Endless 6
Bran Bast
Now that multiple waves of this fascinating instrument are starting to show up in the marketplace I thought it deserved its own thread, which will make it easier for the folks who make it to respond to community questions, comments and good wishes.
I am happy to get one too from the last batch. Seeing how the module and the design, the website, manual etc come which such a good vibe makes me even more happy !
I am sure there will be more interesting modules in the future.
I am one of the fortunate ones to receive one already. It really is one of my more accessible modules. You can feed anything into it and it will come out sounding epic. Everything about it just makes sense. I never needed to reach for a manual and I doubt you will either. Certain sounds definitely shine. For example I think short piano samples especially work well with it. Vocals are also really fun to work with as well. Though you can feed longer sounds into it, the fun for me at least, is short decay/sustain samples and letting the endless processor do the work from there. I am very tempted to make a small little portable palette around mine and just go around sampling things and feeding it to the endless processor.
Trigger warning: The loop I used to create this audio was from an air raid siren recorded in Kyiv. The audio is heavily processed, and I think you would be hard-pressed to identify the source, but I wanted to make people aware.
To fly for several days and nights, reaching a theoretically endless flight potential, Solar Impulse relied on batteries that stored the energy collected during the day and used it to power its engines during the night.
Within this framework, daily routines are often 1x work or even 0.5x work. Steady routines are comfortable but add no new information, and contain no risk, and no quantity of them will add up to 10x work.
Pivotal moments often happen when you inject more risk, new information, or create upside in an otherwise stable situation. This is why people talk about a sequence of key events precipitated by changing new jobs, meeting a new mentor, launching products, moving across the country, etc. These are moments of great change, and thus, tremendous amounts of new information. Start new projects and make big moves. Raise your hand to volunteer for work with high variance outcomes.
The way I interpret this, in the context of 10x work, is that you want to be pushing in the direction of experience, learnings, professional networking, etc that align with becoming #1 at something, or top 25% of multiple things.
Do androids dream of executing routines?
We are stuck in a world of routines: Wake up, answer email, go to a meeting, then another meeting, check off an item from a todo list, and repeat. The \u201Chustle culture\u201D of the internet tell us to add even more to the routine: Grind more hours, wake up at 5am and do yoga, remember to meditate, work out an hour a day, and so on. There\u2019s endless tips on what successful CEOs do with their mornings, making us feel bad for not executing core loops with machine-like efficiency.
You\u2019ll get none of these ideas here. This is the anti-routine essay, in which I refute the paradigm of fitter, happier, more productive routines as the secret to success. Our careers are defined by the highest moments of its biggest upside swings. The question is how to create the most opportunities at achieving that, not how to execute perfect little habits. That is: Reject the core loop, the checklists, and all the email. Embrace serendipity!
10x work
Imagine the thousands of tasks you did in the past year and sort them by impact. How many of them actually moved the needle? I\u2019m certain this list of tasks would sort themselves into a power law where a tiny number of high upside tasks drove the most impact. These are what I\u2019ll call \u201C10x work\u201D \u2014 these are key tasks where your doing them well/poorly really matters, and the result might define your professional output for an entire year (or more).
10x work is weird and often the opposite of routine. 10x work seems to come up randomly, often hang on a few quick and important decisions, unfold in a few days or weeks, and the results can be huge (or catastrophic). Often there\u2019s no undo button. A deal might fall apart and never recover. A product launch might cause usage to explode, when the right punchline in the launch video is crafted. 100 lines of brilliantly written code might be the difference between state of the art versus rapid obsolescence.
The difference between a grinder and a lazy person is only 3x \u2014 a grinder might work 100 hours/week versus a mere 30 hours for an oaf. Yet we routinely see people who are 100x or 1000x more productive than others. How?
People are often focused on the defensive practices to free up more time \u2014 canceling 1:1s, blocking off time, \u201Cno meeting Thursdays.\u201D These are necessary but not sufficient. The question is, how do you decide what to prioritize in this free time? How do you pick tasks that will have true upside, not just defend our calendars better?
The most conscientious among us are great at setting goals, keeping track of progress, and crossing off items on a checklist. And that\u2019s great, but often this just creates stronger adherence to a routine. I ask, how do you best decide what\u2019s on the list? How do you ignore the >50% of tasks that don\u2019t actually matter?
Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 of course I\u2019m all for removing the long and unproductive tail of the power law. You should learn to say no to more stuff, cancel the bottom 20% of your meetings, crush your checklists, and answer emails in windows. Throw in some meditation too. I\u2019m just arguing, that\u2019s not enough!
Breaking routine
The problem with 10x work is that it\u2019s often unclear it\u2019s happening until it happens. You often don\u2019t know that a moment is important until you connect the lines after the fact, because it might be a chance idea that spawns a new project that then reinvents the company. It\u2019s why we often read about accidental inventions, or huge technology waves that start as hobbies. However, I\u2019m convinced that you can create an environment where 10x work is more likely to come up. That\u2019s because at its core, 10x work thrives on agency, serendipity, and new information:
10x work happens at the frontier of knowledge, away from the routine. It\u2019s where no one knows anything. In my industry, in tech, the technology frontier often has hype, excitement, and opportunity, but not enough people to do the work. The status hierarchy hasn\u2019t been set, nothing\u2019s been written down, and it\u2019s unclear to anyone what will work. As a result, it\u2019s an equalizing force. Today, this is web3, VR, gaming, AI apps, deep tech, longevity, etc, but tomorrow it will be something else.
Execute based on your own plan and not in reaction to others. Agency and ownership rule the day, and this is why \u201CSend email to X\u201D is stronger than \u201CSend reply to Y\u201D \u2014 the best work does not happen in reaction to what others do. Just build your own plan based on your goals and the information you have at hand, and don\u2019t be afraid to update it as you get market feedback. In the same way, it\u2019s important not to get caught into the loop of simply doing work that is assigned to you, answering emails that are waiting in your inbox, etc. Reactive loops are easy, but lead to decay.
Serendipity loves randomness and hates routine. This is why I\u2019m so positive on sending outbound emails to interesting people, hosting dinners and events that bring together smart folks, and publishing any and all thoughts online. There\u2019s often followup, and opportunities present themselves randomly. I\u2019m also pro reading random books on a topic, or googling/wikipedia\u2019ing/chatGPTing for hours to dig into things \u2014 sometimes semi-random exploration leads to the best ideas. (On the other hand, I\u2019m usually negative on low-signal socializing at conferences and random coffee 1:1s that don\u2019t move things forward. These are fun but are too low yield)
Find leverage. Create work assets that compound over time so that it spreads even when you sleep. Maybe this is a project you\u2019ve put out into the world, and customers can find it and share it. Or it\u2019s a series of videos or essays that grow in audience over time, and each new bit content builds upon the last. Or build a decentralized conference, as we\u2019ve recently done with \u201CTech Week\u201D that causes a spontaneous community to form, with scale and energy. This type of work grows non-linearly, creating surface area and increasing serendipity. This is why I\u2019ve become a fan of \u201Cbuilding in public\u201D rather than creating a ton of decks/memos/etc but then hoarding them for internal/private use online. This is also why I\u2019m a fan of bringing networks together with events, content, and investment.
Sign up for the \u201Ctests of skill.\u201D You can learn all that you want, network with great people, and never know if you have what it takes. Sign up for the projects that can have a real chance of success or failure, and where you can be responsible for the outcome. Within bigger companies, these are the new/unproven projects, or just join a startup. These are the big pivotal moves that force you to learn as fast as possible.
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