JoshKaufman.net

On Difficulty and Persistence

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0000

Detail of "A Shipwreck In Stormy Seas" by Claude-Joseph Vernet, The British Museum.

"Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement."
— Albert Camus, existentialist philosopher

You might have noticed that I've been away from the internet for a while.

I think it's worthwhile take a few minutes to discuss what I've been up to, and what I've learned over the past few years.

As I've mentioned in past updates, I think it's important to discuss every aspect of life with candor - even the difficult parts. There's a temptation in my line of work to present an overly-rosy picture of forward progress and unmitigated success, which I think does all of us a great disservice.

Life is often difficult. Unexpected things happen, sometimes with major ramifications. Progress is messy, and often appears chaotic even when things are moving in a positive direction. I am not immune to any of these realities.

You might find echoes of things you're currently dealing with in this essay. If that's the case, know that you are not alone.

Struggle is a part of life. I'm in the trenches, struggling with you.

There are many types of victory. Often, it takes the form of recognizing issues, addressing them with resolve, enduring hardship for as long as necessary, and persisting long enough to get to the other side.

Existence, Relatedness, Growth

In The Personal MBA, I discussed Clayton Alderfer's "ERG" theory of human motivation, which I prefer over Abraham Maslow's more famous "Hierarchy of Needs."

According to Alderfer, humans have three core needs:

Existence: sustenance, shelter, safety
Relatedness: friendship, love, social support
Growth: challenge, meaning, exploration

Generally speaking, existence needs come first. If you don't have the resources to survive, or have difficulty establishing a baseline of physiological and psychological safety, you're probably not going to be overly concerned about making friends or setting lofty goals. If, for example, you're laid off from your job and suddenly can't pay your bills, the feelings of crisis stem from the possibility of existence needs going unmet.

Likewise, relationships are a core human need: we're social creatures, and without connection and stability in our interpersonal lives, we tend to struggle. It's tough to focus on growth when people we value are struggling or experiencing difficulty, or when our close personal relationships are strained or severed. It's also difficult when the groups that we identify with – our families, our friends, the fabric of our societies – are threatened with danger, hardship, or loss.

My work is, at the core, about increasing our understanding of the world, and increasing our capacity to act in useful ways.

I'm in the growth business, and growth feels far less important when existence and relationships are at stake.

The Omnipresent Medical Mystery

If you've been reading my work for a while, you'll know that I've struggled with chronic fatigue since 2006. Everything I've written, and everything I've accomplished in my career to date, I've done while carrying the weight of unexplained exhaustion on top of my projects, responsibilities, and long-term goals.

After many years of experimentation, I found a few interventions that temporarily mitigated the worst of the issues. The First 20 Hours and How to Fight a Hydra were written during periods where the physiological burden felt less intense, and I had enough energy to focus on writing for long periods of time.

Unfortunately, after the publication of Hydra in late 2018, my health took a major turn for the worse.

I'll spare you the years of trial-and-error it took to figure out what was going on. Here's the upshot:

I do not envy doctors and medical researchers: the body is a maddening system to debug. Multiple simultaneous issues and contributing factors are commonplace, and isolating variables is very difficult. Interventions sometimes seemed to help, only to introduce side effects that were just as bad (sometimes worse) than the primary symptoms, often with a significant time delay that made identifying the problematic change difficult. Slow trial-and-error was the only realistic path to progress. Every day was a new experiment, and failed experiments felt demoralizing.
I read hundreds of PubMed research papers and found a team of medical professionals that meshed well with my "research and experiment with all the things" approach.
I expanded the scope of my diagnostic testing. An elective test to rule out sleep apnea (for which I had no risk factors or obvious signs) came back positive. I started using a CPAP, and it made a significant difference in sleep quality, but didn't resolve the most significant symptoms - it was progress, but not a solution.
Finally, a few of the classic symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease appeared in late 2018, and after a series of diagnostic procedures, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2019.

