Reflecting on the year 2025 has prompted me to write this post. And since it is unusual for me to write a themed message whose relevance and resonance ends with a year, I hope that the point of this post will last beyond January, certainly hope it lasts beyond 2025. Actually, my wish is that it stays relevant and resonating for longer than my blog could be available on the internet. With that said, I want to share about All-in now.

All-in is a mindset.

Here’s how it works: confronted with a piece of information, the mindset always prompts you to ask yourself, “If I followed everything to the letter as mentioned in this information, what would that look like for me?”

The information could be a new way of living, a new way to solve a problem you confront daily or a new way of doing something you didn’t know how to do before. It could also be a piece of information that you have read before without any attempt to practice it or you practised it halfheartedly. Whatever it is, the All-in mindset question remains intact; what would it look like if I just did it as this says?

Upfront, let me say while this mindset is an incredibly useful one, you will also find it as a great filter and as a result, realise only a few things are worth doing by being All-in.

Now, if you ask yourself the All-in question, and you eventually find a thing or two that you decided to go all in on, your life might just be about to make a total turnaround for greater heights, unparalleled progress and accelerated self-confidence.

Most of us, and that includes me, are readers of information only and rarely are we doers. Understandably so, in an age where we are overloaded and arguably overwhelmed by too much information. However, the only way to make marked progress in a definite time is to embrace the All-in mindset in as few or as many areas of your life as possible. Find a piece of useful information, go All-in and act on it. It could be about your health, career, relationship, faith, could be anything at any time, a combination of things, doesn’t matter.

Note that some All-in efforts are executable in a very short time frame while others can take a longer time. Some, as I have found with my commitment to the Christian faith, could even be for a lifetime.

Let me bring a few examples to further drive home the point.

In this article, on becoming a victim of exposure, I shared what that means and how it manifests. You could just start immediately after reading it and decide to start exposing yourself to as much information as the article suggests. And watch your life change overnight (or not). In any case, it would be clear you have gone All-in. Hopefully, you could also infer clearly from that last statement that All-in doesn’t guarantee success but only gives you a greater chance.

Another beautiful example is the idea of 100 rejections per year popularised on my Twitter TL by Imade. You could read that, toggle a like on it, as nearly 800 people did on the post, you may even bookmark it, also as nearly 700 people did on the post, all relishing the idea. Or you could decide not to even interact with the post at all (of course I am not encouraging this) but just go and get your 100 rejections and then watch your life transformed all in one year. That’s All-in. And its application is endless from a single sentence that feels right to All-in on for you, to a whole blog and from a simple conversation to a whole book. 

There is a strong resistance in us to just do things and to go All-in. Fight that resistance. Pick one thing, and then two and then three and more to go All-in on and watch your life take a new direction, not overnight, but it certainly will.

I hope that just like me, All-in becomes a daily mentality for you and not just a 2025 resolution. 

I also hope that you have the sense of urgency to determine what is worth going All-in on and the courage to go All-in on those from today, yes today not tomorrow. 

As I reflect on the last two years of my career, I want to write about a topic that we all care about, seek an answer to, and still search for: a sense of fulfilment in our jobs.

The default thinking is to assume that you cannot have fulfilment unless you are working at a particular place, with a specific team, and on a type project. In our minds, we believe checking these boxes would mean a dream come true, and we can finally experience a sense of fulfilment. For the first four years of my career, I, too, was guilty of this line of thinking. I believed that I should be working in a specific place, on a specific project, and at a specific time, and that doing so would bring me the sense of fulfilment that I desperately needed. And I was right; it would give me (or not).

What would happen though, if, throughout my career, those conditions were never met? What happens if, in all the fifty plus years that I would be working, I never get to work on the kind of project I had envisioned as the perfect project to give me a sense of fulfilment? What if I could only tick two of the boxes at a time and not all of them simultaneously? These questions are crucial because, in reality, we don’t always get what we want or what we think we deserve. Or do you believe it is impossible? You think eventually, you will get what you want out of life that would provide you with fulfilment at work? Let me tell you a quick story.

