Verner Lofstrand

I am a dad and husband who tries to do chemistry.

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@BagPhos @Chemjobber First of all: how dare you
Secondly: lol yeah

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1998, Citibank and The Travelers Insurance Company merged.

They hired legendary designer Paula Scher to create a new logo.

In their first meeting, on a napkin, Scher drew what became the iconic Citi logo.

As Scher got up to leave the room, someone from the Citi team asked,

How can it be that it’s done in a second?

“It’s done in a second and 34 years," Scher replied. “It’s done in a second [and] every experience and everything that’s in my head.”

Takeaway 1:

As Scher has become a master of her craft, she's experienced an interesting problem.

"A lot of clients like to buy process," she explains. "they think they're not getting their money's worth [if] you solve the problem too fast."

This is known as the "Labor Perception Bias."

It's an interesting phenomenon: we are generally impatient, yet, we are skeptical if, for instance, we're at a fancy restaurant and the food comes out only minutes after we ordered.

One of famous examples of the Labor Perception Bias is the parable of the engineer and the hammer:

A factory owner hired an engineer to fix a broken-down engine. The engineer inspected the engine for one minute, took out his hammer, hammered the engine once, and then started the engine with no problem.

The engineer charged the factory owner $5000. The factory owner was shocked, protested that the engineer had worked for only one minute, and asked for an itemized bill. The engineer sent the factory owner an itemized bill:

Hammering the engine: $5
Knowing where to hammer the engine: $4,995

Takeaway 2:

On my desk, there is a notecard that says, “All success is a lagging indicator.”

The line comes from one of my favorite Ryan Holiday articles. “When a day’s writing goes well,” he writes, “it’s a lagging indicator of hours and hours spent researching and thinking… Receiving a promotion is a lagging indicator of a lot of quality work. Delivering a keynote with confidence is a lagging indicator of a lot of preparation.”

Knowing where to hammer the engine is a lagging indicator of the years and years working with hammers and on engines.

And Paula Scher’s ability to create an iconic logo in a second is a lagging indicator of 34 years spent honing her craft.

- - -

“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.” — Tinker Hatfield

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[TheWestGroup @TheWestGroup1]

Here's some great work from Christian, Kyle, and Verner @vernbot on [2+2] chemistry of cyclic allenes: https://t.co/Ndy8N2ipcZ

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@FueledbyLOLZ @BenS4G I’m in this photo and I don’t like it 🤣🤣🤣

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@_gracetompkins This is the greatest sweater to exist
Never take it off

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

When someone sends you a draft of a manuscript and uses the words “easily accessed precursors” for compounds that took you months to prepare…..
#EasyIsRelative #MyPoorEgo

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@SJC_fishy This is even funnier when I remember after I left the University of Alberta, they instituted “summer tuition” for grad students. Taking a further 1600$ out of pockets of those already at poverty line.

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@EvanDunfee We felt super lucky to be out there cruising. You said it perfectly

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@BenS4G What. A. Boss.
Congrats #BigBen

[Outside Magazine @outsidemagazine]

"If you read my story, and you’re disturbed by what you read, then think about where you spend your money. And don’t let one inspirational commercial or marketing campaign make you forget what you read." https://t.co/hfM3H8zcqJ

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@KUhokie42 @Chemjobber Oh my god. Selectivity. Selectivity from adjacent chloride. So we don’t reduce it lol

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@KUhokie42 @Chemjobber We use iron in our lab to get electricity from adjacent chloride
Works well but emulsion from hell so patience is key.

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@MarksGonePublic Just a word of caution dry ice comes coated with oil. So it will not be great for ingestion. Or it might help the usual coffee “side effect”

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@tastelyss_ @ash__oka With these gas prices?!? #ThatsAPremiumDate

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@prof_west Jeez just @ me next time 🙄

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

I can officially add firefighter to my LinkedIn

[iRunFar @iRunFar]

Courtney Dauwalter (@SalomonSports) wins the 2022 Hardrock 100 in a clockwise and overall course record of 26:44:38. Diana Finkel previously had the CW record of 28:32 (2010) and overall record of 27:18:24 (2009). Our pre-race chat with Courtney: https://t.co/X7GGfLHQL8 #HR100

[Alex Predhome, Track and Field Enjoyer @Predamame]

Nobody will remember:
- Your salary
- Your fancy title
- How ‘busy’ you were
- How stressed you were
- How many hours you worked

People will remember:
- The kudos you got on Strava
- Your creative titles for runs on Strava
- The segments where you were a local legend on Strava

[Verner Lofstrand @vernbot]

@NianticLabs
What’s going on with adventure sync?!? I ran 25k today and 9km yesterday with my buddy and it’s not registering anything for the last two days in a row?!?