Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
Musk’s Algorithm and TOC. I read the Issacson Musk biography. While I couldn’t help but wonder how being an authorized biography shapes the story, there is lots to learn and debate. One of the business learnings is the use of the Musk Algorithm he has employed in multiple successful companies. What about combining it with Theory of Constraints? (If you want more on TOC, read The Goal).
Musk’s
Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. Go back to physics. Is there a constraint in reality or in perception or human-made rules? Can those perceptions or rules be changed?
Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn't delete enough. (Reminds me of a Rockfeller story.)
Simplify and optimize. This should come after step two. (One measurement of how you are doing so far is the Idiot Index: the ratio of cost of finished part/good to the cost of inputs. I think economists would call this value added, which might be good when you are selling something but can be bad if you’re the buyer.)
Accelerate cycle time.
Automate. Only automate after you understand the process and it is focused on doing essential things. If you automate to early than you lock in bad requirements.
Two important corollaries:
Go close to the source and see yourself. Ask people who do the work to get more information.
Deadlines and focus can cause groups to do more than they ever thought possible.
Compare to Theory of Constraints:
Identify the system's constraint(s).
Decide how to exploit the system's constraint(s).
Subordinate everything else to the above decision.
Elevate the system's constraint(s).
Warning! If in the previous steps a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not allow inertia to cause a system's constraint.
It seems like Musk’s algorithm is best if you start with the system's constraint? Maybe that is an unstated Step 0 in choosing the place to focus?
Diabetes. In the spirit of taking on big challenges, how do we change the course on diabetes? “More than 10% of the US currently has diabetes, and the rate is accelerating. There are almost 90 million Americans with prediabetes; 70% of those people will develop diabetes within 10 years.” The direct approach would be to change our diet. Should we focus more on individual behavior change or changing the food that is available? Alternatively, we could use drugs or genetic engineering. Education and information alone doesn’t seem to be enough. Continuous glucose monitoring is worth trying but I wonder if it is enough or the most cost effective? Some claim great results with personalized nutrition therapy. Can we avoid doing that for so many? Can we afford not to?
Your Favorite. I’m going to take next week off from the newsletter. In honor of that, I was curious which items or week has been your favorite and why? I’m interested to know where you are finding value.
See you in two weeks,
Miles
Regarding diabetes: Get a national movement going to
1. Eliminate corn syrup from processed food.
2. Negotiate across all food processors to volunarily and on the same time-table, reduce the amount of sugar(s) in their products by 4% per year over the next five years, to gradually help the population adjust to the taste, and sugar reduction. (Maybe this is a dedicated non-profit mission with an intentional sunset strategy when the mission is accomplished.)
3 Open a chain of fast food franchises that offer a healthy menu: fresh fruit and veggies, steamed veggies, chicken, pork and fish. Nothing fried. Low sodium. (Most no msg oriental restaurants come close. They just have too many and too elaborate of dishes for fast food.)
In this day and age, there are so many advances in growing food (think vertical year-round farms), and food processing, it seems incomprehensible that you cannot get a salad at McDonalds, and there is no national chain competing in this market gap.