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FASTer - Issue #53

FASTer - Issue #53
By Faizan Siddiqi • Issue #53 • View online
In air navigation, the 1 in 60 rule is a rule of thumb which states
that if a pilot has travelled sixty miles then an error in track of one mile is approximately a 1° error in heading, and proportionately more for larger errors.
The 1 in 60 rule enables pilots to regularly check and correct their heading. Pilots who fail to do so often or accurately enough soon find themselves a long way from their intended destination, with potentially disastrous consequences.  The best pilots are those who have the humility to admit that good as they might be, they aren’t perfect and hence need to constantly check and re-check that that they are still on track. Hence every life and every business needs to regularly apply the 1 in 60 rule…and yet all too often we run on autopilot, failing to recognize or admit that we are prone to drifting off track.
How do You do it? Build your self a little test.
You grab yourself some snack or comfort food.
Music or find the perfect spot that makes you mellow
You open your computer(ideally)
Proceed to ask some questions:
  • What would I still do even if I knew failure was eminent?
  • What am I doing right now because others expect me to do it?
  • How do I feel about success?
  • What would I not do if I knew for sure it would fail?
  • How happy am I?
  • What changes my happiness?
  • Do I feel I accomplished all the goals you set out last week?
  • If I missed some thing, do I think it was intentional due to lack of trying or not?
You cant fix what you can measure, do this weekly and organize the answers. So you build traceability. It turns out it’s a lot harder to get lost when you’re constantly looking at the map. Even harder to not course correct when you have a guide.
Whilst this is ongoing a key thing to understand is, everyone needs a decent co-pilot, someone we trust who knows where we are trying to get to and calls us out and corrects us when they see us drifting off track.  This is not a random person, nor should be a random of selection on your part.
Ideally a mentor who has permission to speak truth into our lives, to challenge, to correct to advise to share to alert.
Flying solo in commercial aviation as in real life is tough, make sure you prepare before you fly high

1 in 60 rule.
1 in 60 rule.
Outcomes
Understanding Game theory is a very real need to enhance outcomes and understanding society around us. It plays out in every sphere of life - wars, politics, business, our personal relations… everywhere. It effects our outcomes in more ways than we can imagine every time we are up against a competitor.
To better understand, we will discuss the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’. But in this case, there’s an assumption. The assumption here is that the person you are fighting is also smart and is being rational. What makes every zero-sum game far more complicated is that the person you are against isn’t necessarily being rational. Then, it becomes infinitely more difficult to predict what the other side might do.
What Is the Prisoner’s Dilemma?
The prisoner’s dilemma is a paradox in decision analysis in which two individuals acting in their own self-interests do not produce the optimal outcome.
TL;DR
  • A prisoner’s dilemma is a situation where individual decision-makers always have an incentive to choose in a way that creates a less than optimal outcome for the individuals as a group.
  • The prisoner’s dilemmas occur in many aspects of the economy.
  • People have developed many methods of overcoming prisoner’s dilemmas to choose better collective results despite apparently unfavorable individual incentives.
Understanding the Prisoner’s Dilemma
The typical prisoner’s dilemma is set up in such a way that both parties choose to protect themselves at the expense of the other participant. As a result, both participants find themselves in a worse state than if they had cooperated with each other in the decision-making process. The prisoner’s dilemma is one of the most well-known concepts in modern game theory.
The prisoner’s dilemma presents a situation where two parties, separated and unable to communicate, must each choose between co-operating with the other or not. The highest reward for each party occurs when both parties choose to co-operate.
The classic prisoner’s dilemma goes like this:
  • Two members of a gang of bank robbers, Dave and Henry, have been arrested and are being interrogated in separate rooms.
  • The authorities have no other witnesses, and can only prove the case against them if they can convince at least one of the robbers to betray his accomplice and testify to the crime.
  • Each bank robber is faced with the choice to cooperate with his accomplice and remain silent or to defect from the gang and testify for the prosecution.
  • If they both co-operate and remain silent, then the authorities will only be able to convict them on a lesser charge resulting in one year in jail for each (1 year for Dave + 1 year for Henry = 2 years total jail time).
  • If one testifies and the other does not, then the one who testifies will go free and the other will get five years (0 years for the one who defects + 5 for the one convicted = 5 years total).
  • However, if both testify against the other, each will get two years in jail for being partly responsible for the robbery (2 years for Dave + 2 years for Henry = 4 years total jail time).
