đ Product OS, Robotaxi & weather challenge, Reputational cue ball, Risk & uncertainty, Binder clips
Horse & rise of empires, DOGE, el_urbanista, Animal sounds and Beautiful Swiss passport
Hello, this is post #203.
The IPL season is here, and a lot seems to be changing. For me, the biggest shift is the massive logos plastered on every playerâs jerseyâthey seem to grow larger every year.
On the viewing side, Hotstar, once the gold standard for live cricket streaming (even during high-stakes matches watched by millions), now seems to be struggling to keep up. Itâs strange, isnât it? Just a year ago, it offered one of the best app experiences in this space globally, and now it already feels like a shadow of its former self.
On a different note, Iâm planning a trip to Singapore next month and would love some offbeat activity recommendations. Weâll be traveling with kids, so there are some limits to what we can do, but itâd be great to discover things beyond the usual tourist trail. If youâve got any suggestions, do share!
Hereâs a quick outline for todayâs post.
I love Garima Mamgainâs blurbs in her weekly newsletter, and this time, Iâm shamelessly borrowing one of hers to ask for a little something from you.
If you haven't yet subscribed, liked, or commented, hereâs your cue to be generous with digital appreciation. Those small actions don't just feed the algorithms; they feed this writer's motivation to deliver valuable insights straight to your inbox weekly.
And with that out of the way, letâs get to our main features.
𧏠Product OS Design Tips and Principles
John Cutler shares 36 tips & principles that can help shape the âoperating systemâ of a company. Think of these as the foundation blocks, interaction mechanisms, and guardrails that foster a strong, unique product culture.
There are some real gems in there. Iâm picking a few that stood out to me:
Notice how these ideas extend far beyond product organizationsâthey apply to culture building at large. Thatâs the beauty of writing about problem-solving at a fundamental level: the insights naturally apply to a wider scope without forcing the connection.
I highly recommend this post to anyone involved in org and culture building. It reveals many common yet often overlooked challenges that are either ignored or met with subpar solutions.
đ Robotaxi & the Weather Challenges
Today, you can hail a robotaxi in San Francisco or Los Angeles or Las Vegas, but not in New York or Toronto or London.
There are several reasons why this is so, but the principal one is weather. In the American sunbelt, it only rains occasionally, and it never snows. Conversely, elsewhere in the United States and in much of the world, winter weather poses challenging road conditions for months at a time.
Surprising, right? Thatâs exactly how I felt reading the opening of Andrew Millerâs âAutomated driving in winter conditions.â Iâm no automobile nerd, but the idea that something as unpredictable as weather could be a major roadblock to deploying robo-taxis was worth exploring.
The post does a great job of explaining how ADS (Automated Driving Systems) work in simple terms.
As Miller puts it: âThe winter-driving problem, like so many technical challenges, is daunting only at first glance. Upon inspection, it disaggregates into smaller, more tractable problems: ones where we know what we need to solve them.â
Check out the essay to dive into the smaller pieces of this puzzle. Itâs an insightful and fascinating read.
(via Links in Progress)
đą The Reputational Cue Ball
Shane Parrish uses the analogy of the reputational cue ball to explain why integrity isnât just the right thing to doâitâs a strategic advantage that shapes the game you get to play.
Think of a master player in billiards, chess, or Go. Every move seems small, almost insignificant, until their full strategy unfolds, locking in victory. Thereâs no turning backâthe game is in their hands.
Shane argues that each decision sets up the next one, strengthening your position over time. But since the payoff isnât immediately obvious, most people go for flashy shortcuts, leading to mediocre results.
Once you see this parallel, itâs easy to apply it to integrityâand anything built for the long run.
Every promise kept, difficult truth spoken, or principle maintained under pressure places your reputational cue ball in increasingly advantageous positions. Small acts of integrity compound into something powerful: a network of opportunities that appear precisely because youâve demonstrated trustworthiness when it mattered.
â ď¸ Risk & Uncertainty
In âDon't wait until it's obvious,â Vaughn Tan warns that most strategic mistakes don't come from bad planningâthey come from misdiagnosing the types of unknowns your strategy is designed to handle. The real danger? The consequences of misdiagnosis often remain hiddenâuntil itâs too late.
The core of the piece highlights the difference between two fundamentally distinct types of unknowns: risk and uncertainty. Hereâs how he describes them:
(The quick summary: Risk is when you know all the possible actions you could take, all the outcomes that might result, and the precise and accurate probability connecting actions with outcomes. Uncertainty is when you donât know all possible actions, outcomes, and probabilities connecting actions with outcomes.)
