Quotes About Adaptability

tend to map out when I'll work deeply during each week at the beginning of the week, and then refine these decisions, as needed, at the beginning of each day

Your goal is not to stick to a given schedule at all costs; it's instead to maintain, at all times, a thoughtful say in what you're doing with your time going forward—even if these decisions are reworked again and again as the day unfolds.

To join the group of those who can work well with these machines, therefore, requires that you hone your ability to master hard things. And because these technologies change rapidly, this process of mastering hard things never ends: You must be able to do it quickly, again and again.

Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy The ability to quickly master hard things. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed. Let's

I call this approach, in which you fit deep work wherever you can into your schedule, the journalist philosophy. This name is a nod to the fact that journalists, like Walter Isaacson, are trained to shift into a writing mode on a moment's notice, as is required by the deadline-driven nature of their profession.

Tim Ferriss once wrote: "Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don't, you'll never find time for the life-changing big things.

Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan out a whole project in advance," he writes, "they make a methodical series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning critical information from lots of little failures and from small but significant wins" [emphasis mine]. This rapid and frequent feedback, Sims argues, "allows them to find unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.

The trick is,' she said, 'to match your abilities to your stupidities. It's important for boys.

Never say 'never,' my dear. It saves a great deal of embarrassing explanation later.

I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused.

On how important curatorial mobility is: You must move, and you must talk (but not too much), and you definitely must listen. - Francesco Bonami

Work smarter, not harder

Yes, I'm just a developer, so I try to find the simplest possible solutions. ... If you go to a bakery, the bakery isn't playing with five million different tools just because the old flour became too boring after a while. - Adam Bien

Fail: First Attempt At Learning. Always try again. If you can't save a world, save a city. If you can't save a city, save a block. If you can't save a block, save a family. If you can't save a family, save a person. One person and problem at a time.

Why had she feared this, anyway? When she didn't like something, she changed it. pg 454

Accept good advice gracefully--as long as it doesn't interfere with what you intended to do in the first place.

Remember, unplanned work kills your ability to do planned work, so you must always do whatever it takes to eradicate it. Murphy does exist, so you'll always have unplanned work, but it must be handled efficiently.

For the leader, it no longer means directing and controlling, but guiding, enabling, and removing obstacles.

Instead of project teams where developers are reassigned and shuffled around after each release, never receiving feedback on their work, we keep teams intact so they can keep iterating and improving, using those leanings to better achieve their goals.

Murphy does exist, so you'll always have unplanned work, but it must be handled efficiently.

wash our clothes by beating them with our heads.

No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.

I like a bit of mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for everyday.

This was yet another one of those things that school failed to prepare you for: how to deal with the unpredictable behavior of real people in the real world.