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease - chronic inflammation produces a cascade of physiological effects that can result in persistent exhaustion. According to my doctor, the condition has likely been "simmering" at a low level since 2006, and until more obvious signs appeared, there was no reason to suspect it was the culprit. There's also a significant genetic component in these conditions, which means there was nothing I could've done to prevent it - I just happened to win a lottery nobody wants to win.

Accepting Reality

Fortunately, my particular case appears to be on the milder end of the spectrum, and is relatively straightforward to treat. Identifying and treating the root cause of the issue resulted in rapid improvements, and I'm fortunate that the first-line treatment resolved most of my symptoms with minimal side effects. It appears the condition isn't progressing, and I've found that I can reduce symptoms even more by optimizing my diet and minimizing stress.

There is, however, no cure. Barring major medical advances, this is something I'll have to manage for the rest of my life. That is a reality that I've adjusted to, and have come to accept.

For many years, I didn't want to discuss these experiences publicly. I wanted to hide the condition, work around it, minimize it. The symptoms are distracting and uncomfortable at best, and embarrassing and anxiety-provoking at worst. I didn't (and still don't) want to be perceived as broken or diminished in some fundamental way.

The ways of Fortune are strange and unpredictable. As I was working on the edits to the Personal MBA 10th Anniversary edition, I discovered that I accidentally wrote about these feelings over a decade ago:

Sensitive or embarrassing topics tend to have low addressability, even if there’s a huge need. Chronic medical conditions are a good example: it’s difficult to find and reach a large group of people who suffer from an uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing condition like psoriasis or ulcerative colitis. People suffering from these conditions typically don’t gather in the same place or read the same things, and many will avoid being publicly identified as sufferers by joining organizations, so it’s hard to find and talk to them directly.

The worst part of conditions like this is that they can be isolating: physically, mentally, and emotionally. That isolation is a heavy burden. Over time, I've learned that burden is optional.

And so I'm choosing to talk about it. This is a reality of my life. I didn't choose this condition, but it's my responsibility to manage it as best I can. I'm doing everything in my power to stay healthy, minimize symptoms, and prevent future issues.

Relational Upheaval

In addition to focusing on my physical health, there has been another significant change in my day-to-day life: I am no longer married. For many reasons, I'm not going to discuss this part of my life in detail, other than to say that it became clear the marriage was not healthy or sustainable, and ending the relationship was necessary.

While I can't recommend this particular life experience in general, I've used it as an opportunity to take a step back and clarify my values, priorities, desires, and boundaries. I'm not carrying any residual guilt or shame from the change in marital status, and it's clear that my life is (and will continue to be) better in many respects as a result.

If you are ever in a similar position (or know someone who is), the best general-purpose resource I can recommend is I Just Want This Done by Raiford Palmer, which is the "How Doctors Die" of family law - it's a clear, compelling, pragmatic approach to the practical decisions involved in relationship dissolution.

As a part of this transition, it was necessary to focus the vast majority of my energy on attending to my physical/emotional well-being, and taking care of my kids. All things considered, we've handled the change in circumstances well.

The best news is that I feel better in many ways now than I've felt since 2006. My health has improved dramatically. Persistent and chronic stressors have diminished. For the first time in a long time, focusing on future projects feels both possible and exciting.

Lately, I've been focusing on clearing out the accumulated backlog of the past few years, putting all of the necessary things in order and making space for what's to come.

And what's to come is pretty stellar.

Back In Action

I've been busy these past few months, and I have three things for you that I think you'll enjoy.

First: I recently flew to London to record an interview with Steven Bartlett for Diary of a CEO. We ended up chatting in the studio for three and a half hours about The Personal MBA, The First 20 Hours, the value of learning and experimentation, and business knowledge and skill acquisition as superpowers. It was an honor to be invited, and Steven and his team are fantastic in every respect.

Second: Barrett Brooks recently launched a podcast called Good Work, and invited me to record a conversation. We spent two hours talking about a host of topics that I don't typically get to discuss, from parenting to chocolate. I think Barrett is going to be the next major business podcast host, and I highly recommend digging into the Good Work archives - his guests are stellar (and often not yet widely known), and he's one of the most well-prepared interviewers I've ever seen.