Most of you, my readers, would be familiar with Clayton Christensen, the father of disruptive innovation. If you’re not, you can read about him here. His dream was to work with the New York Times, and throughout his career, he believed that although he wasn’t working there yet, the experiences he was gaining were preparing him to eventually land the job. So whenever he reached a crossroad in his career, he would think, “Yes, this is it, this is the time.” However, that time never came until the end of his career. “And that’s okay.” As Stewart Friedman noted in this favourite article of mine, “it’s okay” that Professor Clayton never got to work with the NYT.

There are three things that I learnt have to all come together for one to find fulfilment. The right mindset, the necessary action and the important outlook.

1. Mindset: 80:20 rule of boring and interestingness 
2. Action: Total you @ Work
3. Outlook: Don’t be a donkey – giving your best now as an accelerant for your next step 

Mindset – 80:20 rule of boring and interestingness

Let’s start by gaining an understanding of how the organisations we work in truly function.

All organisations exist because they add value to society in one way or another. Those that fail to do so are usually closed down, as that’s simply the way the world operates. Now, let’s concentrate on the value-adding ones. Adding value means they must excel in two areas. First, they need to bring order to the increasing chaos in their domain, and second, they need to simplify the complexities that surround their field. Understanding this is crucial, and I must admit it took me about five years to grasp this concept.

Organisations are in the business of bringing order to chaos and simplicity to complexities. If you’ve ever been involved in an explicit exercise where the task at hand is to restore order amidst chaos or simplify a complex phenomenon, you’ll agree with me that it is not always fun, nor is it entirely glamorous. Rather, such activities are a mixture of mundane tasks and engaging tasks. Yet, all these tasks must be completed in order to achieve the goal of order and simplicity. And this is the premise on which I am about to make the next assertion.

Within all organisations, you will find a mixture of boring and interesting tasks. I estimate the ratio to be 80% boring and 20% interesting. As mentioned earlier, all tasks, no matter how monotonous or exciting, must be completed by you and me, who constitute the organisation. And herein lies the challenge for many of us.

We enter the workplace assuming that we will be presented daily with only the interesting and engaging tasks. We enthusiastically take on projects because, at a high level, the end goal is compelling; for instance, digital transformation. However, soon we realise that to achieve this goal, we need to write code, develop policies, familiarise ourselves with existing governing standards, attend numerous meetings, manage people, and a host of other tasks that need to be done. Soon enough, as we embark on the next exciting venture, we find ourselves bored and wondering why we can’t just be confined to writing policies or auditing the code. However, all tasks must be accomplished because it is the amalgamation of these tasks that ensures order is brought into the confounding chaos and simplicity is brought into the puzzling complexity.

This is the mindset that, in my opinion, most working professionals lack. At least, it was missing for me until I recently grasped it. And it was absent for approximately 50+ people I have shared it with, either in one-on-one sessions or in a classroom setting. Once you understand this, accept it, and choose to live with it, you are halfway there to transforming how you approach work.

The “20%” is not evenly distributed 

Here’s another context to add for a balanced perspective. The “20%” is not evenly distributed. This means that although I have generalised the 80:20 split between boring and interesting tasks, not all tasks, goals, or teams would have the same split. You may look at the list I made above: 

• Writing code, 
• Developing policies, 
• Reading existing governing standards, 
• Setting up multiple meetings, 
• Managing people

and say to yourself, “But I enjoy doing all of these except writing the code,” or “The only thing that looks interesting to me on this list is managing people.” And you would be right with your preferences. This is why it is essential to understand that the split is not even. Within some teams, it may be a split of 70% interesting and 30% boring because the team is at the heart of cutting-edge innovation for their company. Meanwhile, another team might experience a ratio of 90% boring and 10% interesting because their tasks are also pivotal to the goal of bringing order to chaos and simplicity to complexity, leaving all employees feeling drained.

Yet, even within the latter team, individual preferences and perceptions differ once more. Some individuals may see their job as 40% interesting and 60% boring. The message here is simple: the split is not as straightforward as just 80:20. Understand yourself and be fully aware of where you fall on the divide.

Action – Total You @ Work

Having the right mindset is not enough; it is merely a step towards ensuring you find fulfilment in any work. The real key to this fulfilment is anchored in the kind of action you take, based on the right mindset you have developed from reading the earlier chapter.

A few months into starting my job with my current employer, several things came together, and before I knew it, I was in a way depressed. Weeks passed by, and the feeling lingered. Mostly, the feeling of being a round peg in a square hole. Then one day, I became tired; it was the peak of it for me. “Enough!!!” I literally screamed in my flat.