In this case, each robber always has an incentive to defect, regardless of the choice the other makes. From Dave’s point of view, if Henry remains silent, then Dave can either co-operate with Henry and do a year in jail, or defect and go free. Obviously, he would be better off betraying Henry and the rest of the gang in this case. On the other hand, if Henry defects and testifies against Dave, then Dave’s choice becomes either to remain silent and do five years or to talk and do two years in jail. Again, obviously, he would prefer to do the two years over five.
In both cases, whether Henry cooperates with Dave or defects to the prosecution, Dave will be better off if he himself defects and testifies. Now, since Henry faces the exact same set of choices he also will always be better off defecting as well.
The paradox of the prisoner’s dilemma is this: both robbers can minimize the total jail time that the two of them will do only if they both co-operate and stay silent (2 years total), but the incentives that they each face separately will always drive them each to defect and end up doing the maximum total jail time between the two of them of 4 years total.
The Prisoner's Dilemma
The Prisoner's Dilemma
One New Thing (That I Learnt today)
Chupa Chups logo art work was designed by Salvador Dali! Mind blown.
The Chupa Chups logo was designed in 1969 by the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Its first marketing campaign was the logo with the slogan “Es redondo y dura mucho, Chupa Chups”, which translates from Spanish as “It’s round and long-lasting”. Later, celebrities like Madonna were hired to advertise the product.
In 1969, Dali was approached to design a new Chupa Chups logo, and the result became as instantly recognisable as his melting clocks. Dali incorporated the Chupa Chups name into a brightly coloured daisy shape. Always keenly aware of branding, Dali suggested that the logo be placed on top of the lolly instead of the side so that it could always be seen intact.
BBC Modern Masters 4of4 - SALVADOR DALI
BBC Modern Masters 4of4 - SALVADOR DALI
Boring stuff that Scales
Creating a budget-friendly, low-stress rotating “dinner” series to nurture discussions potentially leading to friendships and a better world view. This idea was introduced to me by a dear friend. He would invite 5 people to a dinner, people he know from all walks of life, the idea would be for an exchange of thoughts, business acumen, growth hacks etc to be traded without fear or retribution of any kind:)
One rule. The sessions governed under the Chatham House Rule.
When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.
Any group of individuals in any sector can use the Rule as a pre-agreed guide for running an event, particularly when issues of a sensitive nature are to be discussed.
In a polarized world, used effectively, the Chatham House Rule helps to bring people together, break down barriers, generate ideas and agree solutions.
A dinner may be a boring thing, a dinner club worse, but when setup with this in mind it allows for some incredibly powerful discourse and helps every one be a better version of them selves if they choose to learn and grow.
Here is the dinner protocol. Some thing inexpensive, every one helps serve, clear up and participate. First dinner the host invites 5 people. Including them selves its 6 people. The dinner host being the only constant, the invites people to vote, who would they like to see next week, only 1 of the original 5 can stay based on who had the highest votes. That person then invites 4 new people to next weeks dinner and hosts the actual dinner. Making the total guests 6, the original host(who becomes the patron) and who runs the same process, the top candidate survives and then they in turn invite 4 more people and host a dinner the following week.
This can keep on going on and on, boring at its core, but the initiator/original host cant be booted off, they can continue to run this as long as they like and people participate, the win, why? Because they get to see interesting people weekly by not trying hard enough besides the first event they host. This is the best boring hack ever.
I have been running this for years, not weekly but as time allows, after a few years some of the original folks came back to the dinners, that was time to start anew and meet people from different walks of life. It has been the best boring thing Ive done for my personal development.
I have met a trapeze artist, a few con artists, some one who breeds monkeys, a nun, many religious community leaders, a Pakistani rapper before he was famous, a gentleman that invented a low flow gas valve to stop cylinders from blowing up, a teacher that reads books with vivid imagery for blind children and tons more.
If you do one thing this year, let it be this. You will learn and grow faster than social coffees with the same people you have known for years. Trust me on this.
What you should be watching
Everyone wants to be productive. Hustle culture screams that you should never stop working. Corporate work is no different. But all that glitters isn’t gold. Why productivity advice is ruining your life…
Why productivity advice is ruining your life
Why productivity advice is ruining your life
Monetize your time (by thinking in threes)
Monetize your time by productizing your expertise and making it billable. If you are going to help a new brand, service, company or others to launch a product or service, there are three key phases to it that you must be aware so that you can make your work chargeable appropriately.