Third: I was invited to contribute an essay for Big Think on Hindsight Bias, as part of a special issue on hindsight. This is the first piece I've written for publication in quite a while, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

I'm also working on a new book. All I'll say at this point is that it feels very much like The Personal MBA felt when I started writing it. The topic is massive, and if I do my job well, the result will be a practical research-based guide to the highest-value parts of daily life.

There's much more to come. Thanks for reading, and thank you for your support.

Draw The Line

Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 -0000

The default way of thinking about progress and success is in terms of concrete actions: the things you’re willing to do to get what you want.

It’s useful to invert that line of thinking: what are you not willing to do to get what you want?

What are you not willing to consider, even though it might work?
What are you willing to forego, even though it might cost you something?
What are you willing to give up, even if it might have benefits?
What restrictions on your own actions or behavior are you willing to accept?

Answering these questions is just as valuable as more traditional goal-based action planning: it’s one of the best ways of defining who you are, who you want to be, and how you intend to operate in the world.

7 Essential Services For Independent Business Owners

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0000

I talk to a lot of business owners.

Through my work on The Personal MBA, I’ve been advising entrepreneurs – primarily early-stage independent founders – for over a decade now. One of the most common topics of conversation is how to handle the day-to-day logistics of keeping a modern business running: accounting, payroll, credit card processing, invoicing, website management, email marketing, data backup, and password management.

There is a small set of services that can make life as a business owner much easier, more productive, and less stressful. Here are the seven business services you’re most likely to need, along with my current recommendations:

Bookkeeping: Bench
Payroll: Gusto
Credit Card Processing: Stripe
Invoicing: Freshbooks
Website: Squarespace
Email Marketing: ConvertKit
Data Backup: Backblaze
Secure Passwords: 1Password

(Note: I have direct experience with all of these services, either in my own business or via businesses I advise. Some of these services offer affiliate programs, and affiliate links have been used in this post when available. As always, affiliate programs have zero bearing on my selections or recommendations, and proceeds support this website. For additional details, see my Disclosure Policy.)

Bookkeeping Service: Bench

One of the first things entrepreneurs should do is get help with their bookkeeping.

When I started my business, I kept my own financial records in a spreadsheet designed to calculate monthly profit & loss. It’s not rocket science: add up income and expenses by category, subtract expenses from income, done. Add some basic analysis, like income/expense category percentages, if you’re feeling motivated.

It sounds easy. The problem is that bookkeeping requires time and mental energy – both of which are better invested in improving the business.

In practice, my books were always a few months behind. I’d “get around to them when I have a spare minute,” which inevitably reduced to “when my quarterly tax payments are due, and I need to figure out how much I owe.”

Bench is the first accounting/bookkeeping company that solves this problem in a simple, straightforward, affordable way. Instead of having to set up and maintain a complex accounting system (like the confusing-but-ubiquitous Quickbooks), Bench assigns a real honest-to-goodness human bookkeeper to your business, who takes care of your books for you.

Bench’s software pulls in your transaction information from all of your various accounts automatically, and categorizes the vast majority of them. If you have a receipt, email it to Bench, and it’s categorized appropriately. Every month, your bookkeeper takes a look and sends you a short list of questions to answer to resolve any ambiguity.

Setup is fast and painless, and your books are updated every month with an absolute minimum of effort and fuss. At the end of the year, you get a nice clean spreadsheet to send to your accountant, which makes tax time much easier. You can even hire Bench to import your records from past months or years, so you can have all your accounting records in the same place for easy reference.

Bench is the first service I recommend to anyone still managing their own bookkeeping. I’ve been using them since 2015, and plan to for the foreseeable future.

More details about Bench →

Payroll: Gusto

In the early days of running a new business, most founders choose to forego paying themselves in favor of re-investing any income into growth. That makes sense in the early days, but eventually, you’ll want to take money out of the business on a regular basis.

Generally speaking, there are two ways to pay yourself: owner distributions and payroll.