That outburst allowed me to release pent-up emotions, but most importantly, I spent time with myself. I redefined what I believed the problem was, reexamined who I am, reconsidered what I cared about, evaluated my options, and determined a way forward. Without any changes in my external environment, my life changed at that moment.

A few months later, I was a shining star at work, recognised for my drive, ambition, and strong presence within the team—exactly the qualities I had identified as crucial during that episode a few months earlier. Subsequently, many opportunities came my way, and I began working on precisely the things that mattered to me. The only thing that had changed was that I had become more self-aware. I had an honest conversation with myself, took appropriate actions based on that conversation, and my experience took a 180-degree turn for the better. I brought what I have called the total me to work.

Self-Awareness

A search for the phrase “self-awareness” on Google returns 2.2 billion results in less than 1 second. I am about to contribute to that statistic because, as I journey through my professional career, it has increasingly become one of the most important ingredients that I have discovered. Until you are aware of yourself on the right level and within the right context, you will hardly ever find satisfaction in your job, and fulfilment will remain elusive.

You need to know what you care about, what truly matters to you, what keeps you awake at night and motivates you to get up first thing in the morning. If you search deeply, you will realise that it’s not just about building financial models, writing code, or crafting your organisation’s strategy. Instead, you care about your family, making the world a better place, being someone who makes others’ work easier, and putting smiles on as many people’s faces as possible, among other things. No matter what it is, I want you to understand that it matters, and you should always focus on it. There is always an opportunity for you to express yourself, but I might be getting ahead of myself here.

Once you are clear about what truly matters to you, you quickly learn that the work we do is simply a tool to help us fulfil what matters most. Let me explain.

What matters most to me? In relation to work, it’s about bringing order to chaos and simplifying complexity. In my 9-to-5 job, I am employed as a consultant, working with companies on Data Management & Strategy. If you consider all the work I do with my clients, you can sum it up as “bringing order into chaos and making simple the complex.” Yes, the immediate task might be to understand data lineage and document it, but it is also about restoring order to chaos. It is from this point that you begin to find meaning in your work, and the seed of fulfilment starts to grow. But it doesn’t end there.

Organisations are platforms of self-expression 

Obviously, I am not going to reduce this topic to a formula, and there is no doubt that the tool you have in your hand now (what you are paid to do) is not the right tool to help you express yourself. Hence, this point.

Organisations are a platform, and no matter what you care about, there is a high likelihood that you will find something within the organisation that you can contribute to (in addition to your job) to aid you in your quest. Look for it. Leverage it to increase your “20% interestingness”.

Who are you? Whatever answer you give to that answer (you can only know through self-awareness) what this point challenges you to do is to align that with your work and it also make bold to say there are often almost opportunities for that to happen. 

Outlook – Don’t be a donkey: giving your best now as an accelerant for your next step

You may have heard this story: Buridan’s donkey is standing halfway between a pile of hay and a bucket of water. It keeps looking left and right, trying to decide between hay and water. Unable to decide, it eventually dies of hunger and thirst. A donkey can’t think of the future. If it could, it would clearly realise that it could first drink the water, then go eat the hay. Don’t be a donkey. You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience.

It is understandable if all the above is still not applicable to you, and your only solution is indeed to go after that dream job. In fact, I would say that even if things were great, you should seek even better conditions. However, while doing so, don’t be a donkey. Don’t let the pursuit of what could be next rob you of the present. Drink the water well, and it will energise you to eat the food better.

In this article from 2020, I noted that “another success” is always easier after the first success.. You would have proven yourself worthy, capable, and deserving of the resources required for the next adventure once you can show a result from previous wins. Do you remember the parable of the talents? You saw how those who initially succeeded were rewarded with more resources to achieve further success. And don’t forget the one who had a lot but achieved no success; even the little they had was taken away from them.

No matter what, you need to give your best now because it will be your accelerant for the next steps. Success compounds. When you get an opportunity to be successful, grab it, no matter in what sphere that success is.

That is what I have learned about how to find fulfilment in any job you find yourself in. Please let me know your thoughts.

