Mic Check by Rhetoric: Volume 5

Luck = doing things * telling people

What's something that isn't rocket science but sometimes feels like rocket science? I'll go first: 

Luck = (doing things) * (telling people)

It's a simple formula coined by Jason Roberts called the Luck Surface Area. Basically, if you stand a chance in hell of being successful, you have to consistently work in public. 

I read an article that perfectly explains this relationship today (linked below in Open Tabs) and it got my wheels turning about the "just ship it" mentality. I feel like teams often swing like a pendulum between being ship-happy, breaking something, and consequently guarding their work until it's perfect—and thus, never shipping. 

It seems counterintuitive, but embracing the Luck Surface Area theory in your business and shipping faster actually takes immense pressure off of your team. Why? Because working in public is just that—working.

Your audience (read: the world) isn't looking for a record of years and years of you doing the same thing. They want to see how you've changed and grown, where you started compared to where you are now. It's never too early to start building that story.


- Raman
 

📚 Open tabs

What team Rhetoric is reading during those awkwardly-timed few minutes between Zooms. 

As promised, here's Aaron Francis' piece in The ReadME Project: Publishing your work increases your luck. ⛴ Side note: The ReadME Project is definitely worth subscribing to if you're into F/OSS and all things tech. 

This 1998 Forbes piece anticipating that the next big challenge for corporations would be finding and retaining top talent could have been written in 2022. It begs the question: 24 years later, who has won the "war" for talent?

Attn: AI/ML, cybersecurity, and defense founders: Booz Allen Hamilton has a new $100M fund just for you. Better brush the dust off that pitch. 

✨ New ways to present better

Here's what's going on at Rhetoric this week:

There's a game-changing new feature in your Rhetoric dashboard: you can now edit saved presentations slide-by-slide! What does that mean for you?

1. If you get feedback on a slide, you can now re-record that slide without having to start from scratch. 

2. You can also send your saved Rhetoric to a co-presenter to record a slide (or several). 
 

❤️ Your friends can be great presenters, too

Found this useful and know someone who wants to up their speaking game? Want to help us banish the grip that flat, written text has over our lives once and for all? Or perhaps you just like cool hats?

Share Mic Check with your network and we'll hook you up with some swag.