{"id":4309,"date":"2022-02-28T10:23:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T04:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/reflections\/?p=155"},"modified":"2023-11-08T13:59:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T08:29:16","slug":"obliquity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2022\/02\/obliquity\/","title":{"rendered":"Obliquity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obliquity: <br>The idea that goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued <em>indirectly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<cite><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.johnkay.com\/2004\/01\/17\/obliquity\/\" target=\"_blank\">John Kay<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Individuals (or companies) who are most successful at making money (or profits) are <em>not <\/em>the ones focused on making money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To understand how any organization really works, you need to know what&#8217;s <em>not <\/em>in their official (written or verbal) records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, the greatest happiness is rarely achieved by those who <em>set out <\/em>to be happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The direct approach works best when it comes to simple tasks, but obliquity is the way to go when it comes to complex systems and uncertain environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Un Optimize<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social filters and algorithms that optimize content to show us more of what we already \u2018like\u2019 are all around us, now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Combine that with cognitive biases, and you will soon realize that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to learn new perspectives outside our world-view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unless we find tools that force us to leave our comfort zones\/filters\/biases, that is. Unless we \u201c<em>un-optimize<\/em>\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some examples of how to un-optimize: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow random book of the week recommendations, read editorials in mainstream media, encourage difference of opinions among friends\/colleagues, and reset your browser cookies often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obliquity: The idea that goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. John Kay Individuals (or companies) who are most successful at making<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,20],"tags":[7,25,26,14],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-personal","tag-life","tag-reflections","tag-resources","tag-work"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4667,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}