And remember this cautionary tale, “it’s hard to get really depressed until your dreams come true. Once your dreams come true and you realise you feel the same way you did before, then you get a feeling of hopelessness” – Rick Rubin. The feeling you crave can be achieved now. And what I have shared is how you can get it now – have the right mindset about work, take actions that foster your value, and don’t lose sight of greater potential.

At a point in life, being able to walk is the metric that matters. Then, being able to talk. Then, it quickly moved to how many exams you passed with the purpose of getting promoted. Then it was CGPA, and then it was how long it took to get your first job. Soon, it would be how long you were in a role before you got promoted. Then, it would be what level you are on.

Then, being married became a metric, and soon, the number of kids added to it. These metrics are never-ending as you progress and increase in age.

But I think we all know that already. So, let’s go a bit deeper into what might not be obvious. Until a certain point, the metrics that you prioritize and measure are (a) societal driven, (b) nature-driven, and (c) comparison-driven. “My mates are graduating with 2.1, I must have 2.1 at least also.”

“It’s about this age that I should marry,” and you have all sorts of conflicts in your mind if that time passes. “I should be earning this much now.” All these are determined by relative comparison, nature, and societal expectations. However, growth requires that we understand when to graduate from those kinds of metrics. And move on to the “Me Metrics.”

What is the “Me Metric”?

This is the kind of metric that puts YOU into context when setting the expectations for YOU. Our stories are unique, and our circumstances are different, meaning that by default, our metrics should be unique based on our circumstances.

When we move in life based on comparison, nature, and societal induced metrics, it will often lack the nuances of our circumstances, and we end up taking decisions that prioritize now over the longer term.

The “me metric” requires you to slow down, evaluate your current situation, your history, and become extremely self-aware. Your self-awareness drives the kind of expectation and ambition you set for yourself. It’s no longer “I should be this or that because my ‘mates’ are there.” It’s now “I am here because of choices I’ve made so far and the constraints that surrounded me, and I am heading there based on this timeline” (driven by you).

That’s where I want you to be. That’s where I am. And it has brought me great peace. I am inspired by all that I see around me but never envious and never feel left behind. I am me. I love where I am. And I love where I’m headed because I chose it.

I think the real title should be a few reasons why I write. But don’t worry about that, let’s just get into this.

1. I write primarily because something lingers in my mind and craves expression. I don’t often have the right words before I start to write that usually comes as I face the blank sheet. But the idea is usually there and they linger on my mind enough for me to say I would write about them.
2. I write to be in the face of my network. I put a lot of value in the network that I have built and that I have around me. Writing is one of the easiest ways for me to stay in touch. I can’t all nor can I even “know” all. However, whenever I write and my writing gets to their notice, they are reminded of me and it gives them the impression that they are still in contact with me and in truth they are. Occasionally, they like my post and often add a comment. In such instances, I confirm that they are still with me and I can also reply to them in the case of a comment. In most cases, that is usually enough to keep in contact with my network.
3. I write to expand my network. When. I was in Lagos, it’s commonplace for me to enter a place for the first time and I would find a few who would say “Oh, you are ‘the’ David Alade”. One day in London someone also said that. And they spoke with me as if they knew me already and indeed, they do. More than anything else in my life, writing has helped me the most to build my network. And as I mentioned above, it has also been my instrument to keep in contact. 
4. I write because I hope people find what I write about useful. I have been immensely helped by the writing of others. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I’d not read some things. And since I have the ability and wherewithal to write, it places a responsibility on me to write as well. And I’m immensely grateful for the number of people that my writing has helped as well. 

I considered writing this article imperative because, by my definition of writing, I’ve taken a break from writing in a while. And as I claw back out of my shell, I find myself genuinely asking the question “Why do you write?” Also, in the past week, I’ve shared my number 2 reason with people and I’d not realised it was one of my reasons until I did. 

Here is the thing, I think I might keep this page alive on my blog and keep on updating it as I settle on more reasons why I write. For now, those are the 4 that I would like to highlight. 

I took a break from writing partly because I wanted to think more about the kind of things that I write. If you go through my articles, you would notice that they are mostly about life. I write about experiences, what we can learn from them and how we can have the best of them within a constraint. When I thought about it though, I thought I should be writing something more technical that probably borders with my field of work or something else that interests me. And rightly so, if I could. 

This consideration added to the reason why I’ve paused writing here for a while. Now, I’ve decided to come back. 

