Reverse Engineering My Life

Using myself as a case history with various asides, details, and instructions

Analyze the Past

• First I opened up a spreadsheet and listed most major projects since college.

• I rated each projects on a satisfaction/happiness/engagement scale.

OVERALL

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8Non-profit BoD 9Startup 7Post-Startup Biz Exec 4Integration w/ New Parent Co 6Systems Building 7

• List anything that takes up a lot of time, ie jobs, hobbies, volunteer work, etc

• Try to get a 5-8 examples

• I hid the OVERALL ratings column.

• Next I broke it down by factors.

Factors

tribe / teamwork

fun social utility

legend money Average

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 10 4 10 6 0 6.0Non-profit BoD 10 6 10 10 0 7.2Startup 7 8 5 8 8 7.2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 5 6 8 5.4Integration w/ New Parent Co 7 6 4 8 8 6.6Systems Building 2 6 5 6 8 5.4

•Think through the factors that might have provided satisfaction in each different project•Add those as column headings

• Examples: teamwork; social impact; autonomy•My preliminary list is below.•Rate each project 1-10 on each factor.•Average the ratings for each project.

contribution to something meaningful; right livelihood

street cred, fame, glory, ego boost

• Unhide the overall column.

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility

legend money Average

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 6.0Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 7.2Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 7.2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 5.4Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 6.6Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 5.4

• Where are the contradictions?

OVERALL Average Comments

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 6.0Non-profit BoD 9 7.2Startup 7 7.2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6Systems Building 7 5.4

•Does the order shown by the averages pretty much match your overall assessment?

• Yes, great! Proceed to the future.• No - then:

•What’s missing? • Add factors. • Rate the new factors. • Does that fix it? • Iterate

•Note that the relative order and obvious contradictions are more important than the actual numbers.

Should be different but Averages are the same

After going through the process above, I discovered my story didn’t correlate. For example, two items with quite different overall ratings ended up with the same average.

I had to ask myself why did I like Systems Building and dislike the Biz Exec crap. (Apologies to happy Biz Execs.) This was pretty easy to answer. One involved building things immediately and concretely…what I’ll call Craft or Engineering.

The other occasionally bordered into baby-sitting.

I liked working with folks to set personal and enterprise goals and trying to make those harmonize. I liked marshaling the resources and setting up the framework to get shit done…but you know, that’s pretty close to Engineering if you define Engineering broadly as finding, building, assembling or inventing a collection of elements and then crafting them to create a desired effect. On the other hand, I had very little patience with folks that weren’t intrinsically motivated and was happy to give maximum slack to those that were. Downside: If someone was having serious problems and didn’t tell me, I’d notice when their corpse began to smell.

OVERALL Average Comments

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 6.0Non-profit BoD 9 7.2Startup 7 7.2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6Systems Building 7 5.4

• So I added Engineering.• I, also, made some comments where I thought this framework was too narrow or missing factors.

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility

legend money craft / engineering

Average Comments

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 made life long friendsNon-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 downside: stress of budgetingStartup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7 good personal growth, too extroverted for the long termSystems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2

Better but still a bit off. More on that to come. Patience is requested.

Project Yourself Forward - Too Simple Version

• List things you could do next.• Think through how they would likely rate on each factor.• Determine the top few and explore them in real life to see if your assessment is accurate.

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility

legend money craft / engineering

Average

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4 4 5 6 8 4 5.2Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7 6 4 8 8 7 6.7Systems Building 7 2 6 5 6 8 10 6.2

Things I Could DoRole in Startup - Anticipated 10 10 6 9 9 8.8Role in Startup - Tested 9 8 8 ? 9 8 8.3

Story Social Media - Anticipated 3 6 9 9 9 7.2Story Social Media - Tested 7 5 6 7 9 10 7.4

