What was my progress?
This year, I learned that true progress lies in embracing the small things over grand achievements.
Doing the small things
“Did I progress? Do I really need to attempt grandeur ideas and solve hard problems to feel like I did some work ?”
This is the main question that I am trying to answer for myself since there were no changes to external markers in my work and life. Pre-startup me would have been very disappointed with lack of things to show but current me couldn’t care less. I had an eventful and fun filled year.
Next, lets define progress;
The most basic meaning of “progress” is simply advancement along a path, or more generally from one state to another that is considered more advanced by some standard. (In this sense, progress can be good, neutral, or even bad—e.g., the progress of a disease.) The question is always: advancement along what path, in what direction, by what standard?
This year there has been a feeling of tremendous progress. I believe it is hypocritical of me that I have been pushing for a tracking system for progress status at work and have no such mechanism for self.
This is the first year where I stayed in the same role, company and responsibility. In the past it was either a different product, project or problem that I was juggling within a timespan of a year.
It is refreshing to know that even if I don’t have any external markers to share with you all, I still progressed enough to be optimistic about 2025 as I will complete a decade working.
This year I imbibed the full meaning of “There is no truth in business, only knowledge”. Edward Demming and his work has had a seismic impact on my work.
It is kind of funny knowing that there are only few “highest order bits” that one needs to flip to deliver results. This shows up when I am revisiting the same topic and re-iterating it in many different contexts. I did this several times throughout the year.
It feels comforting to be a grown-up instead of paying attention to every single bit of information.
“The only people who try to pay attention to every single bit of information that they have all the time, are babies”.
…
Although lots of people go on about the information that gets left out of measuring systems (including me! A lot of the time! Even in posts I regard as centrally important!), it’s important to remember that deciding what you’re going to ignore is a very important part of thinking like a grown up.
There is still one function where I need to improve. Annie Dillard said it best and Amit Varma framed it really well across two posts.
This sentence by Annie Dillard is one of my favourite quotes:
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. … Our life is an accumulation of days. It amounts to how we spend the days we have left — and how present we are in each moment. We need to take joy in the small happinesses that surround us. We need to be intentional about relationships, work and leisure. We need to stop worrying about the future, lest it one day become a present with a worried past
While emphasis is about the approach to life. He revisits the topic again in a subsequent post with respect to progress and work.
my friend Deepak VS said something that has stuck with me:
How we do the small things is how we do the big things. ….
If I had believed that how we do the small things determine how we do the big things, I would have achieved more and found greater happiness.
I have been more cognisant about the small things in work and life. There are repeating patterns of every day and problems that I am not addressing.
An example of it is sharing work in progress as I ran out of time and there are people waiting. I will be in the midst of refining and reframing the work but due to nearing deadline I hurry the execution and share it anyways. It discourages people to engage with my work. Most of my writing suffers from a similar problem.
Next year, I will focus on the small things and try to do them better. Publish more coherent posts and newsletter to keep the focus on the message instead of the messenger(unlike this post)
Round up
Marketplaces are one of the hardest businesses to build in legacy domains.
Service based marketplaces are hard nut to crack in legacy domains. This LinkendIn post back in the day which is a riff on the idea shared by Karthik S is the lead to the theory on building marketplaces in legacy domains.
Links that resonated
What to know
Dinesh Raju in a post illustrating a clear and succinct message on finding a domain and paying attention.
Sign off
I mentioned earlier that there is no system to track my progress which is not completely accurate. I have begun to track my time everyday on a calendar.
I could have written and published more this past year but I didn’t spend sufficient time on them. The marginal value to consume a new post on the topics I practice is dwindling because I have my own notes to refer.
Spending time on making my own notes more legible and contributing to mind map would be aligned with my progress and it starts with spending more time re-reading and writing.
Signing off till next time,
Vivek, hunkering down to close out this year.