Owner distributions are simple: you’re the owner, so you (in your capacity as the owner of the business) write yourself (as an individual) a check for however much you want to take out of the business. You can do this whenever you like: it’s your business, after all.

There are two primary issues with owner distributions. First, they’re irregular: not exactly ideal if you have regular expenses to pay, like rent or a mortgage. Second, the distribution doesn’t include any tax payments: you’re on the hook to pay taxes to the appropriate jurisdictions manually, which is a task that most business owners find annoying and stressful.

Payroll processing services can resolve these issues. When your business is stable enough to support an ongoing salary, paying yourself on a regular basis via payroll makes a lot of sense.

Payroll services do a number of useful things. First, they make it easy to pay employees or contractors automatically at scheduled intervals. Want to set up a monthly salary, or pay a contractor a retainer fee? No problem.

Second, payroll services make it possible to automatically deduct tax payments from your income. Instead of having to manually cut a huge check to the government every month or every quarter, your tax liability is automatically deducted from your income via payroll, and the service makes the payments and files the appropriate tax forms on your behalf. These smaller, more regular payments make tax time much less painful.

Third, completing tax paperwork is not an enjoyable use of time, and staying in compliance can burn weeks of your capacity. Automated filings take care of a huge, recurring distraction, and ensure that critical business administration work happens correctly and on time. If your business can support ongoing payroll, a service like Gusto is worthwhile for the time savings alone.

(Note: Gusto specializes in US businesses. If you’re not in the US, search for similar services that support your jurisdiction.)

More details about Gusto →

Credit Card Processing: Stripe

Modern businesses – even tiny ones – need to be able to process credit card transactions.

The rationale is simple: in exchange for a small fee (generally 1-3% of each transaction), you make it way easier for your customers to buy, and remove risk and headaches involved in manual collection processes. Getting paid in full and on time is a serious issue in many businesses, and provided you deliver on your end of the deal, accepting credit cards can alleviate most of those issues.

I’m old enough to remember the old way of setting up credit card payments. First, you had to approach a specialized financial institution to set up a “Merchant Account.” They’d ask you to fill out a 20-page application, mostly to ensure you’re not a drug dealer, scammer, or money launderer. After a few weeks, they’d set you up with a tiny maximum charging capacity, along with significant monthly fees for the privilege.

Today, you can go to Stripe, open an account, and start charging credit cards in a few minutes. Stripe does their underwriting behind the scenes, using automated tools and background data analysis to keep bad actors from abusing the system.

Stripe is by far the best choice for beginning entrepreneurs. Setup is simple and fast, using the account is straightforward, and the interface is easy to understand and use for all of the most common administrative tasks, like looking up orders and refunding transactions. They even have built-in tools to reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions, which can be a significant risk for small businesses.

Large businesses still use traditional merchant accounts, since they can usually negotiate for smaller fees based on volume. Until you’re processing millions in transactions every year, Stripe is by far the best option.

More details about Stripe →

Invoicing Service: Freshbooks

Let’s say you have a few offers that require sending an invoice. Maybe you’re selling products in bulk, or run a service-based business that invoices after delivery.

You could spend hours generating invoices manually, keeping track of payments, and sending follow-up after follow-up to the folks who don’t believe in prompt payment… or you could use a system like Freshbooks.

Freshbooks makes generating and sending invoices to your customers simple. Just enter the customer’s information, click a button, and the invoice is sent via email or postal mail.

Freshbooks can even follow-up with non-paying customers automatically, so you can focus on all of the things that actually improve your business.

In addition, Freshbooks integrates with payment processors like Stripe, so you don’t have to wait for a check in the mail. Getting paid on time is critical, and Freshbooks ensures the money you’re owed hits your bank account as quickly as possible.

More details about Freshbooks →

Website Service: Squarespace

Customers expect every business to have a website, even if the business has nothing to do with the web. That’s a problem for business owners who don’t have web design skills.

For decades, new business owners have looked to web design firms for help, and are often charged thousands of dollars for simple websites, along with significant monthly retainer fees to keep that site updated and maintained.