I’ve come back to return to the original idea about writing that I had. Writing even if it is useful for at least one person. 

What I anticipated was that writing something more technical would enhance my career and probably present me as an authority on any subject I chose to write about. Again, rightly so… but to what end? I can’t do all things exclusively for the sake of “enhancing my career” whatsoever that means. I should be able to do some things because I enjoy doing them no matter the kind of benefits or lack of one that comes with it. 

One of the things that helped me reach this conclusion was also that as I reflected on what has helped me the most in a way that matters the most, it was by reading not those technical things but by reading the kind of things that I write about myself. And that’s also how I’ve managed to help people the most. Yes, that matters to me I want things that I write about to be useful to at least one person. 

Over the past 10 years, I’ve referenced Dale Carnegie’s book more than I’ve referenced Michael Webber’s (yea, you probably don’t know who that is) book. And I’ve referenced the article Don’t be a Donkey more times than I’ve referenced Architecting Data-Intensive SaaS Applications. Why is that? Because I find that most were more helpful to me and it could be for others generally also.

It’s not to say I won’t write things that I considered career accelerators. Rather say one form of writing won’t stop me from writing again. Anything that ensures the best experience for me, I do. Just like this one. I hope just one person at least finds this helpful.

The world is more polarised and people are more conflated about their identities. This has been followed by an endless series of finger-pointing, scaled division in society and in some way the rise in the confidence disease as Shakespeare put it “the fool doth think he knows what he does not know.” I was reflecting on this when I remembered the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, the last good emperor of the Roman Empire.

In a scene in Gladiator, and in what would be the last scene for the good emperor Aurelius, Commodus was seen lamenting how he doesn’t possess the fundamental virtues his father has told him were important for anyone who will fill his shoes. The virtues were wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance.

“As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, Father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield, but… there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family and to you. But none of my virtues was on your list…” – Commodus

What shall we make of the son who grew up with a father who was in no doubt clear about what was required? But still, he failed to build and develop in the right way. But I digress with that. This isn’t about Commodus and his failures as much as it is about what kind of virtues are required to lead the zen (for lack of a better word) life in today’s conflated world. 

Initially, I believed that the four values of Marcus Aurelius would suffice, but I was mistaken. In our modern world, we require different virtues, just as the old and new Testaments of the Bible have different virtues. Upon examining my life, I considered the factors that have kept me away from trouble, helped me form strong and long-lasting relationships, set a good example, and provided me with peace. As a result, I have compiled a list of seven virtues that I find essential.

Fundamental virtues that guide me

Responsibility

“There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.”J K Rowling said in a 2008 Harvard speech. Many years ago this was the first lesson that set me on the right trajectory in my life. I read in a book the meaning of the statement above and decided from then that I would take responsibility for everything in my life, good or bad. I was the architect and there is no one to blame or hold responsible. I remember defining it then from a perspective of money and I told myself “The only set of people I believed I could expect money from were my mother and father. Anything outside of that is not to be expected.” Invariably it meant I must learn to live within what they gave me and never have to look at an uncle, aunt friend etc with a bad eye for not extending cash to me. I was right. But beyond that narrow definition, I took virtue seriously ever since and it has helped me to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Self-awareness

“With self-awareness, you triumph over trivialities.” For a world conflated about its identity and constantly burdened by trivialities and innuendos rising from a ‘lack of backbone’, those with great self-awareness arm themselves with a shield that’s not easily broken. We need to spend more time with ourselves. How much of yourself do you know? When you are angry, why are you angry? When you comment silly things on SM, why do you do it? When you argue endlessly, why do you do it? When you love what some hate and hate what some love, why is that? When you are riled up because some strangers assume an identity for you, why is that? Do you know thyself? “You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman

Temperance

“Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation” – Ben Franklin. Increasingly, the virtue of moderation or call it self-restraint is becoming an important one in our world more than ever before. We are a world that doesn’t know when to pause or even hit the stop button. We do and overdo. We need to be temperate to control our emotions and live a more balanced life. I used to pray a prayer that I have taken as one of the most important prayers: “Give us the grace to let go of details that won’t matter in a decade and the wherewithal to make the most of the moments whose memories will endure beyond decades.” Think about this.

