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Todd Henry

Lose the chore. Keep the skill.

Published about 13 hours ago • 3 min read
Some friction is in the way of the work. Some friction is the work.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 
Todd Henry

Daily Creative · Episode 131

The Right Kind of Friction.

Hi Reader,

James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before his vacuum worked. That's five years of wrong answers, each one a little different from the last.

On paper, it was the least efficient way imaginable to build a vacuum cleaner. But he couldn't have skipped to number 5,127. The person capable of building it only existed because of the 5,126 that came before.

Not all friction is waste.
Some of it is the work.

AI is making it easy to remove friction from almost everything, and some of that is a gift. Nobody needs to reformat the same report for the fourth time.

But some friction is where your thinking happens: the blank page, the bad first draft, the hard question. Hand that to a tool, and you don't get the same result faster.

You get a lesser result. And over time, you become a lesser creator.

So before you hand anything off this week, ask one question:

“If a tool did this for me, would I lose a chore, or a skill?”

If it's a chore, automate it today. If it's a skill, protect it, even when it's slow.

That's the whole game.

Friction, by the numbers

5,127

prototypes before Dyson's vacuum worked

39

endings Hemingway wrote for A Farewell to Arms

6

pages Bezos asked for instead of slides

12 min

for a report that used to take 40 hours

The first three are friction worth keeping. The last is friction worth killing. A finance lead at an Atlanta software company taught herself to code and gave herself back a week every month.

Try this today · 10 minutes

Draw the line.

Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, list your support work, the tasks that drain you without adding anything only you can add. On the right, list your soul work, the places your thinking actually happens. Then circle one item on the left to automate, delegate, or eliminate this week, and one item on the right to protect.

Support workReformatting the report for the fourth time. Chasing approvals. Hunting for the file.
Soul workThe blank page. The bad first draft. Asking if it's even the right problem.

From Die Empty

“[Work is] any instance where you make an effort to create value where it didn’t previously exist.”

Notice the word in the middle. Effort is not the cost of creating value. It's how value comes into the world.

Explore Die Empty ›

This week's Action Guide

Six practices for protecting the right friction.

The big idea, six practices, questions for you and your team, and a one-step plan for the week. It's not what you know but what you do that matters.

Download the Action Guide Listen to the episode

Also in the episode: innovation architect Carla Johnson on her curiosity compass, why your expertise can blind you, and the ten-minute pause that saves teams on deadline. Her book is Rethink Innovation.

For your next team meeting

Spend the first ten minutes asking only questions.

No answers, no solutions. Start with "Are we even solving the right problem?" Then ask how a Lego designer or a magician would approach it. Carla's experience is that teams walk out with a completely different, and more shared, picture of what to do next.

Keep reading

Essay “Do” vs. “Through” Work and the Bargain of AI There is work you just need to get through, and work you need to actually do. Do you know which is which?
Essay Why the Future Belongs to Those With Something to Say Fluency is not meaning, mimicry is not connection, and proximity is not work.

Hit reply

What’s one piece of soul work you’re going to protect this week?

Just reply to this email and tell me. And if someone on your team is drowning in support work, forward this to them.

May you be brave, focused, and brilliant,
Todd

Daily Creative  ·  Articles  ·  Books  ·  Bring Todd to your team

Todd Henry

Arms dealer for the creative revolution

Author of seven books, including The Accidental Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, Daily Creative, The Brave Habit. I help creative pros and leaders to be brave, focused, and brilliant every day.

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