Watch TV 1 4 1 1 0 1.4Play Games 5 9 1 5 0 4.0Build Games 4 8 5 7 10 6.8

Project Yourself Forward – A Better Model

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility

legend money craft / engineerin

g

Average Comments Rank OVERLL

Rank Average

Dif

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4   4 4 5 6 8 4   5.2 6 6 0Integration w/ New Parent Co 6   7 6 4 8 8 7   6.7 5 3 2Systems Building 7   2 6 5 6 8 10   6.2 3 4 1

0Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch

weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0

Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2

05 mismatch

I listed the Factors I considered major and by luck they were close enough in relative importance for some patterns to immediately emerge. I did need a few passes to include all the Factors that seemed highly relevant. However, the more Factors, the more likely that some are going to be more important; in the current model they’re all equally weighted. I added weighting and experimented with different weights.

What I discovered:

• Money was not a factor in satisfaction. I dropped it out because I was planning ‘retirement’ and didn’t need it to be a factor. Surprisingly the model got a lot better. Thinking it through, it was really only a factor in how much time I could afford to devote to any project. It was not a source of satisfaction in and of itself.

• Doubling the weighting had no impact on any factors except Social Utility. Increasing that improved the model

OVERALL Average Comments

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 6.0Non-profit BoD 9 7.2Startup 7 7.2Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 5.4Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 6.6Systems Building 7 5.4

• Add weighting to the factors to allow differences in importance.• This tweaks the averages: switch to Rank as your key indicator.• Test all factors by first zeroing and then doubling the weight to see what factors are irrelevant and which are key.

• If necessary, test new factors. Iterate between including or excluding factors and changing weighting to get your story as consistent as possible.

• It should never match perfectly. Remember reality is always messier than you can effectively model!

• Here’s a template you can copy and use.

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility legend money craft / engineering

Average Comments Rank OVERLL

Rank Average

Dif

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3

Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1

Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2

Post-Startup Biz Exec 4   4 4 5 6 8 4   5.2 6 6 0

Integration w/ New Parent Co 6   7 6 4 8 8 7   6.7 5 3 2

Systems Building 7   2 6 5 6 8 10   6.2 3 4 1

0

Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch

weighting--> 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0

Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 5.5 2 3 1

Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 7.3 1 1 0

Startup 7 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 6.3 3 2 1

Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 3.8 6 6 0

Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 5.3 5 4 1

Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 5.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 4.8 3 5 2

0

5 mismatch

1) Add weighting

Template and formulas here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing

2) And Add Rank.

3) Then dropping out money…

4)Improved the model

Factors

OVERALL tribe / teamwork

fun social utility legend money craft / engineering

Average Comments Rank OVERLL

Rank Average

Dif

Things I've DoneCommunity Organizing 8 10 4 10 6 0 3 5.5 2 5 3

Non-profit BoD 9 10 6 10 10 0 8 7.3 1 2 1

Startup 7 7 8 5 8 8 10 7.7 3 1 2

Post-Startup Biz Exec 4   4 4 5 6 8 4   5.2 6 6 0

Integration w/ New Parent Co 6   7 6 4 8 8 7   6.7 5 3 2

Systems Building 7   2 6 5 6 8 10   6.2 3 4 1

0

Adding in Weighting - Dropping Out Money 9 mismatch

weighting--> 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 1.0

Community Organizing 8 10.0 4.0 20.0 6.0 0.0 3.0 7.2 2 2 0

Non-profit BoD 9 10.0 6.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 8.0 9.0 1 1 0

Startup 7 7.0 8.0 10.0 8.0 0.0 10.0 7.2 3 2 1

Post-Startup Biz Exec 4 4.0 4.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 4.0 4.7 6 6 0

Integration w/ New Parent Co 6 7.0 6.0 8.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 6.0 5 4 1

Systems Building 7 2.0 6.0 10.0 6.0 0.0 10.0 5.7 3 5 2

0

4 mismatch

Template and formulas here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fLLRcCQw6Fl3w7UBJQUswGGNQumEao5yg0V3cBac2I/edit?usp=sharing

5.Doubling social utility…

6. Improved it further

Project Yourself Forward – The Messy Reality

There’s a discussion of this slide in the companion Medium article, last section.