đ Team-BHP, Type of insights, Show donât tell, Ideas arenât getting harder to find, vintage stationery ads
Grand masterâs insights, How to build a village, Merchants in motion, White lotus opening and more
Hello, this is post #204.
I finally finished reading âLand of the Seven Riversâ by Sanjeev Sanyal. Itâs a decent read that offers a quick overview of the Indian subcontinentâs vast history. I picked it up to spark my curiosity about history, and Iâm happy with the depth and narrative it delivered. As a follow-up, Iâve added a few books recommended by some of you to my queue.
Lee Kuan Yewâs âFrom Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000â has been sitting on my shelf for a while, but I havenât gotten around to it. Audiobooks have been more convenient lately, so I picked up âLee Kuan Yew: The Grand Masterâs Insights on China, United States, and the Worldâ instead. Itâs a short listen, based on a collection of his speeches and interviews, offering sharp insights into his thinking. Iâm glad I gave it a shot and even more eager to read his other work. Hopefully, Iâll find some time at home soon to finally dive into the physical copy.
Thatâs enough about the books. Letâs have a quick look at whatâre covering in this post:
A lot of goodness on your way. Letâs get to to it now.
đ 11 Types of Insights
What is an insight? Thereâs no standard definition or one-size-fits-all example. Joe Burns offers an interesting perspective:
I prefer to think about insights like a kind of cheese board... or pokémon.
- There are many different varieties.
- Each different type is useful for different things.
- Each type is created through different processes.
- Everyone has a favorite.
He lists 11 types of insights, not to define them rigidly but to provide a useful mental model. His explanations are practical and can help you think about insights more clearlyâhandy for conversations on the topic.
Here are a couple of screenshots from his LinkedIn post (yes, LinkedIn has some surprisingly useful content too!).
I found this in Ed Cottonâs "Provoke - The Insight Issue." Itâs a well-curated collection of useful material on insight generation and building a culture that values it. Ed does a great job of distilling the key takeaways in his brief post.
đ§Œ Show Donât Tell
Action Digestâs âA prototype is worth 100 meetingsâ shares three stories with a common theme: doing beats saying. Itâs not a new message, but the stories are engaging and memorable.
Hereâs one about Chuck Palahniuk, author of the cult classic Fight Club.
âIn six seconds, youâll hate me,â Palahnuik warns those storytellers who seek his advice, âbut in six months, youâll be a better writer.â
âFrom this point forward,â Palahnuik instructs, âat least for the next half year â you may not use âthoughtâ verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.â
He shares some beautiful examples to make his point, but Iâm going against his advice and not showing them here. Visit the post to experience themâyouâll enjoy it.
Finally, hereâs something immediately useful for you.
Ironically, Iâve ignored all the advice from this post while sharing it with you. I thought about it and chose not to show it as is. That would have been a blatant copy!
đ Under the Hood Team-BHP.com
If youâre from India and a car or bike enthusiast, youâve likely come across Team-BHP.com. For everyone else, itâs the go-to destination for all things cars and bikesâa hub where driving enthusiasts converge.
But Team-BHP is more than just an automotive forum. Itâs also a case study in community building. Many marketers and customer experience experts follow it closely, as itâs considered a gold standard for online communities in India. Black Ledgerâs post offers a peek under the hood, revealing how Team-BHP became Indiaâs accidental network effect powerhouse. A couple of things stood out to me:
Their high bar for quality encourages collaboration and holds every participant accountable. This standard has strengthened the communityâs credibility and impactâa powerful lesson in organic, value-driven growth. This observation speaks volume about the same.
And their unique application-only route to membership. A great gatekeeper for all members in or out of the community.
đĄ Ideas arenât Getting Harder to Find
Stuck and out of ideas? Feel like everything worth doing has already been done?
Chances are, youâre not in that boatâgood for you. But if you even slightly agree, Adam Mastroianni has a message: Ideas arenât getting harder to find and anyone who tells you otherwise is a coward and I will fight them.
