Communication systems

Definitions

Communication system or a process can be defined as ”The transmission of information from the source of information to the user of information.” or as ”The facility consisting of the physical plants and equipment for disseminating information.”

Main components of the communication system

A communication system has five main components:

1. An information source. It provides a message or many of them.
2. A transmitter. It transforms the message to a signal.
3. A communication channel. It is the medium that is used to move the signal from transmitter to a receiver.
4. A receiver. It reconstructs the signal back into a message.
5. The destination. It is the person for whom the message was intended to send.

In addition to these five components there are many less important ones like filters and amplifiers. There can also be many components such as transmitters, channels and receivers between the original information source and the destination. Communications systems are not perfect. There can be noise that creates distortions at any point between the source and the destination. You should never assume that there are no distortions. Transmitter can incorrectly change the message, communication channel can create noise by having too many signals moving through it at the same time, and receiver can incorrectly process the signal, which can lead to errors at the destination. The more components there are between the original source and the last destination, the more probable are the errors. This is one reason why you need some filtering for the message. Filters can be put anywhere in the system.

My writings as a communication system

Lets start from the sources. Most of the sources are the authors of the books I have read or their sources. Sometimes they are interviews of the experts in some other mediums like Youtube. You can also see it otherwise. For example, you can think about the authors as transmitters and their books as the communication channel. And then my mind is the receiver and my laptop is the destination. I create notes from the books of the authors and put them in my laptop. Now my notes are the source, I am the transmitter, and the communication channel is this blog. Your mind is the receiver and you are the final destination who decides what to do with the information I produce. You can see this communication systems having two subsystems with five main components in each as a whole single system.

As you can see, this system is not optimal for understanding mental models. It has too many components. And all of them can create more noise to the system. You could go through all the sources I use by yourself. This would eliminate many unnecessary components. It is not this simple of course. You have to consider the opportunity costs too. Going through all the sources take lots of time. And your time can be more valuable to you than learning more about each of the models. One source of errors is the language. I am not a native English speaker and I cannot copy my sources. This creates some unintended consequences. I can interpret differently things that I am reading and publish something that is not 100% right. The probability of this happening is very close to 100% in the long run. I would appreciate if somebody would tell me, when this happened and give me a reason for it. It would also help other readers.

A communication system is a topic that would require a lot more explaining. But to keep things simple, this text is enough for now.

-TT

Leverage

Definition

The leverage can be defined as ”The increased force resulting from the action of a lever.”

Levers are everywhere

Levers are very common. You can probably find many of them in your immediate surroundings, or from your body. For example, think about your hands from your shoulders to your fingers. Think about your shoulder and imagine a tennis ball on it. How far you think you can move it by using your shoulder? Not very far I presume. Now, think about having this same ball on your hand. How many times farther you think you can move the ball? I haven´t measured, but probably your hand is about 10x longer than your shoulder. I am sure you can move the ball more than 10x farther with your hand. This one of the simplest levers.

If you are an employee, you are a one type of lever for your employer. One person cannot deliver all the business for all the clients. The better you are in your job, the bigger the leverage you offer for your employer. And you can ask more money from your services to the employer. The bigger the demand for your skills, the better leverage you have in wage negotiations. To be more exact, the more the employer associates your abilities to value you offer for him, the more money you can ask. All the employees are not paid by their real skills. Getting a feedback while you are practicing is a form of leverage too. A feedback from a coach is the best way to accelerate your development.

And you can also use leverage with things related to money. Your mortgage is a lever for buying a house. Without a bank, you couldn´t buy a house that costs much compared to your income. All the credit cards you use are levers as well. These are not the best ways of using leverage in financial situations. Investing in a business should be a better way of using leverage. Using other people´s money or other resources are good ways of using leverage into your own advantage.

