TL;42:*
“The best way to predict your future is to create it”
— Peter Drucker
Artifice and repetitive dullness suck. We are committed to keeping this as consistently candid and thought provoking as possible. This issue is about learning, staying relevant, and embracing change.
I think we all share this feeling that the world has been somehow moving faster since 2020. Some of us still struggle to adapt, personally and professionally.
As we navigate these strange times, we should remind ourselves that continuous learning is key to facing change. Leadership is not a virtue, but the byproduct of our virtues. Bettering ourselves and improving our teams helps us plan ahead for reality instead of running behind it. Businesses that learn are more sustainable, outperforming their competitors. Work-related stress becomes more manageable, and the team’s culture is harder to beat.
Drucker’s quote at the top of this email — quite often and weirdly misattributed to Lincoln — seems particularly relevant in this context. Adapting our businesses to the fast-changing pivotal technology breakthroughs (looking at you, AI), amplifies our ability to shape our future and serve our audiences better.
— Santi
Learning and Change: Don’t stop me now 👑
“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place”.
The Red Queen Paradox
Learning to learn is training to run twice as fast. Here’s a roundup of fresh concepts, tools & inspiration we’ve kept returning to in our journey.
Small and consistent changes lead to drastic transformation and growth. What are the quick wins you’re not seeing? How do you challenge your preconceptions and explore opportunities for evolution? Godin’s article is from 2010 but still brilliantly simple and relevant. Also this.
The adjacent possible
Use objective data to learn conclusions and evolve your strategy. Kauffman’s theory teaches us to conceive organizations as living, evolving organisms. Every step forward opens new, exponential alternatives to drive your company forward. Finding the time and budget to explore and break things always pays off.
Miguel Ferreira’s newsletter on all things storytelling, copywriting, and marketing gives us a weekly dose of food for thought. It challenges the status quo and puts the value back on human creativity and love for brands.
Challenge beliefs and assumptions within your organization and be open to letting people challenge the beliefs and assumptions you, personally, hold to be true about what ‘right’ looks like.
A treasure trove of valuable insights on personal growth, learning and change. Mental models are essential to train thinking and innovation. This piece in particular is a great reminder that true learning requires a willingness to let go of what we think we know and embrace the journey of learning and discovery.
Friends, Partners & Shameless autobombo 🎺
Brands in B2B are evolving the fastest. The shift started years ago, and accelerated as a consequence of the massive post-Covid shopping behavior change. Platforms like BigCommerce are making the transition faster, simpler, and cheaper, leading to figures of up to 50% more revenue.
Pushing the boundaries
Speaking of massive change, check out our recent case study on the major release of the new photovideoedu.com. A case of building a beautiful, huge, complex, flexible, and totally tailored BigCommerce store.
A new hope
The adoption of the M.A.C.H. framework by BigCommerce, as well as some key acquisitions, have positioned our partners as the key players to watch in the B2B sector.
MACH matters because it’s good for everyone. SaaS providers foster a much richer integration and partner ecosystem. End clients have more ownership on their core strategic assets, and an exponential increase in creative, design, branding and experience freedom. MACH implies choice, future-thinking and truly tailored architectures.
Check these out for more:
And of course, Take the AI-Train.
Our friends at GetResponse moved their AI product recommendation feature out of beta. We’ve just started with the tool, and so far, we’ve seen interesting conversion rates and progress.
More interesting AI-related features are coming to GetResponse soon, with a full Chat GPT integration on the horizon. If you’re interested, let us know and we’ll arrange a free demo.
Four Turns Two 🎂
We’ve been working hard at learning to change and challenging our own preconceptions for a long time. What could be different? How can we make our business better without hating our future selves?
This month marks the second anniversary of our switch to a 4-day workweek. The results have exceeded our wildest expectations.
To celebrate this milestone and share our lessons learned, we’re releasing 4dias.es. Part directory of pioneer companies, part source of information, 4dias’ mission is to promote the benefits of reducing the work week, and teaching companies how to start the culture shift.
Come visit! Share! Join!
More about the 4-day workweek (in Spanish)
Numbers. Most of them are not fake. 🤞
- Insider Intelligence says retail eCommerce sales worldwide will grow by 8.9% this year. Initial forecasts were slightly above 10% but were adjusted due to the world losing its marbles. After the 2020’s huge digital sales boom during the pandemic, the gap with brick and mortar seems to be shortening.
- 37% of B2B companies have implemented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in some form, and 27% are planning to do so in the next 12 months.
- It takes humans an average of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become experts in a particular field or skill. This translates to approximately 9 years of daily practice for 3 hours daily. Watcha waitin’ for?
- The human brain can process and retain new information at a rate of up to 60 bits per second.
- Dogs can learn the names of over 1,000 different objects and commands and understand human gestures, with success rates ranging from 70% to 80%, outperforming most politicians.
This month in a gif 🎞️
I know, dude.
Thank you, next
We’ll be back soon to reflect on this year’s biggest shift: free, open access to AI learning models.
What it means to our craft and to your business, how we use it, and most importantly, what we will never use it for. Got questions? Suggestions? Opinions? (We love those).
Say hi on LinkedIn (and subscribe to get expert eCommerce insights in your inbox every two weeks)
💟, 🍵4️⃣2️⃣
*We like our TL;DRs in 42 words
