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posts/2023-12-21-the-dodo/index.md

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+---
+title: The Allegory of the Dodo
+description: |
+  When in having solved a problem we inadvertently create problems for ourselves 
+date: 2023-12-21
+image: photo.jpeg
+categories: [productivity, business, kids books]
+image: dodo.jpeg
+draft: false
+---
+
+# The scoop 
+
+There's a great kids book, called "There's a dodo on the wedding cake". 
+
+So there's this dodo, right, who walks in and hops on a cake. The attending violinist then scares it away and is praised for protecting the cake. 
+
+To the reader's delight, more animals start appearing and the violinist excitedly protects the cake through hilarious misadventure. (My favorite is when he says, "begone beavers!")
+
+Two funny things happen though:
+
+1. The guy soon realizes that all these creatures are wedding guests. 
+2. The guy has such a big nose and he's allergic to marshmallows, that when he's offered some cake he sneezes and the cake goes flying. 
+
+
+![dodo on a cake](photo.jpeg)
+
+
+# Morale?
+
+1. When you praise someone for doing something good, they do it again and again. → There's a natural hero inside all of us. 
+2. But only the first animal was a problem. The beavers were the chefs. So he ends up creating all these problems thinking they're problems. → In tech, when you fix a bug you then think other things are bugs and go off fixing those too. No, just do the first. Then check in. 
+3. The irony is that, despite saving the cake, he sneezes and ruins the cake. → Despite all the effort, the greatest protection to the cake was him staying away from it. Sometimes by trying to solve a problem we can make things way worse and create all these problems. (Politics? Create problems by creating solutions to problems that need solutions.)
+
+Don't mistake a beaver for a dodo. But don't mistake a dodo for a wedding guest. 
+
+