Category: Innovation

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy has been a wonderful read. With American culture based on “immediate everything” is there any reason to pause? Yes in fact Frank illustrates why delay means a lot to us. Are we as aware of the decision making errors we make in rapid response?

A return of serve in professional tennis is all about rapid response. With end-lines 78 feet apart a tennis player has almost 500 milliseconds to respond. Has this rapid response been ingrained into our culture? Probably, and we need to change this.

The opening two chapters of Wait address how we regard making decisions on rapid response. Frank provides valuable insights that rapid response actually robs us of wise decision making. There is a lot we can learn from the opportunity of delay. Wait refers at many points the impact of Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, the ground breaking research with Amos Tversky.

Kahneman won the noble prize in economics for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. Wait builds upon the impact of delays in decision-making.

Chapter three: “High-Frequency Trading, Fast and Slow” is the story of UNX Inc, a trading firm in California. The ability of Wall Street to trade stocks between 8 to 14 milliseconds is fascinating. Yet Frank reveals the opportunity by UNX to save a lot of money by actually slowing down their trading. Sounds odd but proves to be true. Again the insights to Thinking Fast and Slow are remarkable. High frequency trading was the subject of Michael Lewis’ amazing book Flash Boys.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. I have been looking forward to reading this book. Angela’s story on researching Grit begins by studying West Point’s Beast Barracks. That would be the best location to convey grit for all of us.

Her research of the national spelling bee does, in fact hold similarities to Beast. The lesson of learning your passion is indeed the key defining how you persevere over time. Swimming is a topic addressed throughout the book.

Angela’s story of Rowdy Gaines‘ love of athletics helped drive his skill in the pool. Examples of Grit lessons from swim coaches to Mark Spitz continue to inspire swimmers. When your teammates arrive by 4:00am every morning — you understand perseverance.

The idea of describing Grit versus Flow hit me (for some reason) as two approaches to playing a golf course. More than a few years ago I repeatedly played a course that hosted an annual PGA tournament.

Many weekday evenings spent at the range prepared me for a weekly test. Playing from the championship tees simulated the tournament yardage. The ‘grit’ was time at the range during the week. More often this was Monday, Wednesday and Friday while looking forward to teeing off that same Sunday.

However one Sunday I found myself changing my approach to ‘just play’ the course. Foregoing all the details approaching each shot, and moving to ‘just playing’ by feel. Angela describes this change as Flow. Many wasted efforts to perfect my swing for each shot was eliminated by simply ‘feeling’ the iron shot to be played. This turned out to be a much more relaxing round of golf. There are moments in the book that Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rules applies to flow and the amount of time to enhance your passion.