Today, that’s not necessary. Your best bet is to use a managed website service like Squarespace.

Squarespace makes it easy to set up and maintain a modern website, even if you don’t have technical skills. Whatever you need, they have a pre-built module to handle it: basic marketing sites, online stores, forms, newsletters, podcasts, etc.

The default template options look great, and can be customized to look however you want.

Experienced programmers (myself included) will still want to have full access to the underlying system, which is complete overkill for most business owners, and requires ongoing upgrades and maintenance. I don’t recommend that route unless you know what you’re doing, or you're committed to leveling up your programming skills.

If you just want a website that does the job in a reliable way, and looks great doing it, Squarespace is your best bet.

More details about Squarespace →

Email Marketing Service: ConvertKit

One of the most effective marketing techniques is permission: encouraging new prospects to give you the information necessary to follow-up with them over a longer period of time. Email marketing services like ConvertKit make that simple.

Let's say you have a visitor to your shiny new website: what can you offer that visitor in exchange for staying in touch, or taking the first step toward doing business with you?

Maybe it's a short course. Maybe it's a whitepaper. Maybe it's a trial account, or a personal follow-up.

Regardless, ConvertKit makes it easy for your customers to raise their hands and say, "I'm interested!"

I started using email marketing services back in the stone age, in my corporate career. They were horrible: clunky, complicated, and inflexible.

Modern tools like ConvertKit are completely different. Setting up a new campaign, creating an offer, integrating the service with your website and back-end systems, and automating following takes minutes, not days.

I've used most of the major email marketing tools out there, and ConvertKit is my recommendation for two reasons. First, it's very easy to use, even if you have no experience using email marketing tools. Second, it's reasonably priced for the advanced feature-set: other tools with the same capabilities often cost a multiple of what ConvertKit charges, sometimes up-front.

More details about ConvertKit →

Data Backup Service: Backblaze

Modern businesses rely on technology. One of the worst things that can happen to a new venture is a sudden computer failure that results in the loss of critical business data.

Here’s a personal example: I write books that require years of research and effort. If my computer crashes and my progress is consigned to oblivion, I can’t just reproduce what I’ve done – I’d have to start over. I’m willing to move heaven and earth to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Businesses require copious amounts of critical data: operating agreements. Contracts. Invoices. Correspondence. Customer and prospect lists. It’s in your best interest to make sure that data is not lost, even if one of your computers is lost, destroyed, or stolen. Even more important: you need to ensure that the information is stored in a secure way.

Backblaze is the simplest way to ensure your data is backed up in a secure way. You install the application, set up an account, and it’ll silently back up everything on your device. You can encrypt your backups, so even Backblaze employees can’t read them – an essential feature for businesses that handle sensitive customer data.

Because Backblaze datacenters aren’t located in your city, your office could be obliterated by a meteorite, and you wouldn’t lose data.

If you need to restore a file or two, it’s easy to trigger an automated restore via the Backblaze website. You can even access your files via the internet if you’re traveling, which comes in very handy.

If your computer crashes and you need to restore everything, Backblaze can ship you a hard drive in the mail with up to 4 terabytes of files, which can get you back up and running in very short order. (Never underestimate the bandwidth of a hard drive in the mail when you have terabytes of data to restore.)

More details about Backblaze →

Secure Password Service: 1Password

All of the services we’ve discussed so far are online systems that require accounts and passwords. Here’s the worst way to go about it: use the same, easy-to-guess password for all of your critical accounts.

Smart business owners think about the security of their data. Not only can an account compromise affect your day-to-day operations or ability to serve customers: it can, in some cases, open your business to legal liability.

The best way to keep your business accounts secure is to use a very long, unique, randomly-generated password for every single account you create.

Most people don’t bother, because those sorts of passwords are difficult to create, impossible to remember, and a pain to type. That’s why so many people opt for “abc123” or “password,” and hope for the best.

