Hey it’s Deepak Shukla here! Thank you for listening to my podcast – down below you will find the notes and key takeaways from today’s podcast so you can implement them in your everyday life!
What’s up, guys? The time is 05:30 a.m.. I’m actually in a McDonald’s right now. I walked to the McDonald’s near Old Court because it’s open at this time and to get a cup of tea, it’s cold outside. So I thought I’d sit for a little bit, and I’ll take this opportunity to record my podcast.
Last night, I wanted to follow up with a chat I had with Uzmun, my software developer. Basically, we’re building a competitor to Loom.
We were talking about potential iterations or developments to the actual product that we’re building and what we could do that would be fundamentally quick wins.
And Uzmun said “Loom wasn’t built in six months, and development takes time.”
And I think that one of the things I said to him immediately was that I really don’t like that thinking.
This is what I encourage you to think about when it comes to assumptions that people make in general, about how long it should take, how long something should take, or how hard something is.
The Questions To Ask
Cliches are based on some element of truth, but that doesn’t make them accurate, right?
It just makes them a proverb that people like to spell, and you should be in the habit of questioning everything. So when someone say, well, you know, development takes time, the answer or the question should be –
Why should it take time? Why can’t it be fast? Why can’t you involve, for example, mission parameters, which means that you can look at anything that constitutes a quick win, right?
You can look at anything that ultimately could be coded or built within an hour or less.
What is it that you can identify like that? Why not brainstorm all of the potential features and then look at the things that, from the first look, up immediately seem the easiest to develop from the first lookup.
This being a feature set that you think would add value to the product anyway, why not look at things that way?
Why not look for the quick win?
And why not just ruthlessly focus on elements like this?
And this is what I was trying to communicate that it doesn’t need to take time. I said, when is it going to be ready? He said the 28 November, which is in 20 days from now, three weeks. And I said to him, Why can’t it be the 15th?
He then DM me and said, this deadline is not realistic. And again, I said, Why not? Why can’t we do more in less time? Why not just find the way? Why not just find the way?
Why not just entertain the idea that you know anything is possible?
So, therefore, what can I do? I think that we as people almost all of the time, get trapped in the dogma of others and that dogma doesn’t allow us to progress, and we end up believing what other people have said about how something should be, how long something should take, what you’re meant to do.
And again, you should just respond with why?
Why should it take that long?
Why can’t I do it this way?
Why can’t I be successful with this approach?
And the best way to find something else to find something out with is ultimately your own experience more than anyone else’s. I tried that, and it didn’t work.
I’ve done that, and it didn’t work. You could do that. But this is what’s going to happen, and this is going to be the prediction.
Like why? Why do you need to listen to the experiences of others? They’re not you, and they don’t have your wares, tactics, strategies, insights, memorability, flexibility, skill, speed.
It’s really interesting when you get into that habit of having the question in mind about how to get things done more effectively, how to produce more in less time and using less effort.
How can I produce more? How can I produce a fantastic result in less time with less effort? What do I need to improve to make that happen? How can I get from A to Z, not B, and less time?
What do I need to do? What tools can I use as part of my toolset? What do I need to find? What do I need to figure out?
I think that when you begin to answer all of these questions, it’s exciting what’s possible to come out on the other side.
It’s really interesting to understand that. Well, actually, you know what?
There is an opportunity here, and it’s really just a case of asking all of those questions and then figuring out some unique and out-of-the-ordinary answers.
And the out of the ordinary can become the ordinary if you just keep asking yourself all of those questions, and although no longer be a case of this is the way it’s meant to be because this is the way it’s been done.
Therefore this should be the expected outcome.
This, again, is the dogma of other people’s thinking about the limitations of other people’s experiences, and often it’s not even other people’s experiences.
It’s second-hand Proverbs passed down. It’s not a unique and original perspective based upon a personal experience someone’s had, and often it’s a singular experience. It’s a singular experience.
What happens within the world of business is that people either read something that someone else has said and then repeat it, and they’ve got the ability to repeat it to a bigger platform because they built up an audience or they try one thing in one way.
Once it doesn’t work, they talk and preach as if they know everything about that subject.
It’s like going on a date once it’s not going well and then assuming the opposite sex or the chance of love or romance is dead gone forever.
When you think of it in those terms, it’s such a ridiculous thing to say, this is the way that people think when it comes to smashing expectations, and norms are all based upon myth, really in a way.
So I really want you to invite, encourage yourself to have a question in mind and make the extraordinary the ordinary by simply asking yourself that question –
Why can’t I do it this way?
Key Takeaways
- People make general assumptions on expectations. For example the length a project can take.
- Question the norms placed on expectations.
- If you know what the norm is you will always aim for it but why not challenge it?
- Look for a quick win and brainstorm the possibilities beyond assumptions
- Ask yourself why can’t it be done this way?