Wisdom

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding” – Proverbs 4:7. For the most knowledgeable, the world is complex enough and extremely difficult to navigate (see the words of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes). What about you? Yes, you, with no apparent wisdom to make sense of the world around you. Can you see that the news that you read is driven by some incentives? Can you see that the division around you is to some people’s advantage? Can you see that the seeming peace was traded for freedom? Wisdom amidst all of these helps you to be rightly placed and to avoid trivialities.

Fortitude

“No good story is without failure. May we have the fortitude to stand failure.” I genuinely feel like the quote and the image is enough to drive home the importance of this message. So I will link one of my conversations on Twitter here if you want more.

Love

“…On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Which two commandments? “Love God and love your neighbour as yourself.” The world has always needed love and it still does. It’s one of those things that is universally agreed. Of course, the degree of love that each ‘divides’ of the society subscribes to differs. But I am not aware of those with a zero-love philosophy. And I agree that you may not love equally universally. But have you experimented with your home… If you loved your wife unconditionally and gave yourself to her, what kind of home would you have today? If you loved your husband with all their faults, what kind of home would you have? If you operated with this principle, how would your comments on SM read differently?

Curiosity

We live in a constantly evolving world and the rate of change in our generation is so much that if we are not careful, we get lost and forget change is happening or worse we get overwhelmed by the change. Curiosity is how you grow, learn and evolve.

This is not a blueprint for a perfect life. Rather they are virtues that I have cultivated over the years that have helped me love my life. And I thought by sharing it you also could pick a thing or two and eventually lead you to love your life. In 2020, I read the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. In the course of his life, he identifies 13 virtues that he wanted to live by. I was driven to also live by these virtues after reading them. But Ben Franklin is brilliant. He said, “A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.” I share this to highlight how good your life can become when you choose to live by a set of virtues. Your life could be so good that you will become hated for being faultless.

These are my reflections on the transformative year of 2020

The world shifted in an indescribable way in 2020, and its significance will continue to unravel for decades to come. It’s impossible for any individual to fully comprehend the profound changes that occurred. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to articulate some of the things that I’ve observed. Please join me on this journey, as it’s complex, and I hope I won’t stumble too much.

My perspective is that 2020 was a year of profound change, but it’s important to recognize that many of the trends and issues we saw were in motion long before then. In fact, some of the things that came to the forefront in 2020 were the result of underlying trends that had been building for decades.

One trend that had been developing since the 1980s was a decline in the rate of borrowing. By 2008, this decline had reached a historic low of nearly 0%. Despite this, the world continued to experience unprecedented growth in almost every area. People became accustomed to seeing growth in all aspects of life, which led to a perception that taking risks was not only safe, but necessary.

In 2020, the world was hit by Covid19, and as a result, governments started printing more money, leading to too much money in circulation. This caused inflation, and interest rates began to increase. Money custodians were left in a difficult position, and as a result, Bank 1 collapsed, followed by Bank 2, and Bank 3 was closed before it could collapse. These events have led to a period of higher uncertainties in the market, and no one knows for certain what will happen to interest rates, which is a terrifying prospect.

In addition to the financial uncertainty, Covid-19 also brought about an “employee market” where companies were aggressively hiring and competing for talent with higher pay. However, this was short-lived as the economic reality of higher borrowing costs and dwindling revenue set in. This led to thousands of layoffs, which continue to this day. Interestingly, even tech companies, which were previously seen as immune to such layoffs, are now partaking in them. It appears that these tech giants have become like any other mature company that needs to optimise its costs to sustain and continue to grow. In fact, some of them have even hired consulting firms like McKinsey to help them in this endeavour.

It’s interesting to note that tech analysts in 2020 were discussing how unexciting the tech industry has been in the last decade. There hasn’t been much groundbreaking innovation like the iPhone or Facebook. Even attempts to hype up Blockchain technology fell short due to its lack of utility beyond payment. However, there have been some recent developments that have caught the world’s attention, such as Mid-Journey, Dall-E, and the various iterations of ChatGPT. Suddenly, people are once again intrigued by what innovation may bring. This has put companies like Microsoft and Google on high alert, recognizing that it is no longer “business as usual.”

