Peer pressure during our school years often leads to groupthink, causing us to lose our identity in the quest to fit in.

Growing up, for me, it rarely led to anyone's elevation. Instead, it taught me to hide and remain within the margins.

However, the right kind of pressure, combined with a peer, cohort, any group of choice or a mentor's keen observation, can profoundly impact. When we and those we care about hold us accountable for our actions and words, helps us see what we said we would and show us our wants. It helps us to stand up for our beliefs consistently in what we do and say.

You become a reflection of the company you keep.

You directly mirror the expectations of your peer group.

You're not a tree. You can find new places and new groups without moving, yet not without reflecting on your time, and efforts and owning your behaviour

EVERYTHING you do in your work is, from other people's perspectives, a movable part.
Are you designing with that in mind? Are you rearranging what others hold fixed?

It's a wonderfully powerful constraint if embraced, yet often we're surprised by it.

thinking out loud on how do you approach thinking about the unthinkable?
Measuring the unmeasurable?

if discipline is a journey of discomfort and joy, how do we improve?
if doubt and a wavering mind are the opposite of discipline how could "that what if" help those you serve?

is it thus a feeling? if we choose to be resolute in our behaviour it looks a lot like discipline

When working its important we embrace data, metrics, and predictions AND what's hard to measure, quantify, and touch ourselves.

for example when conducting due diligence for our systems, we must consider operations, cybersecurity, privacy by design, AI, sustainability, scalability, costs, and robustness. Equally important is the well-being of the people we serve and those who operate and maintain our systems for their intended purpose. What can be backed up by metrics, code, and documentation? and what is hard to measure yet still needs to be translated into disciplined execution to serve its intended outcome.


As always I don't know and love hearing your thoughts on this.

Below is an image intended to show that you always have your digital twin permanently everywhere and it's impossible to know or measure all it's being used for. Generated by leonardo.ai by some nudges by me