I often think about what draws me to publishing things online. An important part of it is because I find writing to be the most powerful communication tool and publishing online is a means to practicing it.

Another important part, that I often overlook, is the fact that through writing you can help others learn something that might have a net positive effect on their life.

We are an amalgamation of all the experiences that we have had, and given that everybody’s experience is different, I’d posit that we can learn unexpectedly valuable things from anybody. Even when we assume that everybody knows about something, we might be have a different perspective on the same topic, which might be helpful to somebody. I often feel like all product management methodologies say essentially the same thing but, the simple fact of framing things in different ways helps more people find a process that works for them. And if we do a bigger effort of sharing these things (even or specially the obvious things) everybody benefits.

I wonder about all the books that had a significant impact on my life. How would my life be different if I hadn’t come across those books? How many lives those books must have affected? This example’s book could be replaced by a movie, a blog article or even a person. I learned something because somebody went out of their way to share it. What is keeping me from doing more of the same.

——

Some weeks ago, I saw Wilson Miner’s talk which sparked these thoughts. Today I saw Josh Radnor’s talk and it reminded me of this again so I decided to write about it. Some quotes below.

Steal this talk – Wilson Miner

I’ve been really lucky to have worked with a lot of amazing people throughout the years and I learned so much from them.

Here we are together in this room, 300 talented creative people. Very few of us in this room will ever get a chance to work together. Most of us never will. Think of how many places you’ve worked in your career so far. How many places you will work in your lifetime. How many chances will you have to learn, share and grow like that? To elevate your game, to inspire, to collaborate?

Why do we limit that to the people we work with? Why aren’t we putting more work out there, sharing with each other, learning from each other?

What would you learn from each other if you had the chance to work together? What would you share with each other if you knew you could trust them? What if you did it anyway?

Fame’s lesson plan – Joshn Radnor

We are sort of all visible nowadays. What are we putting out there? What are we emitting from our control towers and what effect are we having on people?

Our behaviour is contagious. We are pourous, highly susceptible creatures whose words and actions are affecting each other. We are at every moment taking cues from each other regarding who and how to be. Every word, action, tweet, Facebook post is a contribution to the collective behaviour.

We are wildly underestimating the impact we have on each other. This presents us the opportunity to be contagiously good.