They may be clear in your mind, but they need to be listed and choreographed on paper so that others understand the hard work that goes into creating some thing new and the process behind it.
Here is a simple attempt to making your time monetizable especially when you struggle with asking people for money. Clearly if you are being asked for help, you have a skill. Let us try and unlock it based on AJs model.
Phase 1 - Market Research
For this stage you would research a handful of market opportunities; some of which you know already know exist. You would speak to peers to explore other opportunities dive into each market to understand the economics and opportunity in depth.
You should provide at least 3 opportunities with recommendations which will include the following for each:
* SWOT analysis
* Key trend data and observations
* Key marketing/sales channels and target ROAS
* COGS estimates and margin analysis
* Ideal SKU count for launch
* Market size, geography, maturity and competitors
* Trends
* Sourcing overview
* Micro opportunities - key USPs to focus on for each product/market
* Any other complexities, recommendations and observations
Phase 2 - Idea to Brand Testing
Based on your findings from Phase 1 you would allow for your client to choose a favorite market opportunity and develop a virtual product, likely using designers, retouchers, brand teams or UI/UX folks. You would also develop the iteration to the minimal level required to gain meaningful data:
* Brand with logo, brand guidelines and story (this would be built to the minimal level required to test - can be fully developed later based on customer feedback)
* Website/landing page, social media and email automations/collection
* Customer avatar/Personas
* COGS analysis
* Product tech packs
* Sourcing the product and speaking to factories for physical products or identifying resources for logical or digital products
Phase 3 - Market Product Fit - The test of small numbers
At this stage you should test the virtual product and brand to run ads to test the market and get customer feedback. Ideally have $2,000 to $5,000 (not included in fee) in ad spend. Make your customer aware that your fee is not tied to ad spend or the ad-spend number is not linked to the fee.
Following testing you should provide:
* Key learnings and suggestions for the final product
* Opportunities spotted from customer feedback
* Marketing launch plan with marketing strategy recommendations
* 12 month post-launch budget/P&L
Be honest with you customers, set expectations on pricing and value early. Show them the value you will provide in three phases particular to their ask, it will only get easier to monetize your time if you have this or a similar model to break down your work, before you get started. If all the client has as a guide, is the end result document/ppt etc that they perceive to have all the answers, without an iota of understanding the process, they will never value your work the way it ought to be valued.
Made in Pakistan
The Reko Diq mine is located near Reko Diq town in Chagai District, Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world located in the south west part of Pakistan in Balochistan province. Reko Diq represents one of the largest copper and gold reserves in the world having estimated reserves of 5.9 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.41% copper and gold reserves amounting to 41.5 million oz. Marred by controversy the extraction my finally begin. So whats in it for you? If you get into the business of picks and shovels before the extractions start you could set your self to be aligned with one the biggest industrial projects in the country. 6 Years to production. That gives you to get your outcomes aligned to the project, if you start now.
How to do Frontier Exploration…the discovery story of Reko Diq
It is the early 1990s. Alan Moore is a young geologist from Australia, working for BHP at the time. He heads to Pakistan looking for copper deposits in the remote, inhospitable southwestern part of the country, an area called the Chagai Hills. Along the way, he meets Saad Husain - a local Pakistani who teams up with Alan and becomes his ever-present project manager.
This is their story and how their work led to the discovery of the Reko Diq deposit. However, it is not your typical discovery story. It is much more than that.
Let’s explore. The best podcast you will ever hear on the subject here
One Last thing
Fire your worst/most annoying customers. You will go further. You do not need those who give you agony. Understand the difference between good and bad customers.
Did you enjoy this issue?
Faizan Siddiqi

I have been fortunate to have mentored founders, established CEO's & students for about a decade, across the world. Every interaction has been an enriching experience for me personally. What I've observed , every one wants to do things FASTer. Be successful faster, be richer faster, do more faster, get to the end state faster. To grow FASTer you must learn to rely on small data, small acts & pick up on small nuances. Most people need a little push, contextually aware advice, directionality and a candid forum to learn from mistakes, perhaps their own but ideally from the mistake of others. This is an attempt to provide a safe space to answer the questions you don't ask in public and providing Go To Market Snippets on every day things, so you can truly Transform to your desired end-state, FASTer.

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