TfTHacker

Keep a friction log. It doesn't need to be a formal one and you can just write a note on your phone or a text file. Now, every time something wastes your time or someone else's, write it down. After a few weeks, patterns show up. The things that recur are the things worth fixing. One-offs usually aren't.

There are a couple of universal patterns that show up across fields that you should apply to pretty much anything: - Use a written process because memory isn't reliable (see aviation checklists, surgery, mise en place, SOPs...) - Stop early when something is wrong (Andon cord, feature flags, turnaround time, error budgets...) - Leave a buffer (Margin of safety, safety stock, taper, defense in depth...) - Fix the system rather than blame people (Blameless post-mortems, poka-yoke, Swiss cheese model...) - Get feedback fast (OODA, kaizen, canary releases, after-action reviews...) - Hand over with a fixed format (SBAR, BLUF, commander's intent...) - Ramp up gradually (10% rule, canary releases, position sizing....)

The beauty of reading "The Goal" or "High Output Management" every year is that you'll notice different things each time. The books don't change. You do. Like the first time you read "The Goal "you think it's about a factory. Then a few years later you realize it's about your calendar. Then later still you see it's about your own attention, and the bottleneck was you the whole time (it's always you). The books are fixed points, and fixed points are how you measure movement. What jumps out at you tells you where you are right now. geni.us/KnlAaRb