Risk management, my friends, it's a serious thing. It's so vital that you should not outsource it to your doctors or the government. Absorb all information and guidance, but take the lead.

Weight: 98.2 kg

Blood pressure: 14/9

Food: We had great Brazilian food this week, Feijão Tropeiro.

Drinks: None

Smoking: 8 Juul pods

Doctors won't make you healthy. Nutritionists won't make you slim. Teachers won't make you smart. Gurus won't make you calm. Mentors won't make you rich. Trainers won't make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. Save yourself - Naval Ravikant