His essay is perfect for when youâre in the mood for deep thinking.His work blends history, science, logic, and social science, making it a fascinating read. Here are a couple of interesting snippets I gathered for you.
People only discover stuff when they think itâs worth trying, and there have been entire eras of human history where people didnât think it was worth trying. A meme like âideas are getting harder to findâ could drive the desire to discover back into hiding again, fulfilling its own abominable prophecy.
To do science, you donât need to start with the dawn of all human knowledge and then work forward. You start with the current state of knowledge and go from there. Learning the history of science is helpful for shaping your intuitions and giving you perspective, but you donât actually have to read Darwin, for example, to do evolutionary biology.
đȘ How to build a village
I'm excited to explore community and third places as a theme. They have the power to bring out the best in people and make life more fulfilling. The idea of "building a village" fits perfectly here. While it comes with a strong connection of âraising childrenâ, I find the appeal universal. Lila Krishnaâs how it âtakes a villageâ introduced me to this concept, and Rosie Spinks expanded it in âformula for getting more people in your lifeâ Their work highlights how collective care and action can shape stronger, more connected communitiesâadding a sense of shared responsibility to the notion of third places that I've been reflecting on.
Weâre continuing this exploration with Rosieâs recent piece, âHow to build a village.â She curates a rich collection of ideas, drawing from her readers and her own experiences. She also offers a fair warning right at the start:
One thing that is true about most of these recommendations is that they go against the grain of modern life. Doing them may involve some discomfort, or require you to do something that seems a little weird or intrusive at first, or even run the risk of overstepping a social/cultural norm or boundary.
Hereâs one of the ideas from her curationâŠ
Be the person who asks twice. âFor the most part, it took showing up in person regularly. Being proactive when introducing myself and sharing contact/social info. Making time to say yes to other people's invitations and trying to say yes the first time I'm askedâmost people don't ask twice. Be the person who asks twice (or more!)â -Tiffany Cartwright. I absolutely love this advice. Definitely ask more than twice if youâre dealing with new moms/parents of small children.
Check out the post for more such ideas. You never know what works for you.
đïž Vintage Stationery Ads
When was the last time you saw an ad for a pen? A fountain pen? A calculator? Any stationery? Chances are, youâll recall one from two decades ago (Likhte likhte love ho jaaye⊠anyone?).
My elder one recently started using pens, but she has no brand loyalty. She just picks one that looks cool and writes well on the rough notepad near the stationery aisle at the supermarket.
But it wasnât always like this. Back then, ads for stationery ran during prime-time TV (even during cricket matches and Filmfare awards) and filled newspapers and magazines. And that was just 20 years ago. Go back another 50-60 years, and ads actually explained what these products did. Such was the state of product innovation, and our understanding of these novelties.
On this theme, Inky Memoâs curation of vintage stationery ads is a fascinating read. From fountain pens to calculators, theyâve covered ads from the early 1900sâshowcasing products and ads unlike anything we use or see today.
Check them out. Youâll start appreciating the brevity we can afford in product ads today.
âš Everything else
Merchants in motion: Loes Heerink takes aerial Shots of the bright and colorful goods sold by street vendors in Vietnam. Simply stunning! (via Colossal).
Plains of Yonder created the easter egg-laden opening sequence for The White Lotus, and itâs an absolute gem. If you havenât seen the show yet, you should. But at the very least, watch the opening credits; theyâre a wild ride on their own. And donât miss the title music from the first two seasons. Nothing else captures that level of playful madness.
Guédelon: In the heart of France, in northern Burgundy, a team of forty master-builders has taken on the extraordinary challenge of building a castle using the technology and materials of the Middle Ages. If you are up for an adventure, visit it this summer. (via Kottke)
ICYMIâŠ
Vaughn Tanâs piece on risk & uncertainty, John Cutlerâs Product OS tips and New design of Swiss Passport are some of my favorites from last weekâs post. You can check it out here:
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€ïž 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!
As always, I loved all of content, especially Show, donât tell đ
Keep them coming Pritesh