Becky Graham

Former Reporter turned #Entrepreneur. Currently helping professionals slay #socialaudio conversations on @fishbowlapp.

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

Taking notes📝@GuyKawasaki & @LisenStromberg serving up game-changing career advice, with a side of humor on @fishbowlapp #FishbowlLive #socialaudio

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

@volvoshine Speechless!

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾

[Katie Engleson @KatieEngleson]

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FRANCHISE HISTORY THE FLORIDA PANTHERS ARE STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

@volvoshine Thanks Ron Burgandy!

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

@LaMoniRojas Thanks for sharing! What periodicals/books are you reading on community. Would love to check them out!

[Patricia Mou @patriciamou_]

anatomy of a hug 🥺

[Sagar Radia @SagarRadia]

Industry Series 3, 11th August @HBO. We Back.

[Ryan RC Rea @volvoshine]

I'm getting good at being a Pádel photog 📸
@petezin @blond_ish @BeckyLeeGraham

Fit by @bangclothesco
#Miami

[Ryan RC Rea @volvoshine]

My friends playing Pádel at the Pádel X @blond_ish tournament 🏓🏓🏓
Me: 💆💆
@petezin @BeckyLeeGraham @magdalenakala
#Miami #padle

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

@volvoshine When is carnival gonna pay you?!

[Codie Sanchez @Codie_Sanchez]

Working smarter not harder is a beautiful lie.

You will not know how to work smart until you've worked very hard for an irrationally long time.

[Sean Sweeney @seandsweeney]

Walkable urbanism is so underrated.

Woke up, walked my daughters two blocks to pick up coffee, then walked to the the park one block in the other direction.

Now sitting five blocks away watching them play at another park.

Zero cars involved. Everyone should have this luxury.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

A lot of problems are solved by doing the hard things on a daily basis:

Wake up early, get cold, get hot, move fast, lift heavy stuff, focus, be present, have difficult conversations.

Simple playbook to live well.

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

🎃 Happy Halloween 👻

[Ryan RC Rea @volvoshine]

Both me and @BeckyLeeGraham 's Holloween costumes are courtesy of the bankrupt art school downstairs at @officelogicmia 😂😂

They threw away everything so I salvaged something

I'm a Goya Malta Soda ☠️ and Becky is a modern witch 🧙
Couldn't be more Miami if I tried

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Alexis Gay @yayalexisgay]

asking a tennis player to play pickleball

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

@CloeyCallahan So well deserved!

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

In 2009, Stanford business professor Tina Seelig split her class into groups and issued a challenge:

Each group had $5 and 2 hours to make the highest return on the initial money.

At the end, they'd give a short presentation on their strategy.

The results were fascinating...

Most of the groups followed a basic approach:

• Use the $5 to buy a few items.
• Barter or resell those items.
• Repeat
• Sell final items for (hopefully) more than $5.

These groups made a modest return on their initial $5.

A few groups ignored the $5.

They thought up ways to make the most money in the 2 hours of allotted time:

• Made and sold reservations at hot restaurants.
• Refilled bike tires on campus for $1 each.

These groups made a better return on their initial $5.

The winning group took an entirely different approach.

They had three core realizations:

1. The $5 was nothing more than a distraction.

2. The 2 hours of time was not enough to make an attractive, outsized return with a mini-business (like selling restaurant reservations or filling bike tires).

3. The most valuable "asset" was actually the presentation time in front of a class of Stanford students.

Realizing the value of this hidden asset, they offered the presentation time to companies looking to recruit Stanford students.

They struck a deal to sell the time slot for $650, netting a monstrous return on the $5 of initial capital.

The losing groups thought in linear, logical terms and achieved a linear, logical outcome.

The winning group thought differently.

So, what can we learn from this story?

There are two types of problems:

1. Low-Stakes: Lower potential, linear rewards. Decisions are easily reversible.

2. High-Stakes: Higher potential, asymmetric rewards. Decisions are not easily reversible.

With low-stakes problems, given the reward potential is low and the decisions are easily reversible, we can use shortcuts and heuristics to choose our path. We can take a logical, linear approach.

With high-stakes problems, the high, asymmetric reward potential means we need to think differently. We want to take a creative, non-linear approach.

Three steps to start thinking differently:

Step 1: Avoid the Distraction

There will always be an "obvious" solution that is simple, clear, and entirely wrong.

In the challenge, the $5 was nothing more than a distraction. It was a trap.

To find the best path, you have to avoid the distraction.

Step 2: Ask Foundational Questions

Ask and answer questions that expose and vet underlying assumptions and logic.

• What's the real problem you are trying to solve?
• What's your hypothesis? Why?
• What are your core assumptions? Why?
• What evidence do you have?
• What are your core options?
• What alternatives exist?

This takes time, but it's an essential exercise when facing a problem with the potential for non-linear rewards.

Step 3: Select the High Leverage Approach

Slow down and evaluate the options on the table.

Select the path most likely to generate the asymmetric, attractive risk-adjusted returns.

If the story teaches us one thing, it's this:

Creative, non-linear, asymmetric thinking generates creative, non-linear, asymmetric outcomes.

If you enjoyed this or learned something, follow me @SahilBloom for more in future.

[Alex Friedman 🤠 @heyalexfriedman]

Tbh, I believe one of the biggest contributing factors to negative mental health today is this idea of "constant self-improvement."

Most people read self-help books while consuming self-help content, while staring at pictures of or reading about people whose lives they want to live all day every day on social media.

We aren’t meant to improve ourselves 24/7/365.

Sometimes you have to take a moment to simply be happy and proud of where you are and how far you’ve already come.

[scott budman @scottbudman]

A single person earning less than:

$122,500 in San Francisco County

$126,900 in Santa Clara County

...is now considered to be "low income."

Source: @California_HCD

[Becky Graham @BeckyLeeGraham]

❤️

[New York Times Opinion @nytopinion]

In early 2020, @conniewang cold-emailed Connie Chung, and she responded. “‘It’s so nice to meet another Connie,’ she told me toward the end of our call. But didn’t you know? I responded. There are so many of us out here. Named after you.”