Alt title: Mmmm... Doughnuts...

You want to know how to impress someone in a job interview, conversation, or presentation?

Bring the conversation full circle.

If we’re present in the moment, we’ll notice unusual words of phrases that other people use.

For example, when I was interviewed for my college scholarship, I was asked whether I had had any failures in my life. I didn’t have a prepared answer for that, so instead of bluffing, I just said “I’ll have to think about that and get back to you.”

They peppered me with many other questions after that one, and at that point, I felt like I might have cost myself the scholarship with my non-answer. But towards the end, someone asked a loosely related question. I had the presence of mind to say: “If I can take things back to Bob’s question earlier—Bob, you asked me about failure: I think the reason that question was so hard for me to answer in the moment was because I don’t look at the negative experiences of my life as failures, but rather as lessons to be learned and stories to be told. I’ve made it a point to incorporate those lessons as I go, and to turn failures into becoming a better person.”

And in that moment, I knew I had aced the interview and gotten the scholarship. If you file away key words, phrases, ideas, or questions, and then come back to them later, you'll impress everyone, all the time. Remember this.

…and I just bought an Apple Watch for the first time this week.

Because apparently having a low heart rate either means I’m in trouble or I’m Lance Armstrong (just don't test my blood).

Now, here’s the thing about the original Apple Watch launch video. We all miss Jony’s buttery British accent (and soon, with his merger with OpenAI, we’ll be hearing it a lot more), but what strikes me is that the 2014 video could have been made today.

That’s how little the device has changed in over a decade.

The interface, the crown—virtually everything important remains unchanged.

Yes, it’s slightly faster. Yes, the screen is marginally bigger. But is this what Apple has become?

Iteration > innovation?

When we do yoga or casual stretching, there’s a reason we’re told to hold a stretch for a minute or more.

In the first 30 seconds or so, the inverse stretch reflex actively stops us from stretching too deeply, as a protective mechanism. That’s why it’s largely useless to stretch for ten seconds. It’s a concept that’s stuck with me since high school physiology.

There’s a similar phenomenon in the internet today. The internet hive-mind typically has a forceful, knee-jerk reaction to any new product or idea.

The Cybertruck looks stupid! The Vision Pro was a colossal misstep by Apple! Jaguar’s new branding sucks!

The truth is always more nuanced. Today Cybertrucks are everywhere, the Vision Pro is the future of computing whether anyone realizes it or not, and in time, Jaguar will find a rabid fanbase who defiantly champion their products precisely because everyone else hates them.

Why else would so many people buy a Hummer in the 90s, happily getting 4 gallons per mile?

Just like with stretching, we have to push past the inverse internet reflex. We have to let the first reactions pass, because they’re seldom the most important.

“I have yet to find the person, however exalted their station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.” - Charles Schwab

Scientists make great entrepreneurs, because unlike people like me, they aren’t full of sh**.

They are actually doing things and building things, and pushing boundaries and envelopes. This makes their pitches more grounded and their ideas more credible: exactly what VCs want.

However, we make a mistake in thinking that gifted communicators aren’t valuable because they aren’t scientists.

The world needs both: Introverts that build brilliance, and loud, confident communcators who can sell their ideas.