> 45. If you can train yourself to ask “is there a better way to do this?” at random intervals ten times a day, you will become unstoppable.
I was reading this post in a cafe. This item prompted me to ask for the bill before finishing my meal instead of after. Saved a couple of minutes for myself, on my way to become unstoppable now.
You didn't save a couple of minutes for yourself. You were just able go leave the cafe two minutes earlier and apply use those two minutes in your next activity.
> If you can train yourself to ask “is there a better way to do this?” at random intervals ten times a day, you will become unstoppable
I find that the opposite is true for me… I had to train myself out of the tendency to do this and just *do the thing*, or else I spend too much time researching and comparing options and doing multiple implementations to see which is best, etc.
“If you’re unsure how to have better opinions, try just having fewer of them for a start.”
When it comes to political beliefs, I find that a good determiner for a developed opinion is the willingness to bet on it. I try not to hold opinions that I’m not confident enough in to bet on, and I don’t take others’ opinions seriously when they’re not confident enough in them to bet on them as well.
51. Lists of things are undervalued as a format. It is a strong signal of loving curation. (Caveat: When compiled by one person! Top N lists where "we polled N experts and took each one's best idea" sound great and work terribly in practice.)
48. "People who are eager to insist that every action is “selfish” because it reflects some kind of preference, or who claim that altruism is just virtue signaling, are telling on themselves — they might be very clever, but they should never be trusted with real power."
A shorter version of this I have found to be relentlessly true: A liar never meets an honest person
There is, annoyingly, really something to the idea that our childhoods have a massive effect on our later lives, and it’s possible to be totally convinced that you’ve gotten over your past while still laboring under all sorts of mental distortions as a result. At the same time, the point of engaging with all that stuff has to be to become more functional, not to develop an identity as a victim, or to constantly be peeling your skin off.
SY: It's almost as if in recreating the models of our childhood we have to be sure we have the command to do it in a structurally sound way. If we do not, if we're manically excavating, building, dwelling-- it will collapse with our present trapped beneath. Then the identity is all we are to the outside world. It's so hard, and maybe that's why it's scary to go unpacking.
2.
Productivity is not effort x time — if you want one quick way to burn out, it’s believing that you just need to crank harder in circumstances where your effort is not efficiently creating results.
SY: Perhaps part of the productivity function is in keeping a close eye on the "effort" variable-- why are things so hard? why do we avoid? There's so much information in that for me.
3.
People are their own punishment, which means revenge is rarely worth it.
SY: We build our own prisons, and lock ourselves in. No need to construct ones for others, it's not only wasted time, but it's all too easy to trap ourselves in what we intended for them.
4.
The freedom to be fully honest with other people is hard to overrate or even describe. It is always available to you.
SY: Being fully honest with other people almost requires us to be honest with ourselves and can be a forcing function. I believe the latter is the first gate.
5.
It’s almost impossible to have an easy life and be interesting. Suffering is what gives people texture.
SY: Interesting and happy are too often conflated/confused. We say we want one, when we are actually yearning for the other.
This is such a remarkable list that I can’t begin to take it in all at once. It’s like going to a giant buffet where every dish is amazing. I’ll have to come back many times.
#9: So many times I've gone through my project notes and discovered that past me has already accomplished some minor administrative task and every time it's an incredible feeling of gratitude.
As someone who has cycled through various interests deeply without so called success, this is very comforting…..on a different scale (obviously), it’s evidenced by Leonardo DaVinci’s early career in designing pageants and stage sets which made it possible for him to paint the Last Supper, a masterpiece in perspective….that works from whatever angle you’re viewing…..
A very simple one: counting sheep. Depending on your experience, you’ll realize most people can actually see them, while the others think it’s a figure of speech.
My mind was blown when I found out about aphantasia and the fact that apparently most people really do see things. I had always assumed it was a metaphor before that.
Re. no 9: My own experience of the 'eat the frog' approach is that there's a danger it results in paralysis and inaction: 'Oh god, I've got to do *that*.' Preferable, I think, for us to make action and progress as easy as possible – not dissimilar to what you write about in 'Fuck Willpower'. (So perhaps those two ideas can sit alongside each other?)
> 45. If you can train yourself to ask “is there a better way to do this?” at random intervals ten times a day, you will become unstoppable.
I was reading this post in a cafe. This item prompted me to ask for the bill before finishing my meal instead of after. Saved a couple of minutes for myself, on my way to become unstoppable now.
This reply is sponsored by these two minutes.
i love it :)
You didn't save a couple of minutes for yourself. You were just able go leave the cafe two minutes earlier and apply use those two minutes in your next activity.
same difference
> If you can train yourself to ask “is there a better way to do this?” at random intervals ten times a day, you will become unstoppable
I find that the opposite is true for me… I had to train myself out of the tendency to do this and just *do the thing*, or else I spend too much time researching and comparing options and doing multiple implementations to see which is best, etc.
