Sunday Musings Eyes Open Part Ii

Happy Sunday Friends!

Hello Friends! Hope you’re enjoying a moment of calm before diving into this week’s mental recon. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about… one quote I’m musing on this week, two core ideas, three favorite things, and one question to carry with you into the week ahead.

One Quote I’m Musing

"Tradition is a guide, not a jailer."

| W. Somerset Maugham

Welcome back.

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind trip to visit organizations across the Pacific—Guam, almost to Korea (oops), and Hawaii. Everywhere I went, one pattern kept repeating: what some called "tradition" was often just unquestioned repetition.

Last time, we talked about reading like a spy—to treat information as terrain and headlines as signals. Today, we shift focus: from the battlefield of belief to the systems we inherit.

Because not all that’s old is sacred. And not all change is wisdom.

🕰️ A Moment in Time

Kodak didn’t die because it lacked vision.

It died because it clung to convention—film, processing labs, retail camera dominance—even after inventing digital photography in 1975.

They shelved the future to protect the past.

What they called "tradition" was really just a pattern of comfort. A refusal to question their own momentum.

The fire of innovation was there. They were simply afraid that they’d burn the old house down.

Now they’re a case study in how loyalty to the wrong thing is still disloyalty—to your future, to your mission, to your people.

Kodak brought in new leadership, honored their innovation heritage in film and found new ways to improve what worked, and adapt to the new evolutions in industry.

🔧 Reinforcing Firewalls: SolarWinds

In 2020, the SolarWinds breach compromised thousands of networks across the U.S. government and private sector. It wasn’t a breakthrough hack. It was a manipulation of trust.

Attackers didn’t break the system. They rode the rails of a trusted convention, slipping malware into routine updates.

SolarWinds wasn’t just a breach. It was a quiet coup. Not because the hackers were smarter—because we trusted a routine we never questioned.

This is what happens when we confuse "the way we do things" with "the way things should be done."

Tradition says: Vet everything. Verify always. Convention says: This is just what we do.

📊 The Three-Lens Framework: Honor or Holdover?

Use these three lenses to evaluate any belief, practice, or system:

1. Origin – Why was this created? What problem did it solve?

2. Outcome – What does it produce now? Value, or just work?

3. Alignment – Does it reflect your principles today, or just your history?

If it fails two of the three? It’s a convention. If it sharpens all three? It’s a tradition worth preserving.

💪 One Tiny Habit

When someone says, "This is how we’ve always done it," ask:

"Why did we start doing it that way in the first place?"

Every time. No exceptions.

Two Ideas From Me

1. Danger is not in honoring the past—but in mistaking repetition for reverence.

2. Custom is not a chain, but a torch — meant to light the way, not shackle the feet.

Three Favorite Things This Week

1. 🧠 Book: Range by David Epstein – Why generalists thrive in a world built for specialists, it’s a great one to return to.

2. 🛠 Tool: Lucidchart – Visualize your systems. You can’t redesign what you can’t see.

3. 🔦 Mental Model: First Principles Thinking – Don’t build on precedent. Build on purpose.

⚡️ A Challenge This Week

Identify one system you’re part of that hasn’t changed in years.

• Ask: What was its original purpose?

• Then: Is it still doing that job well?

• Finally: What would you design if you started from scratch?

Don’t just preserve. Evaluate. Traditions survive through renewal.

💬 If this sparked something, share it with a teammate or drop me a note—I'd love to know what you're reading like a spy this week.

Have a wonderful week,

I’ll see you Next Sunday:
The Discipline of Dangerous Thinking – Why clarity, curiosity, and confrontation are the new superpowers.

Eyes open. Build Dangerously.
​-e