TFN#64: 🪜Rules to work by: A little variation in process leads to a little variation in output

Reader, have you ever prepared dosa?
I mean dosa batter?
If you have prepared it, you know that no two people’s dosa batter comes out the same. Even with the same ingredients! (And let’s not get into the effect of different seasons.)

Why?​
Because of the recipe.
The recipe differs, and the result differs.
And what exactly is a “recipe”?
It’s a set of processes and algorithms.
Change a part of the recipe and the result changes. I can go on with the culinary analogies for days. But we are not chefs and this letter is for knowledge workers like us.

So…my point is…

..that our work is no different than preparing dosa batter

Sounds crude, but give me a minute.
One needs utmost care and planning to prepare a good dosa batter. The proportion, the soaking duration, the grinding etc.
And if we want to keep preparing the same, good quality dosa batter, we need to have it written as a recipe and practice preparing it.

And how is it different from our work?​
It is not, except that the result is not dosa.
Our result might be a powerpoint presentation, a data analysis report, a customer survey, a lesson plan, a product roadmap, or a software interface. You get it.

All of us have some natural tendencies

Though the school system does its best to get us rid of our natural inclinations, we still have some strong tendencies.
For example, I tend to have some solid objectives in front of me before taking up a project. If there are no objectives, it is difficult for me to proceed with confidence. I know some people who tend to procrastinate until the deadline and finish the work just before the deadline, which is completely the opposite of my tendency.

These tendencies lead us to our processes

These tendencies help us formulate our unique processes.
For example, one of my tendencies is to require isolated time to provide reviews on content. I’m not at my best if asked for an impromptu review over a Zoom call.
That’s why in my work, documentation is a big part of the process.

What if I skipped documentation?

My work will not be the best.
I would have compromised my process. Because a little variation in dosa recipe leads to a little variation in dosa batter.
It is as simple as that.

Say hi to Winston Wolf again

Once more, this lesson from Winston Wolf. 6 weeks back, I shared this clip in the letter The key skill in Getting Things Done (GTD) :

But that’s not the main clip for our letter today.

The main clip is this 1-minute one:

In this clip, you can see Mr. Wolf is somewhere in a party. And he receives a phone call about the murder and the requirement of his help. He meticulously takes notes–because that’s what he is! He is very specific about things. And that is reflected in the 9-minute video clip too.
In other words, Mr. Wolf has a process.
He doesn’t take assignments that don’t match his processes.

But shouldn’t we all be capable of working in any condition?

Do you mean being WELL-ROUNDED?
What are we? Gemstones?
I believe the “well-rounded” term is the most problematic roadblock in child development and consequently, individual development.
No one needs to be “well-rounded”. We need to embrace our idiosyncrasies, temper them with reasonable application and we’re good to go.

The key lies in the process. A step here, a step there and the results change.

So, are there any steps, or an algorithm that you have formulated for yourself to contribute your best work? What is that process? And did you compromise your process in the past? What were the consequences?
​Hit Reply and tell me.

Reads of the week:

Don’t be deceived by the headline.
Mansoor Khan, cousin of Aamir Khan, the director of the super hit movie ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’, didn’t leave Bollywood just to make cheese.
I had read this article 7-8 years back and recently found it.
Mansoor has a brilliant mind, an alumni of Cornell and MIT, he has seen it all. But like any other high-IQ person, man’s intelligence is limited by his beliefs. Apart from his inclination to live a rural, slow life, Mansoor is so sure of the idea that the world has finite resources and our hunger is infinite that we will exhaust the planet, that he abandoned it all and began living in Coonoor, Tamilnadu, rearing cows and goats, making cheese. He has written about his idea of the finiteness of the Earth’s resources in his book The Third Curve. Needless to say, I don’t buy that idea.
But I wanted to share Mansoor’s story because what he is doing is brave and I like people who make such decisions.

Mansoor with his family