Rolex, Black Box Thinking, And More
5 interesting ideas I learned in June
Hello hello,
First off, a very warm welcome to the 200+ curious souls who joined Learning Machine this week so they can get smarter and blow their in-laws’ minds with some insane chai-time anecdotes.
Every first week of the month, we do a quick roundup of 5 intriguing ideas in 5 minutes, with topics that are even more diverse than the fake Diversity & Inclusion photos used by corporates. Readers can dive deeper by clicking on the source links.
Okay, enough with the small talk, let’s dive right in:
The History of Rolex: Nothing exemplifies luxury better than Rolex. These days, every brand tries to use the word ‘luxury’ in their communication, even if they sell products that cost lesser than a pack of peanuts. Given the bastardization of the word, it’s important to remember that a luxury brand, in it’s truest sense, espouses 3 core ideas: an obsession with quality & craftsmanship, exclusivity & scarcity, and the ability to evoke a certain status. This article shows just how Rolex has spent over a century cultivating these values, to the point where they purposely keep production slow so that the scarcity raises the perceived value of its products. The brand has managed to invert the market dynamic by making the customer pitch to the brand and justify why they are worthy of buying one, rather than the brand running behind customers and catering to their every whim. That, more than anything, is the ultimate litmus test for anybody selling luxury.
Reading physical books: Readers of Learning Machine are well aware of my obsession with books. If you’ve understood the importance of developing a habit but haven’t managed to get it going, I’d highly recommended this podcast by Cal Newport. If you’re struggling, just remember- the act of reading isn’t natural. Treat it like interval training, and slowly ladder up till you start getting comfortable with reading everyday. One of the fascinating ideas in this conversation was about the value of reading books in their physical form (or the Kindle versions)- because they demand a very different kind of cognitive effort that reading on the phone or tablet just doesn’t. Digital reading makes us skim through content and skip a lot of it, which is the very definition of shallow/unfocused reading, but this doesn’t happen when you’re reading a physical copy. No wonder we can all endlessly doomscroll when we’re sick and in bed, but not manage to read a physical book at all!
Reading makes you attractive and also gives you multiple legs Turkic invasions: In the first of this detailed 3-part series, Abhijeet Iyer-Mitra dives into the fascinating reasons behind the failure of various Indian empires to defend successfully against Turkic invasions at the end of the 12th century. I’ve written about this major tunring point in Indian history if you want to read about the decisive battle that changed everything. One big reason that worked against the states was their fatal fascination with horses. Unfortunately, this led to the underdevelopment of the infantry (and the strategy of playing to one’s strengths) and overreliance on horse imports from Central Asia- a really bad proposition when your military fortunes depend on it.
Expectations Debt: Instead of own commentary, I’ll just leave you with a brilliant set of lines from Morgal Housel. “An asset you don’t deserve can quickly become a liability. Maybe your portfolio surged during a bubble, your company hit a monster valuation, or you negotiated a salary that exceeds your ability. It feels great at the time. But reality eventually catches up, and demands repayment in equal proportion to your delusions – plus interest. These debts are easy to ignore because they are often repaid in the form of self-doubt and crushed morale. But they are very real, and when you understand their power you become careful what you wish for.” Reality catches up- never forget those 3 words.
Black Box Thinking: BBT is an idea that is used most popularly in the airline industry. Every flight has a black box that records all the audio communications that happened between the pilot, co-pilot and the aviation authorities. This turns out to be an extremely important data-set which is anayled in detail everytime there’s a plane crash in order to figure out what went wrong, so those errors can be amended. Since these mistakes can result in the tragic loss of human life, the industry’s model of using failure as a learning experience is inspiring, and the learnings that come out of every episode are passed on to the entire industry. Many more industries need to employ this model, especially when errors can result in deaths. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and often these mistakes are hidden (in the healthcare space, for example)- which does tremendous disservice and undermines trust in those institutions.
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