One of the best parts of working at YouTube was the daily “trend” emails, which identified the videos about to become big hits, using a secret algorithm. Now that resource is public, with YouTube Trends.
Good thing it’s the weekend; I’ll be in here a while.
If you liked [the article](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=4020) about the Google Trader launch in Ghana last week, you’ll love the movie.
This was really cool to be part of: AfricaNews – Google Trader launch stuns Accra. Congrats to the team!
> Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. – [Albert Einstein](http://zenhabits.net/anti-success)
I’ve long been a proponent of [designing experiences for peak moments](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=207)–after all, that’s what you’ll remember about them later.
But personally it makes sense to spend some time identifying what your own peak moments have been, in the hope of discovering how to experience more of them. The articles [Peak Moments](http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/peak-moments/) and [Peak Creative Moments](http://the99percent.com/tips/6951/peak-creative-moments) suggest 60-second exercises to do just that.
I found several unexpected and valuable traits of my peak moment experiences:
* They are with lots of other people–despite my tendency to work and play alone
* They result from lots of planning and preparation–despite my aversion to both
* Many were not pleasant in the moment (painful, stressful), but very rewarding afterward
* They all involved substantial risk, to my career or myself
Also reminds me of [Peter Drucker’s advice in Managing Oneself](http://www.sld.cu/galerias/pdf/sitios/revsalud/managing_oneself.pdf) that “the only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis.”
Several creative people talk about their desks. Lots of different approaches, from Einstein’s clutter to Massimo Vignelli’s minimalism.
“I like to start the day fresh. If I start the day with things left over, it’s like starting dinner with leftovers — it kills your appetite.” – [Massimo Vignelli](http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=15088)
Some really interesting stuff in [this interview with the Zynga founder](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/31corner.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1285247019-gq6birhNA76fZ8BrckORLg&pagewanted=all):
> One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide…
> This is another thing I really, really value: being a true meritocracy. The only way people will have the trust to give their all to their job is if they feel like their contribution is recognized and valued. And if they see somebody else higher above them just because of a good résumé, or they see somebody else promoted who they don’t think deserves it, you’re done…
> I ask everybody to write down on Sunday night or Monday morning what are your three priorities for the week, and then on Friday see how you did against them. It’s the only way people can stay focused and not burn out. And if I look at your road map and you have 10 priorities for you and your team, you probably don’t know which of the three matter, and probably none of the 10 are right.
> What is context? It’s the operating framework in which the content occurs — the goal, one might say. For example, the design of the Apollo lunar module was content. The goal of landing a man on the moon in nine years was the context. You will get a completely different result from engineers working on a lunar module if the context is "some day we might go to the moon" than if its "were going in nine years.” – Dan Pallotta.
I’ve been trying hard to focus my work energy on deciding context first, rather than immediately jumping to content.