Mohamed Musbah

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on the atlas — 7

highlights — 22

Do not mistake external reasons for internal reasons or mistake luck for capability, as it is important to seek out the real reason for your failure or success.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
“Do not internalize external causes, and do not mistake luck for capability”
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
What is special about these products? First, they are very imaginative. Second, they required patience and time.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
If you don’t bring in methodology, casually using a product will [enable you to] understand that actually, some parts are not right. It might be because we wanted to prove a certain idea or were too tied to a certain concept, hence design mistakes were made. Oftentimes, children can locate these counter-intuitive design elements, so why are our highly educated product managers unable to identify them? Is it because we want to prove a certain concept or are too wedded to a certain dogma?
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
we had encouraged all employees in the company to take the time during their holidays to interact with friends and relatives, see what software they used on their phones, and ask them why they used these.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
Excessively conceptual thinking is actually not conducive to our understanding. Avoiding excessive abstraction is also one way of having an ordinary mind.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
Another shortcut: excessively abstracting things and methods. I feel that methodology is actually not very useful, and oftentimes, can be completely useless. Because you are abstracting a situation, you are propping up your thinking. Going a little off the mark now, can [later] generate very big mistakes.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
Many people say that when they do business, they will go all-in to end the battle in one swoop. I think that there is a big problem with teams that imprudently announce that they will go all in. Sometimes, going all-in can be a kind of laziness. There is nothing wrong if you have thought through something, and know what the strategy should be. But I feel that oftentimes, [the only rationale behind going all-in is] “I don’t want to think anymore, so let’s just take a gamble.”
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
Only if we have an ordinary mind can we strengthen our roots and from then on have the courage and imagination to take on more difficult things.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
found that those with an ordinary mind are more relaxed and observant. They also have a less distorted inner self and have more patience. They regularly do things better. Most of the time, people can exercise good judgment if they are not paranoid or distracted.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
“I’ve interviewed people where it seems like they haven’t necessarily thought about something as much as I would’ve hoped. Or I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve thought about a specific subtopic more than they have. That’s when you realize that you’re a part of the clique that’s supposed to do the thinking about it.”
The future belongs to those who prepare like Dwarkesh Patel | Meridian
“This is something I was thinking about when I was interviewing Patrick. In some sense, when he started Stripe, payments was a super crowded industry. There’s PayPal, there’s obviously Visa, Mastercard. But, in another sense, there’s something strange in terms of domains you think of as crowded and totally competitive. There are usually totally obvious blind spots.
The future belongs to those who prepare like Dwarkesh Patel | Meridian
in Batman Begins 1960s-style full employment and antipoverty programs lead to skyrocketing crime while in The Dark Knight Rises 1980s-style tough-on-crime policies and neoliberal economics lead to a revolt of the economic underclass.
(Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)
Reese, one of Bruce Wayne’s employees goes on TV and threatens to reveal the identity of the Batman, but the Joker calls in and asks him to stop. “I had a vision,” he says. “Of a world without Batman. The mob ground out a little profit and the police tried to shut them down, one block at a time… and it was so… boring. I’ve had a change of heart.” He threatens to blow up a hospital unless someone kills Reese. (He has thus constructed a trolley problem: people must decide whether it’s better to let the 100 die or kill the 1.)
(Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)
Gordon arrests the Joker and takes him to the major crimes unit, only to find the Joker claiming Gordon does not actually control the unit — his people actually working for mob boss Maroni. “Does it depress you, Lieutenant, to know how alone you are?” he asks (a classic principal-agent problem).
(Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)
The film opens with the Joker hiring five men to rob a mob bank: Dopey silences the alarm, Happy shoots him and drills through the vault, Grumpy shoots him and empties the cash into duffel bags, a bus runs him over, Bozo shoots the bus driver. Finally, Bozo pulls off his mask to reveal he’s the Joker. This is a classic pirate game and, just as in the theory, the Joker gets to keep almost all the cash.
(Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)
An ordinary mind’s ability to confront successes and failures also includes the ability to correctly attribute [cause and effect]. Do not mistake external reasons for internal reasons or mistake luck for capability, as it is important to seek out the real reason for your failure or success.
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
I have a four-step method when dealing with mistakes. The first three steps are taken from a book, which says that when you encounter a problem, there are always a few things you need to do. The first step is to really recognize it, [an act which will] make you less vexed, [because] recognition is also a kind of gain. You then can correct the mistake, which is another kind of gain. You can also learn from the underlying causes behind the mistake. The book mentioned these three steps, but after this, I also added one more: forgive it [the mistake]. If you have already accomplished the first thr…
Doing extraordinary things with an ordinary mind: Zhang Yiming's speech for ByteDance's 9th anniversary | KrASIA
Lady Snowblood served as a major inspiration for the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill and its lead character, The Bride.
Lady Snowblood (film) - Wikipedia
Bill: Once upon a time in China, some believe, around the year one double-aught three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road, contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's infinite power contemplates - which is another way of saying "who knows?" - when a Shaolin monk appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he jus…
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) - Quotes - IMDb
Once upon a time in China, some believe, around the year one double-aught three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road, contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's infinite power contemplates - which is another way of saying "who knows?" - when a Shaolin monk appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail…
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) - Quotes - IMDb
Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clot…
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) - Quotes - IMDb