What Spotify Wrapped taught me about work
It's that time of the year again.
For those that do not have Spotify: Spotify Wrapped is an annual feature that compiles a personalised summary of a user's listening habits from the past year, highlighting their top artists, songs, and genres. It presents this data in an interactive, colourful format designed to be easily shared across social media platforms.
I noticed something surprising from my own Spotify Wrapped. The "Top Songs" were very different from my "Top Albums". Would have thought that these 2 lists would have significant overlap (at least it did significantly overlap in the past).
Top Songs vs Top Albums
Got me thinking, this might be the effect of music producers optimising for streams instead of just optimising for music quality.
Note that this does not mean that optimising for stream results in lower music quality, or vice versa ("Not Cute Anymore" by Illit proves otherwise). Neither does this mean that producers choose one over the other – they usually go for both.
When labels / music producers are paid per stream, they are incentivised to make the song as short as possible so the raw count of streams will go up (compared to a longer song). Hence, the "Top Songs" list will contain shorter, stream-optimised songs, while the "Top Albums" list may be a more holistic view of what you like to listen to.
I'm not here to say this is a good or bad thing for music, but rather I just want to show that this is evidence of producers adapting to their environment.
What this taught me about work
You have to understand your operating environment, and know what it rewards. Once you understand it, you can (not should) adjust your output to achieve whatever target you are aiming for. This article explains it better than I do.
Understanding the operating environment, and identifying what actually works is easier said than done, especially in a workplace. Incentives can be hidden and behaviour can be masked. But it is up to the individual to try to figure things out.
How this played out in university
Having scored pretty decent grades in university, I am often asked for my secrets or techniques.
A mistake that many students make is misunderstanding what gets you good grades. Students think that its all about "mugging" the content, putting in more hours than the next person etc, but thats only half the battle. The other half is to actually figure out what the professor wants from you. Students' lives will be much easier once they understand what they are working with (the operating environment), and this hopefully translates to better grades.
You know best, trust yourself
This is what worked for me and my values. It could be different for different people. The key thing is to understand that you are also part of the operating environment.
I believe that if we are all a little bit more introspective and try to understand ourselves and our environment, it will lead to more satisfaction in whatever you do, and hopefully achieve better results as well.