With risk, you know almost everything about what you donât know; with uncertainty, you know much, much less. Risk and uncertainty are not the same thing, and you set yourself up for failure if you mistake one for the other.
Iâd never thought about risk and uncertainty in these terms before. Vaughn also shares three reasons why itâs only obvious when itâs too late. A solid brain snackâworth a read and parking it for your next thinking session.
đ´ The Horse & Rise of Empires
In âââModernity viewed from the other end.â Venkatesh Rao shares some interesting snippets & observations from âRaiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empiresâ by David Chaffetz.
The silk road was really the horse road. Silk bolts were more a kind of currency than a trade item. Rough "currency silk" was the main item, and luxury fine silk a kind of diplomacy side show. The vast bulk of economic value transfer was in the form of horses, and largely within Asia (since both China and India imported vast numbers of horses, which for different ecology reasons don't breed well in either place). The European luxury goods trade was almost an epiphenomenon.
The Kumbh mela apparently began as a highly cosmopolitan and secular horse trading festival. The Pushkar festival is today more known for camels, but also was historically a horse trading festival. A lot of Central Asian politics was driven by competition to control the horse trade to India. The Mughals declined once they lost Afghanistan primarily because they couldn't control the horse economy.
Those are some bold claims by modern knowledge standards, bound to grab your attention. Iâm not knowledgeable enough to judge them, but the idea that something as overlooked as a horse could have played a key role in shaping our history doesnât seem far-fetched. After all, our ancestors and civilizations evolved around resources that fueled survival, trade, and expansion.
Venkatesh Rao admits that the book completely reshaped his understanding of history, especially Asian history. Iâm taking his word for it and adding this one to my bookshelf for the near future.
đď¸ The Binder Clip: An Appreciation
How many ways have you used a binder clip? That is, besides holding a bunch of papers together?
Iâve used it to hang art, create a tiny photo stand, andâmost creativelyâas a fidget toy.
But Paul Lukas knows way more. He doesnât just use binder clips; he celebrates them. In his Inconspicuous Consumption newsletter, he writes a full appreciation post on this humble yet versatile item.
Itâs a fun read covering the clipâs history, some quirky ads from its early marketing days (yes, they actually had to advertise binder clipsâthey didnât just become office staples overnight), and loads of trivia and gems like this:
I couldnât find a binder clip emoji, so I had to settle for the closest match. đď¸ Not quite right, is it? I think itâs time we petition for a proper emoji for this magical little tool. What do you say?
âď¸ DOGE is Four Letters
Go Like Hell Machine writes a series of posts titled âWork is Four Letters,â in which he interviews people about their work â how they got started doing it, why they do it, what matters about it, what theyâve learned from it, etc.
I love formats that reveal the lesser-known, human side of people. They help us see them beyond their titles.
The blog recently launched a series called DOGE is Four Letters. Same concept, but with a twistâit focuses on federal employees and contractors (whether still employed, on administrative leave, fired, or in litigation) sharing about their work, why they did it, and what it means for them and the rest of us.
These are quick reads, but theyâll make you rethink and appreciate the often-overlooked folks keeping the system afloat.
(via Storythings)
⨠Everything else
How do animals sound across languages? Interesting question, right? You can always trust Pudding to dive deep into peculiar curiosities and come back with a fantastic answer. I wonât spoil itâthis oneâs best experienced firsthand. Check out the interactive piece and enjoy the ride!
Check out el_urbanista for some stunning satellite shots of modern junglesâour towns and cities. Some are beautifully designed with perfect symmetry, while others are charmingly chaotic. The aerial views are an absolute treat to watch. (via Dense Discovery)
Iâll leave you with the newly designed Swiss Passport. The level of detail in it is incredible. Itâs inspiring to see people adding creativity to something so functional. Theyâre not just telling stories; theyâre doing it with style. (via Sidebar.io)
ICYMIâŚ
Last weekâs post really struck a chord with readers; we hit our highest-ever reader count. If youâre one of the few who havenât checked it out yet, hereâs a quick link. Donât miss this one!
That's all for this week, folks!
I hope I've earned the privilege of your time.
If you liked this post, please hit the â¤ď¸ below and leave a comment to tell me more. Forward it to a friend who will find it useful, there is no better way to make this world more curious!
Another great share, Pritesh. I just read and marvelled at Vaughn Tan's article - I never considered the difference between risk and uncertainty. I will now.