Using leverage is dangerous

Levers can be wonderful tools. But you need to know what you are doing or you will create mostly destruction. For example, using too much dynamite to blow up something, will probably kill the user. To keep things simple, the bigger the leverage, the more dangerous it is to use it. And the bigger the leverage, the more skilled you need to be to use it properly. And sometimes too much leverage destroys everyone, no matter how skilled they are. Be aware about the delays. Sometimes, the effects of using leverage wait in hiding. Systems with self-reinforcing feedback loops and leverage can be lethal. For example, the last financial crash happened very quickly after the negative effects of too much leverage had grown enough. After this point, self-reinforcing feedback loops destroyed many banks and other financial institutes. And their owners and executives had no ways of solving problems.

Leverage points

First, I would like to say that leverage point may not be the best way to define a thing I am introducing. There are situations where using the leverage for pushing something forward gives a lot bigger outcome than the effort. Failure to choose the right point of using leverage gives the opposite result. First, imagine a big rock on a flat ground and a lever to move it. The result is irrelevant. Now imagine a big rock on a big hill on the edge of the major fall and a lever. Most leverage points are not this obvious. Some points you will not notice until you have seen their full effects. And some effects of the leverage points are not understood at all, because you haven´t noticed the point at all. This is the most probable situation.

The more skilled you are in something the better the chance you have to notice these points. Linear effects can be transformed to compounded effects by using the leverage at the right point. When this point of critical mass is reached, things start taking care of themselves. For example, you can buy more ads to sell a product, when it is on the brink of coming popular enough, and getting a massive amount of social proof. You should also try to figure out those leverage points that are producing the biggest negative effects for yourself. If you are in a competitive environment like athletes, you need to be aware of them. Your opponents will surely use them against you if they notice them. 

Sources:

Sources of Power, Gary Klein
Poor Charlie´s Almanack, Peter Kaufman

-TT

Flow

Definitions

Flow-state can be defined as ”The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” or as ”An optimized state of consciousness where you feel your best and perform your best.”

Why flow-state is important?

During flow you are in an optimal state of performance. Your creativity, productivity, and feeling of happiness is the greatest. According to Temple University sports psychologist Michael Sachs, all the olympic gold medals have been achieved during flow-states. Or are achieved at least partly by having a flow state. Fast problem solving occurs during flow. Your focus is the highest, when you are in it. You are more aware about your environment, your time flies, and your self disappears. All this helps you to move you fluidly from one decision or action to another. The level of performance is much higher than without it. It is not achievable without enough challenges. Flow state is not achievable while you are performing routine tasks.

Basic properties and components of the flow-state

In flow, you have a profound mental clarity, you are emotionally unattached and everything works completely automatically. Your thinking parts of the brain are shut down during flow, especially, your prefrontal cortex that performs executive functions. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the ”father” of flow has identified ten components for flow:

1. You have clear goals. You know what you are going to do and what is needed to achieve it. You are also skilled enough to perform it. Your task is challenging and your skill level is high.
2. Your focus is on a limited field of attention.
3. Your action and awareness are merged.
4. You have lost a sense of time.
5. You will get a direct and immediate feedback from your action. The boundaries of success and failure are clear. Learning occurs, or high level of risk damages the performer.
6. Flow is most probable, when the challenge is a little bit harder than your skill level. Some flow researchers talk about 4 per cent.
7. Your control of the situation feels complete.
8. Your motivation is very high and intrinsic.
9. You do not feel hunger, exhaustion, or any other bodily needs.
10. You are not aware of your surroundings. The activity itself is the only thing that matters.

Out of these ten components, the right challenge/skill ratio, direct and immediate feedback and clear goals are demanded for flow. Rest of the components are not always present. They exist only at some point of the flow cycle.

A flow cycle

Flow can be divided into a four part cycle. First stage is called a struggle. You fill your brain with information. You may focus on problem analysis or fact gathering. Stress hormones flood to your body and brain. At this point, you have no idea how to proceed. You are also conscious of your surroundings and you are identifying and repeating patterns until they become tiny, clear goals. Getting through the struggle leads you to the second stage called release. You start relaxing and your mind wanders off the problem. Stress hormones diminish and the levels of feel-good neurochemicals start rising. After the release, the third stage in flow cycle begins, the flow-state itself. The final stage of the cycle is recovery. Most people will feel totally exhausted after the flow-state, at least mentally. Flow-state requires lots of energy. Recovery takes time. Starting the cycle again is hard work and some people never get back into flow. Recovery feels more like struggle than release of the flow-state itself. If you want to get back into flow, you need to recharge completely in recovery.