Your better way to do this thing was to just do it 😊
“If you’re unsure how to have better opinions, try just having fewer of them for a start.”
When it comes to political beliefs, I find that a good determiner for a developed opinion is the willingness to bet on it. I try not to hold opinions that I’m not confident enough in to bet on, and I don’t take others’ opinions seriously when they’re not confident enough in them to bet on them as well.
But that's Revealed Preference, which has issues ..
51. Lists of things are undervalued as a format. It is a strong signal of loving curation. (Caveat: When compiled by one person! Top N lists where "we polled N experts and took each one's best idea" sound great and work terribly in practice.)
Earlier today I was thinking how I can never catch up to Hypothetical Alternate Timeline Me. That guy was unstoppable. =)
"Loneliness is not necessarily a feeling that requires a response." Great one!
48. "People who are eager to insist that every action is “selfish” because it reflects some kind of preference, or who claim that altruism is just virtue signaling, are telling on themselves — they might be very clever, but they should never be trusted with real power."
A shorter version of this I have found to be relentlessly true: A liar never meets an honest person
*love* that
great article!
> If you can train yourself to ask “is there a better way to do this?” at random intervals ten times a day, you will become unstoppable.
full post for this one please
Seconded!
Thoughts:
1.
There is, annoyingly, really something to the idea that our childhoods have a massive effect on our later lives, and it’s possible to be totally convinced that you’ve gotten over your past while still laboring under all sorts of mental distortions as a result. At the same time, the point of engaging with all that stuff has to be to become more functional, not to develop an identity as a victim, or to constantly be peeling your skin off.
SY: It's almost as if in recreating the models of our childhood we have to be sure we have the command to do it in a structurally sound way. If we do not, if we're manically excavating, building, dwelling-- it will collapse with our present trapped beneath. Then the identity is all we are to the outside world. It's so hard, and maybe that's why it's scary to go unpacking.
2.
Productivity is not effort x time — if you want one quick way to burn out, it’s believing that you just need to crank harder in circumstances where your effort is not efficiently creating results.
SY: Perhaps part of the productivity function is in keeping a close eye on the "effort" variable-- why are things so hard? why do we avoid? There's so much information in that for me.
3.
People are their own punishment, which means revenge is rarely worth it.
SY: We build our own prisons, and lock ourselves in. No need to construct ones for others, it's not only wasted time, but it's all too easy to trap ourselves in what we intended for them.
4.
The freedom to be fully honest with other people is hard to overrate or even describe. It is always available to you.
SY: Being fully honest with other people almost requires us to be honest with ourselves and can be a forcing function. I believe the latter is the first gate.
5.
It’s almost impossible to have an easy life and be interesting. Suffering is what gives people texture.
SY: Interesting and happy are too often conflated/confused. We say we want one, when we are actually yearning for the other.
Great post!
This is such a remarkable list that I can’t begin to take it in all at once. It’s like going to a giant buffet where every dish is amazing. I’ll have to come back many times.
thank you Vince :)
#9: So many times I've gone through my project notes and discovered that past me has already accomplished some minor administrative task and every time it's an incredible feeling of gratitude.
totally!
I liked 9 but I loved 40.
That which you pour love into is never wasted. So beautiful.
i wish i'd come up with it myself!
Same!
As someone who has cycled through various interests deeply without so called success, this is very comforting…..on a different scale (obviously), it’s evidenced by Leonardo DaVinci’s early career in designing pageants and stage sets which made it possible for him to paint the Last Supper, a masterpiece in perspective….that works from whatever angle you’re viewing…..
Love this, would be fascinated by an extended post on number 11
Same. I’d love some examples.
A very simple one: counting sheep. Depending on your experience, you’ll realize most people can actually see them, while the others think it’s a figure of speech.
My mind was blown when I found out about aphantasia and the fact that apparently most people really do see things. I had always assumed it was a metaphor before that.
Re. no 9: My own experience of the 'eat the frog' approach is that there's a danger it results in paralysis and inaction: 'Oh god, I've got to do *that*.' Preferable, I think, for us to make action and progress as easy as possible – not dissimilar to what you write about in 'Fuck Willpower'. (So perhaps those two ideas can sit alongside each other?)
(Sometimes I feel that the definition of a conservative is someone who doesn't know the difference between ought and ought.)
45, 49.
You mean “is” and “ought” from the other way? As in takes what *is* as what OUGHT to be, cf: Chesterton’s Fence?
Nowadays, "ought" as in "We ought to put every criminal on an island without food!" instead of "We ought not to do something so stupid and cruel"
Reads less like advice and more like a mirror, which is what makes it so powerful.