Measurable and Immeasurable Value
Savvy Saturdays (3/27/21)
Every problem is an interpersonal problem
What is the best way to quantify the results that you achieve?
How do you measure out value?
What if there is more to value than what’s measurable?
I recently read a Christian book, “When Helping Hurts”, about how the ways we think we’re helping others may actually be causing more long-term hurt, and ways we can be more effective in impacting hurting areas.
One thing the book shares is how missionaries have to relay to their organization & donors the effectiveness of their ministry within the areas they serve in.
Many missionaries are part of a missionary org where they receive a network, resources, and ultimately, monetary support from Christians.
With it, missionaries are called to bring back to the organization an idea of the impact their work has done—to relay to the org & their donors how effective the money & support has been for the ministry.
How many homes were built?
How many people attend the service every week?
How many churches have been created?
How many people were baptized and became Christ-followers?
And many other things that reveal what measurable results people’s dollars attained.
But what is measured isn’t always the best value.
The book challenges that mission work is not always quantifiable by results by sharing a story of a couple who embedded themselves into an impoverished community to help build homes & a church.
Rather than trying to instantly build homes, conduct change as consultants to the community, and make a visible impact, they focused on building up their relationships within the community in order to equip them to thrive even if they were no longer around.
By the end of 4 years of ministry, results-wise, they had built a single home.
It seems pitiable—4 years of work all for a small house, enough for maybe 1 family to live comfortably in.
But because of the trust they had built within the community, the relationships they had forged, they had succeded in empowering the community to work together to build that home themselves, and many more homes would be built without the couple’s need for action.
In numbers terms, the question of “What have you been doing the past 4 years” may challenge the validity of the ministry the couple had undertaken.
But the truth is, they had brought more impact to the community, equipping them by building up through relationships rather than physical houses.
This story reveals the power of focusing not solely on the value that is measurable, but what is immeasurable.
The impact that we want to see in life sometimes isn’t through statistics and numbers. that we garner. It’s through the relationships that are built up.
I notice this in social media, and especially in Twitter.
There is a beauty surfing through analytics and seeing numbers increasing—organic impressions, profile visits, and followers gained.
But all these numbers are only insightful & impactful to a certain extent.
There is greater importance I have found in what is immeasurable.
The public conversations I’ve had when I engaged with other users.
The DMs I’ve slid into (and vice versa) which have gone beyond “Hi” and “Thanks for following me”.
The inspiration I’ve found in my 1:1 interactions with others which, in many ways, have been life-changing.
Value not only in the measurable but also in what is immeasurable through the relationships and connections with others.
In other words, there is a balance to obtain.
Yes, focus on the numbers and use them as an indication of success.
But recognize that there is more to it than meets the eye.
There is so much value to be captured and given through what is immeasurable.
Questions to ponder: 🤔
Are you aiming to achieve measurable or immeasurable value?
What is one way you can focus and achieve immeasurable value in your field of expertise?
Weekly Housekeeping
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Weekly Collections
A collection of resources for you to enjoy… 📰 🎬 🎙️
MicroQuiz by TrisJBurns
“The weekly one question poll for digital people.”
Want to get insights on what industry peers are thinking on all things product, design, and analytics? Check out MicroQuiz!
I’ve been following this newsletter since I joined Twitter a couple months ago, and I love getting it! Not only do I learn different A/B testing frameworks or the power of product teams decisions in testing, but Tristan’s newsletter is real, witty, and always adds some spice to my life.
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How to Build Muscle ft. Quora Push Up Expert
I started doing push-ups recently, trying to build up my strength.
Amidst my research on Google, an “expert Quora coach” shared 5 ways to work out your muscle with the mindset of progressive load.
Increased Weight
This is the most obvious and simplest way to implement progressive overload. For example if you did pushups with your bodyweight, you could look to progress by doing weighted pushups.
Increased Volume:
This approach of overload has its time and place, but as a natural lifter I rarely advise using the increased volume approach. Having a training program that encourages a consistent increase in volume is unsustainable for any natural lifter due to our slower recovery time. In this example, I would encourage you to periodize your training (having times of high volume training, and then tapering and repeating the process from there).
Increased Frequency:
Frequency relates to how often a muscle group is trained. For example, if you train your chest once per week, changing the frequency to twice per week would induce overload. I only recommend this more advice for lifters who can recover from this level of volume in their training.
Increased Time Under Tension:
This is where the idea of “slow reps” would come into play. If last week we had a pushup cadence of:
4: Second Eccentric
1: Second Isometric hold at the bottom of the pushup
3: Second Concentric
Than we have a total TUT of 8 seconds per rep.
It is worth noting, that the biggest “bang for your buck” from a hypertrophy standpoint will come from manipulating the eccentric portion of the rep.
Shortened Rest Time:
The last way to induce overload is through doing the same amount of work, but doing it in less time. This relates closely to rest pause training, where you look to maximise workload in the shortest amount of time possible. This is to be used sparingly.
When you get to close all your tabs… (so satisfying)
Weekly Tidbits
Learnings, verses, & quotes to chew on… 🧐
Verse of the Week
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
—Deuteronomy 31:6
Challenging Quote
“Most people never pick up the phone. Most people never call and ask.
And that's what separates sometimes the people who do things from those who just dream about them.
You gotta act. You gotta be willing to fail. You gotta be willing to crash and burn. With people on the phone or starting a company, if you're afraid you'll fail, you won't get very far."
— Steve Jobs
Weekly Update
Personal life stuff… 🔔
Hello friends,
Greetings from Austin! 👋 Let’s jump right in!
We just hit 188 beautiful people on the newsletter! To all the new people, welcome! Glad to have you here 😁 (It’s getting to be a big party in here 😲)
It’s a joy for me to share every week with y’all! (even as the responsibility of all this hits me more and more)
As an inside look, this has been how the newsletter has been doing since I started taking growth more seriously in February!
As doge would say—Much growth. Such subscribe. Wow.
Anyways, I moved my highlights back into the updates, but I’m excited to share that:
I got my first sponsor for the newsletter! Keep a lookout for it on April 17th!
I’m at almost 300+ followers on Twitter! Maybe I should rebrand soon 🤔
Radical Candor with my manager has been hard, but I’ve been on the upward trajectory in doing good work for my company as I balance that with these side hustles (Newsletter & Twitter)
With that, here are some choice pics from the past week: 📷
It’s a longer newsletter than usual, but hopefully, it helps and I’m glad you made it to the end!
Always means a lot to me for y’all to read through all of this!
Anyways, please stay safe, keep on being savvy, and I hope to see y’all in the next update 😊
Eric