Flow has a dark side.

The state itself is very consuming, demanding, and unpredictable. Your brain and body are full with highly addictive hormones and neurotransmitters during flow cycle. It is not hard to go too far in a flow-state. And once you go too far, consequences can be terrible. Some people in extreme sports went too far. Because you have to get better all the time to achieve a flow-state, you have to take bigger risks and sometimes those risks are lethal. Your ability to realize those risks decreases and fear becomes less touchable. You may evaluate your life differently. Flow may become a personal need or an addiction, rather than something your mind and body wanders occasionally.

Sources:

Flow: the Psychology of Happiness, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The Rise of Superman, Steven Kotler

-TT

Disruption

Definitions

Disruption can be defined as ”A radical change” or as ”Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process” or as ”To break apart or alter so as to prevent normal or expected functioning.”

Sources of disruption

You live in a world where disruption happens all the time and fast compared to even hundred years ago. Most disruptions come from technological change. There are many examples. For example steam engine launched the industrial revolution. Today, internet, artificial intelligence, many biological breakthroughs and other disruptive technologies change the world faster than anyone could have thought even thirty years ago. And the speed of change is accelerating. It is very hard to imagine what the world looks like thirty years from now. Environment brings you some of the disruptive events. Earthquakes, big storms and other ways of nature can radically change your environment and disrupt millions of lifes during their life times. Diseases can disrupt your life too. And so can changes in politics.

Disruption and evolution

Evolution happens mostly gradually during a very long time. Random mutations happen and some of them survive. When the environment suddenly changes, disruption happens. The species that survived in the environment in the past, fail to reproduce after the change. There is a theory that dinosaurs died, because of a big meteorite hit on the surface of the earth, creating a whole new environment. And different species were better adjusted to the new environment. Humans wouldn´t probably live on this planet without the results of many disruptions. And we probably wouldn´t have consciousness. Sometimes disruption starts slowly and erupts violently. For example, many new technologies are adopted slowly at first. They evolve from the first version. It may take years before a disruptive technology is good enough to displace an old technology. After the critical mass of users have been reached, an exponential growth starts.

Disruption and personal change

Change is one of the constant truths about life. Real disruption changes things forever. Change can be gradual or sudden. Which one should you prefer? There is not a single right answer to this question. I am sorry to say this, but it depends on the circumstances. Gradual change is easier. It should be a preferred way of doing things, when there is no need to disrupt your thoughts, emotions and actions. I have succeeded better, when I have tried to change gradually. It may not be the best way for you. You should figure out yourself which is a way to change.

Disruption is sometimes the only way to do things. If you have unhealthy habits like drinking or smoking, or eating too much unhealthy food, you cannot change your habits slowly. Another dose of alcohol may create severe health problems for persons that have destroyed their liver. They have to disrupt their drinking habits and avoid alcohol at all cost. You can be a person whose way of doing things is change things completely and fast. I know some people like this. They are not in majority. Most people prefer fast results, but what you prefer and what is best for you is not the same thing. Fast results is what you see in different medias. What you don´t see is how many people fail doing the same thing.

You should think about your core beliefs, the environments you associate with and the most important actions you take. Think deeper and try to figure out if you should disrupt some of them. There are some questions you can ask yourself. For example, do you use most of your time to get you where you want to be or are you just wandering around waiting for some random event that changes your life for good? Could you change your environment to get you where you want to be? Do you hang around with people who can help you be a better version of yourself or should you move to another neigborhood or another country? There are many other questions you can ask. Figure out more of them yourself.

Sources:

Disrupt Yourself, Jay Samit

Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore

Innovator´s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen

Have a nice week!

-TT