Three-by-Three
Top Three 2024 Year in Review
Remember Christmas Day? That was already a week ago!
One of the things I sometimes say when I’m asked why I work so much is:
What is a week? And how does one end?
In some ways, I feel the same about years. When we are very young our life is measured in weeks, then months. As we get older the time scales increase (the pride of a young child who considers themselves to be three and a half), initially to years then, eventually, to decades (life begins at 40, etc). But we very rarely measure our lives in days. I recently turned 18,000 days old, and didn’t even get a card. Perhaps it’s too depressing to think in those terms?
For the last couple of years I haven’t even made it to midnight on New Year’s Eve. As I’ve found myself explaining to my much younger nieces who are staying with us over the holiday period: the definition of being a grown-up is that you want to go to bed when you’re tired.
In the last five years, especially, as our Hoku team has evolved, most of our planning and larger projects have revolved around an April-March financial year, rather than a January-December calendar year. It’s actually great to get back to work after the summer break and be finishing more substantial things that have been bubbling for a while, rather than trying to start fresh. And as summer turns into autumn, it’s also the perfect time to be planning ahead.
I mostly avoid New Year’s resolutions too. A year feels like a very long time. This Top Three Substack, which started on 3rd January 2021 is a notable exception. I prefer to think about what I can do consistently between January and March - for example, rather than making a vague commitment to losing weight, try “no liquid calories” or “a 3km walk every morning”. Committing to something for three months (or just 13 weeks, if you prefer) feels far less overwhelming to me, and once it’s done you’ve proven you can sustain new habits for a few weeks, so why not longer?
For me the first few months of 2025 are going to be dominated by How To Be Wrong, which has been a work-in-progress for too long now. I’m excited to finally get it published, and that’s taking all my time at the moment - check out the limited edition merch details below!
Maybe, once that’s done, I can kick-back and enjoy a satisfying week end?
The Top Three Summer Series will be back with Part 4 next week, but in the meantime a 2024 3x3 reflection on the last 12 months…
📥 Top Three Posts
You all voted with your feet (actually thumbs and then eyeballs).
These were the top three posts on Top Three in 2024:1
🥇: If "tech" is the answer, what is the question?
24th June 2024
This was my keynote to the SportNZ Connections conference:
People seem to be much more anxious than excited about technology these days. Some of you may even consider technology to be the enemy. We need better questions to ask about technology, and how it could be applied to our organisations and teams. We can start with a simple one…
Q: What is “technology”?
What was intended to be a chance to share some links and references ended up reaching a much larger audience than just those in the room, which was lovely.
🥈: 🍕 Meet, 📢 Lobby, 💕 Engage
1st July 2024
This was written in the wake of the governments decision to cut funding for KiwiSaaS, and generated a lot of comments and debate. I tried to cut through the handwringing and propose some small but concrete things that people who were despairing about this decision could actually do:
Consider the perennial pissing competition for which sector is the largest exporter, between agriculture and tourism and “tech”. Via the Ministry for Primary Industries and Tourism New Zealand, you’d have to say those other two sectors have much better direct links into government decision makers.
This got me thinking … What would an effective “tech” lobby look like?
It wouldn’t take much to form a group to represent the sector - everybody already knows each other. It could include hi-tech, deep-tech and SaaS (dare I say: low-tech) and so be a broad church covering the full depth spectrum of technology.
…
But what would this group, together, actually want from the government?
🥉: We’re not here to play tiddly winks!
25th July 2024
This was Part 2 of my 7-part Top Three @ The Paris 2024 Olympics series.
Spending the fortnight in Paris during the Olympics was easily the highlight of the year for me. We got to see some amazing performances in person, meet some truly inspiring athletes and celebrate their victories. Plus we enjoyed some fun debates with a group of interesting people as we made our way from venue to venue. It was a delight to share some of those in these posts.
Part 2 was my investigation into what should and shouldn’t be an Olympic sport:
It’s not hard to think of new and different sports that could be added. But, what could be dropped? It think that’s a more interesting question. If we could design a slimmed down Olympic Games, what sporting-based criteria could we use to decide which sports make the cut?
I think we could do much worse than just enforcing the IOC’s existing motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for: Faster, Higher Stronger.
📸 Top Three Photos
Going back a few years I used to post a “best of” on Instagram (see: 2020, 2021, 2022 part 1 and part 2). I had to cast the net a bit wider this year, since I’ve barely posted anything during 2024, but came up with three #bestnine: art, olympics and adventures.
Starting with that long-list of 27, here are my picks for the top three overall…
🥇: Leap of Faith
In February I completed my first (and probably last) Coast To Coast. It was one of the most gruelling yet satisfying things I’ve ever done - physically, obviously, but mostly mentally.
The two days of the race were memorable, but the highlights mostly came in the preparation. Learning to kayak in a rapid river was a completely new skill and deep fun once I got comfortable with it. Staying dry on race day was possibly the biggest achievement. And I was lucky to complete the mountain “run” over Goat Pass multiple times in the lead-up, with different groups of friends, old and new.
The scramble up the Deception Valley includes many river crossings and lots of climbing over boulders. It’s roped off on race day, for safety reasons, but if you’re just doing the track on your own time there is an opportunity to try this leap of faith.
