Some of the things #14
Where I share some of the things I've been thinking about, learning about, and exploring across work, tech, wellness, and life.
What is the difference between influence and leadership?
Everything I’ve learned about leadership - from formal training, to books, blogs and mentors - has focused almost entirely on the art of influence. Command and control is out. Getting people to follow your lead by tapping into their intrinsic motivation with an inspiring vision is in.
Now try something for me. Close your eyes and think of the word leader. What do you see? Now think of the word influencer. What do you see? Should we change this?
We All Need Better Information
I’ve been getting into alternative investing, which to me means pretty much anything that isn’t a stock, bond, mutual fund, ETF, or real estate. I’ve looked at VC funds, angel investments in startups, and even movies. Pitches come with a minimum investment requirement. Something maybe obvious to others that was not so obvious to me is the minimum investment is almost always flexible. I’ve passed on opportunities before realizing this.
Why am I sharing this? It reminded me of a statistic that gets thrown around diversity, equity and inclusion efforts: Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them.
From an HBR article exploring why this phenomenon exists:
What held them back from applying was not a mistaken perception about themselves, but a mistaken perception about the hiring process.
This is critical, because it suggests that if the HP finding speaks to a larger trend, women don’t need to try and find that elusive quality, “confidence,” they just need better information about how hiring processes really work.
I’ve done a lot of work over the years to get more women into technology because I see it as a great path towards women’s empowerment and financial independence. Investing may be an even better path towards empowerment and lack of information is likely holding women back.
Something to keep in mind if you’re in a similar situation. If you find an opportunity you are interested in but can’t meet the minimum investment, don’t let it stop you from at least trying to open the door to a conversation.
DevOps for Business Operations
In my last update I wrote about a talk I was preparing to give for a DevOps Connect event introducing the concept of DevOps for Business Operations. Very few people actually showed up to my session even though the event organizer said they had over 3,000 people register. I was disappointed, but within 24 hours had someone reach out to me on LinkedIn to see if my company could help them introduce DevOps into their SAP function. I didn’t land them as a client yet, but this goes to show how large the internet is and if you speak about a niche topic enough, you can find other people who are interested in it.
Farcon Reflections
Last weekend I traveled to Boston to attend the first ever user organized Farcaster conference: FarCon. I had a blast and learned a ton and was reminded of Chris Dixon’s famous quote:
What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years
Business people vote with their dollars, and are mostly trying to create near-term financial returns. Engineers vote with their time, and are mostly trying to invent interesting new things. Hobbies are what the smartest people spend their time on when they aren’t constrained by near-term financial goals.
I was just one of about 3 women at the event. The nounish professor wrote a short piece about the brave women of FarCon that pretty much captures exactly how I feel so head over and check it out: https://paragraph.xyz/@nounishprof/genxx
I gave a lightning talk about Farcaster as a Scenius, taking heavy inspiration from hearing Gene Kim talk about it at DevOps Enteprise events in the past. The way I described how I felt about Farcaster seemed to resonate with many others in the room. To build on the energy and capture the moment I created an NFT (my first as a creator!) to represent the scenius. To my surprise, over 30 people have already collected it.
Across the internet
Cool light app by Justin Hunter for anyone trying to develop a writing habit: https://getwritesprint.com
Took this health philosophy quiz which plots where you are on the techno-protein-vegan dogmas. It’s not scientific but it’s fun. Take it and let me know where you land. Completely on brand for me, I landed right in the middle:
A note to my subscribers:
I don’t know what’s going on but a lot more people subscribed in the past week. Where did you all come from? If that’s you, HELLO and WELCOME! I started this substack 6 months ago as an experiment to see if developing a writing a habit would help clarify my thinking and/or provide any other benefits. You can read about my original intentions in my first post here.
I write about twice a month and will be sharing musings, meditations, and links to things I’m finding interesting as I build out my consulting company, raise my kids, and have fun creating and learning in the worlds of crypto, tech, science and wellness.
Thank you for supporting my writing and journey. If you’d like to get in touch you can reply to me here, or find me on twitter and farcaster.
Until next time, keep putting good into the world. —adrienne🌏❤️