27 | Low-Reward Work
Why low-reward work isn't worth the effort, learning to code and building iOS apps and more
Good morning,
Vaccine dose number one in the bag. Pfizer gang checking in.
I’m excited to invest BlocPower, a climate tech startup making commercial properties greener. They’re making it cheaper to take old buildings and make them green. This angel investment is another with a climate-focused outlook. ClimateTech is a sector I’m feeling very bullish on.
This week on Future Talk, Sam and I discussed eSports. eSports are increasing in popularity, but their internet-native nature gives them a different commercial proposition. We discuss the commerciality of eSports and whether we’ll start to see training camps for eSports players.
You can listen on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and more.
During my week off work, I volunteered at a local vaccination site (hence my early vaccine for my age group). My job was straightforward, give a vaccine information leaflet to each person depending on their vaccine, AstraZeneca or Pfizer. When hordes of people entered, it became difficult to manage. So during brief quiet periods, I prepared leaflets with supplementary information. That way, I was ready.
But because very few people had the AstraZeneca vaccine, I didn’t prepare its leaflets. Focusing my time on the Pfizer leaflets was a better way of spending my time.
I’ve written about asymmetric bets and risk vs reward. There’s a similar principle here, effort vs reward.
Focusing effort on low-reward work wastes time. It’s putting effort into tasks that don’t yield results. And while we often hear ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’, sometimes preparation isn’t necessary.
Finding high-reward work can be difficult. And sometimes it’s not immediately clear. But once I’ve realized the work I’m doing isn’t high-reward, I stop doing it. I’d instead focus my time on the work that gets results.
Not all work is created equal.
P.S. If you are UK-based and have the time, volunteer at vaccine sites. It helps out the doctors and nurses. On Wednesday, we had one doctor vaccinating 700 people for six hours, hero.
🧠 What I’m learning this week 🧠
It’s been a few years since I last played around with iOS app development and the Swift programming language. So I decided to pick it up again. Coding is a valuable skill to have in general, regardless of the language. But what I like about Swift is that I can build iOS apps with only it. Websites require a combination of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, various JavaScript libraries to make it workable and getting angry when spacing doesn’t work correctly.
Apple created Swift as a modern language for iOS development. And there are plenty of resources to help learn. Swift Playgrounds is available on Mac and iPad as an introduction to the language. I’ve jumped ahead and started building an app for measurement conversion.
Why is coding useful? There are a couple of reasons:
The changing nature of the economy is emphasizing the importance of ‘knowledge worker’ skills. Manual workers will likely need to move into new fields of expertise, and coding helps with that
It helps find opportunities. After learning to code, you become aware of how software works and what is feasible. And then you can build it and distribute it.
"A generation ago, if you wanted to build a business empire, you needed to open a factory. Today, you only need to open a laptop." - Alex Ohanian
If you want to learn Swift and build iOS apps, Hacking with Swift has been an excellent resource.
👀 Recommendations 👀
Packy McCormick has written about The Great Online Game. This essay might be one of the best I’ve read. It perfectly explains why I’m so bullish about creating on the internet:
“I didn’t set out to play the Great Online Game when I started writing Not Boring, but that’s accidentally what I did. Two years ago, bored at my job, I started spending more time on Twitter and writing a newsletter. I just wanted to meet smart people who were interested in the same things I was. I never in a million years thought that my job would become playing the Great Online Game.”
Read it. It could change your life.
Vandan Jhaveri reflects on turning 27 in Long Way Home. It captures the transition into adulthood well. No longer is “for your age” used to evaluate progress in life.
Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase’s former CTO and a very clever man, has written about how Bitcoin is civilization.
That’s all for this week.
Thank you very much for reading. If you’ve not yet subscribed, enter your email below to have Monday Moy-ning Musings arrive in your inbox every Monday morning.