Special thanks to Darryl Gray who captured the moment, otherwise the only evidence I would have had was the spike on my heart rate monitor.
Honourable mention to this telling shot of me in the finishing chute:
🥈: Forward?
In June we finally made it to Sydney for Vivid, the annual light festival. This is something I’ve wanted to see in person for a few years, and it did not disappoint.
This photo was taken at Dark Spectrum, an “immersive, multimedia experience hidden beneath Sydney’s streets” - in the now-mostly-abandoned Wynyard railway tunnels, near the city side of the Harbour Bridge.
Wynyard Station is one of the stops on the city rail loop. Curiously the four platforms are numbered 3, 4, 5 & 6. There is a history! Platforms 1 & 2 were built in the 1930s as part of a never-completed rail line to the North shore. They were used until the 1950s as part of a tram network, before being boarded up and converted to car parks.
In other words, the perfect setting for an underground light show. One review described it, accurately, as “social media candy” so no surprise my best shot was in portrait.
🥉: Bruce?
We’ve been chipping away on some fun large-scale art projects during 2024, and have really enjoyed working with great artists (and engineers), including Ben Foster, Virginia King and Graeme Snowden.
This photo is of one of four origami sheep designed and built by Ben Pearce, to graze in the vicinity of his new work called “The Henge”, which (as intended) feels like it may have been there for millennia.
A common question is: “How big are they?” The answer: sheep sized, of course.
The next question, usually, is: “What are their names?” I’m open to suggestions.
🍗 Top Three Nuggets
I’m coming up to two years Twitter-sober.2
I don’t miss the wasted hours spent scrolling or the frequent reminders that there are people who are wrong on the internet. But I do miss the 140-character gems (yes, I know there is no character limit now - but even that is telling, constraints are one of the things that made it great imo).
To cope with the withdrawal symptoms, I keep a file I call “nuggets”, things that in the past might have been posted there. Perhaps it will be useful one day?
Here are three of my favourite additions to that list from the last year:
🥇: Stone Cold Truth
People in stone houses definitely shouldn't throw glasses
🥈: Better together?
Combining two things that are struggling isn’t bundling it’s huddling
🥉: Shake it off?
Haters get all the headlines but in the process we’re overlooking the players, heart breakers and fakers
📙 Book updates…
I’m deep in the weeds of the final proof-read and preparing to record the audiobook next week. I look forward to sharing some more concrete launch details very soon. Stay tuned. In the meantime…
🧢 Shop the Ctrl-Z look
Those who attended Sunrise in Wellington a few weeks back may recall the 1999-era Trade Me screenshot I showed, along with the original wingding logo:
In 2006, as a Christmas gift, we revived this design on special edition t-shirts for all of the Trade Me team. I’m excited to announce you can now buy your own. It’s part of a very limited edition release of How To Be Wrong Ctrl-Z merch, including t-shirts and caps, available today at https://shop.howtobewrongbook.com.
For the launch of this range on a brand new Shopify store (please tread lightly!), and recognising that the first items won’t ship now until everybody is back from their summer break mid/late January, these are starting at discounted prices. Get in quick…
👍 Read some early reviews
The first few early reviews are in. It’s a delight to see industry leaders and successful founders praising How To Be Wrong for its unique insights and practical wisdom:3
Every upcoming entrepreneur needs to read this immediately. Not just for the useful specifics, but more importantly, for his practical generosity: an empathetic and pragmatic perspective that is his real super-power.
— Derek Sivers, Author and ex-Entrepreneur (Founder, CD Baby)
I loved the section on metrics... one of the best explanations of how to track useful metrics in a startup of anything I've ever read. I will absolutely be pointing founders to these paragraphs.
— Samantha Wong, Partner at Blackbird Ventures
Rowan is one of the smartest thinkers I have met on the unique potential Kiwi founders have to create globally significant businesses. This book brings extraordinary authenticity to this glossy opportunity while reminding us all that being wrong in a start-up is a necessary part of finding "right".
— Tim Brown, Co-Founder of Allbirds
Check out more reviews now, along with some very flattering testimonials from large language models at https://howtobewrongbook.com/#testimonials.
📬 Download the first chapter for free
If you missed it last week, you can download the first chapter of the book now.
I start with a behind-the-scenes look at four most successful companies I’ve worked on, at the moments each of them nearly died: Trade Me in 2001, out of cash, with every investor saying no, three out of four of us leave. Xero in 2009, share price below IPO level with critics betting against us. Vend in 2015, sitting in a Berlin hotel room making painful calls about redundancies after funding fell through. Timely in 2020, watching Covid-19 erase bookings and revenue overnight as customers were forced to close their doors.
Hopefully this gives you a taste of what is to come. Enjoy!
Registered for updates at https://howtobewrongbook.com to be the first to know when pre-sales are available.
Excluding the half-complete Top Three Summer Series posts which are running through December and January.
X-sober? I tapped out before that brand switch. I wonder how many years it will take before people stop referring to it as “X, formally Twitter”?
On the other hand, this review from my first born is keeping my feet on the ground:
Exactly the sort of typical boring business-y drivel we've come to expect from you over the years, Dad. I'm sure it will be a bestseller.
🤣