PhD students are starting to worry about the value of their research in light of ChatGPT and other LLMs. And I can understand why they’re concerned. It’s amazing how we now have access to all the knowledge in the world in a truly transformational way. Some even argue that AI alone is enough, and we don’t even need AGI. The possibilities are endless and within reach. It’s mind-blowing. And what’s even more incredible is that someone like David, who doesn’t even know Javascript, can build a functional website that can do everything he wants it to.

This is one of the most exciting things to happen in recent years! It’s incredible to think that we are now able to see more of the universe and gain a deeper understanding of it. The James Webb telescope has been in development for so long, and it’s amazing to finally see it come to fruition. With its advanced capabilities, we’ll be able to observe the universe in a way that we never have before. It’s truly mind-blowing to think about what we might discover and what new questions we’ll be able to ask about the cosmos.

Certainly, it is overwhelming to comprehend the magnitude of changes happening in our world. It’s like we are living in a new reality altogether, with new rules and new possibilities. The shifting world order, the rise of China, and the struggles of many African nations have added to the complexity of this new world.

As we try to make sense of it all, it’s important to ask ourselves where we fit in. What role do we want to play in this new reality? How can we adapt to the changing times and make a positive impact? These are the questions that we should be asking ourselves. It’s easy to feel small and insignificant in the face of such immense changes, but we must remember that every individual has the power to make a difference in their own way.

So, let’s take a moment to reflect on our values, our strengths, and our aspirations. Let’s think about how we can use them to contribute to the world around us. We may not have all the answers, but by asking the right questions, we can start to carve out our place in this new trajectory of the world.

Let me do a quick reflection that’s just for me as it can be for anyone who may read this later.

Since joining my new company, if there’s one lesson I have learned that determines a lot of your success, it’s the importance of seeking help and feedback early.

We work in a fast-paced environment where keeping up is itself a lot of work. Aside from the environment being fast-paced, the complexity of nearly all your tasks also means you are most likely not going to have all the answers in the palm of your hand. If you observe enough, that’s what you will see. And I think that point is obvious enough that it sometimes doesn’t need to be spelt out.

So no contention.

Where the bulk of work is though is knowing the balance. Knowing when to seek help, when it is too early to seek help when it is too late to seek help and balancing them all.

Seek help and when to seek help dynamics

You need an understanding of what is expected of you. If you don’t know what it is you need to find out immediately. Often not by asking but by reflection. I said that because I believe the job wasn’t handed to you over a platter of gold. You interviewed for it and it was made clear. What reflection also adds are other subtle expectations or boundaries of expectations.

Knowing this is critical because if you are not clear on it and you ask for help for what should be an obvious thing (consistently), it may impact people’s perception of you negatively. And in a world where perception is the bulk of what takes you far, that’s something you want to protect.

3 things I’ve introduced now. Seek help, the time to seek help, and the perception you have to protect.

Again, you can’t do all the work alone. So to seek help can be eliminated from what needs serious consideration. That is a given, you will have to seek help.

When to seek help is what most people struggle with the most.

Seek help too early, and you appear clueless. Some people might even see you as not taking initiative. Seek help too late and you might run the risk of slowing the whole project down and that’s not good for you my friend.

So what’s the in-between? Before I answer that let me tell you that seeking help also builds a collaborative environment. Humans like the saviour status. We like to be there for others and to have contributed to the success of others. Fostering a collaborative environment also means people want to work with you. And since they will need help now or later, they will also feel confident to come to you for such help.

Now to my question when to seek help?

In my experience, the best time to seek help is when you have given thought to the challenge/task yourself enough to come up with what can be termed a v1. That is version one of the potential final state.

Sharing a v1 would have allowed you just enough time to do some research and enough time to show that you have put in some effort.

Most importantly though, it also makes helping you easier.

It is easier to say, “oh, you are thinking about it this way, but this is how to think about it” than to go expecting the helper to do all the work for you. Remember it is your burden in the first place.

Sharing a v1 also means you are iterating fast. Like in an agile environment, you get feedback fast enough to change course when needed or maintain course when you are in the right direction. And this also boosts your confidence.

Do it this way, and your reputation will also be preserved. No one will see you as being clueless and no one will say you have delayed a deliverable. And until the end of the project, as you implement the feedback, go back with a v2 to confirm again. Repeat until the end of your task. It helps.

Hey, I know these can’t be applied to all tasks. But I trust that you will understand the spirit of the word.