Social Darwinism is the application of natural selection to sociology, economics and politics. Our society exhibits natural selection or survival of the fittest where “fit” is defined as things that give you access to more resources. While we may observe this in our society, most of us don’t want to live in a world where social Darwinism is allowed everywhere. For example, variations of social Darwinism have been used to justify some horrifying things e.g. Nazi Germany, Japanese Imperialism. ...

I blog to learn, teach and grow. I love finding a problem, letting others know I’m going after it, iterating over various solutions (especially using data!) and then sitting back to see the problem solved (this is my high performance pattern). Frequently, I’m not the only one encountering these problems, and so I share my solutions with you. Ultimately, my hope is for you and I to be better every day. ...

The opinions expressed on this blog are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way. rayli.net has affiliate partnerships e.g. Amazon. These do not influence editorial content, though rayli.net may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. See also About me

Solving a simpler problem gets you closer to what your world looks like if your problem was solved. Solving the simpler problem either tells you more about the original problem, or helps you break it down by presenting you with a new problem. See also Breakdown the problem

If you’re having trouble breaking down a problem into solvable chunks, here are 5 ways to get you unblocked: Solve a simpler problem. Come up with a solution that’s incorrect. Solve a concrete example of the problem. Solve an extreme example of the problem. Come up with a partial solution. See also Deliver weekly chunks

Better Public Schools Won’t Fix Income Inequality (The Atlantic) is one of those belief-altering articles that completely changed my thoughts around education. Here are 8 of Nick Hanauer’s most powerful points: Educationism is the idea that poverty and inequality can be solved with education. Education-reform ignores the greatest driver of student achievement: household income. Great public schools don’t create a thriving middle class, great public schools are a product of thriving middle class. Income inequality has exploded despite education progress. The lower the parent’s income, the lower the educational attainment. Educationists ignore the disease (economic inequality) and focus on the symptom (education inequality). Limited family income is difficult to overcome even for students that are naturally gifted. Pay the average worker more, and you will create a thriving middle class that addresses both economic and educational inequality. See also StackBacks automated budget system Is inequality inevitable? Stop collecting, and start producing

In G. William Domhoff’s piece Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power, he makes 8 compelling points that should make you wonder whether you truly understand where you stand in America: Wealth is the value of what you own while income is what you earn. Wealth is highly concentrated in just a few hands in the US. Wealth leads to power, and power leads to wealth. US is a power pyramid with the bottom 80-90% having no power. Tax cuts on capital gains and dividends benefits only the top Americans who get the majority of their income from capital gains and dividends. The US has both wealth and income highly concentrated. In the US, taxes and transfer payments reduce inequality but not much. CEOs generally get the salary they think they deserve. See also Neutralizing social Darwinism Is inequality inevitable?

Okay, so that’s incremental value. You might be wondering… Why every week? Taking control and delivering incremental value every week is one of the single most effective ways to focus your work on your project. If you can figure out how to deliver a thing of value every week on the project you’re working on, you can pretty much tackle anything. It sounds simple, but to be honest, it’s also really difficult. ...

Delivering incremental value is the secret to supercharging your results. Not only do people benefit from seeing the thing being delivered incrementally, you can also learn whether you’re heading in the right direction before investing too much. In the world of software development, incremental value doesn’t have to be a commit (although that’s probably the best kind of value). It could be a demo-able prototype, a plan, documenting something, etc. ...

A simple, repeatable system for doing great work on your team is to: Take a problem on your team. Work on it. Make it go away for your team. Ask for another problem. Then repeat steps 1-4. I think this is a great system. It’s super simple, but simple doesn’t mean easy. It’s made more difficult because there’s a thing missing… How do you do those steps within the context of the problems and projects you work on? ...