1Password is the best way to manage your business’ passwords. A small application automatically generates secure passwords as you open accounts, stores them in an encrypted file that only you can access, makes them easy to access when you need them, and backs them up in a secure way so you never lose them, even if your computer goes poof.

There are three other features of 1Password I use constantly. For extra security, you can set up “Two-Factor Authentication” on critical services, which requires you to enter an extra, single-use password in addition to your regular password. 1Password can generate these one-time use codes, making that extra layer of security as painless as possible.

Secure notes allow you to store important information aside from passwords. Want to keep your business continuity plan in a safe location that’s assessable in case you’re incapacitated? 1Password is an excellent place to store it.

You can also use 1Password to share secure passwords with other important parties. I have a few accounts that require access by my accountant or agent, and I can ensure that everyone has access to the current password, manage access as appropriate, and instantly share updated passwords if they change.

1Password is the first application I install on new devices.

More details about 1Password →

A Whole New World

One of the most interesting things about these services is that they handle essential tasks that, as little as fifteen years ago, you had to hire employees to manage manually.

People are expensive; bits are cheap. The moment a simple automated system can remove human effort from a necessary process, it becomes even easier to start a business.

My current operation, two decades ago, would require the efforts of at least five employees. Today, with the help of services like these, I’m able to run a complex global business by myself, without worrying about huge overhead costs.

That means millions of new business ideas are suddenly viable. When you only need to bring in enough revenue to support a single owner (or a small team of specialists), it’s possible to build a successful business serving heretofore-underserved markets clamoring for attention.

If you’re not using these services (or others like them), I highly recommend giving them a try. Consider them investments with a high rate of return: the less time and energy you spend completing routine tasks, the more time you have to invest in building your business.

Martial Arts For Balance And Coordination

Fri, 13 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0000

In addition to strength training, I've been exploring various styles of martial arts as a way to improve balance, coordination, and proprioception. I've focused primarily on cognitive skills over the years, and it's time to invest in developing motor skills.

Martial arts happen to be a time-tested and practical way of training these skills, which is why I decided to invest some time researching them.

"Come At Me, Bro"

You can't explore or practice martial arts for any length of time without running into debates about which martial art is "most effective," which makes researching various styles of martial arts extremely frustrating: there's a lot of BS to wade through. (I had my first such conversation about three weeks into training, with a gentleman who prefers practicing techniques useful in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competition.)

It's important to note that I'm not training in martial arts for self-defense purposes. The probability that I'll find myself in a situation where inflicting intentional damage on another individual is advisable is extremely small, and every martial art optimizes for certain artificial assumptions and environmental conditions, not for realistic encounters.

The most effective real-world offensive martial art is firearms training, and the most effective real-world defensive martial art is sprinting. I'm not training to fight: I'm training to control my body. Different goals require different methods.

In a similar vein, I also have no interest in competitive styles like MMA. Getting punched in the face is not my idea of a good time, and most modern striking and grappling styles emphasize various expressions of machismo that I find off-putting.

Rinkiohen ("Adaptation To Circumstances")

Instead, I'm exploring two different balance and movement-oriented arts, both of which are fascinating:

Aikido - a modern Japanese martial art derived from traditional samurai training, which emphasizes precise movement, balance, and body control. Safe training also requires advanced skills in falling, rolling, and sensing changes in force and momentum. The primary techniques are defensive, with a focus on resolving attacks without injury to either party. Sometimes includes training in traditional weapons like bokken (wooden sword) and jo (short staff). Training takes place in a group setting via cooperative partner practice, not via competition. ¹
Bagua Zhang - the most recent of the traditional styles of internal Chinese martial arts. The primary training method is very unique: think Tai Chi without set forms, at a medium pace, with a lot of spiraling of legs/arms/torso, while walking in a circle. Strikes are intended to transfer momentum (impulse) vs. maximizing power. Training takes place primarily solo, via "circle walking" and "palm changes" that reverse the direction of the circle walk. ²

I'm an absolute beginner in both, and I have a long, long way to go before I'll be considered "good" at either of them. That's okay: the value is in the practice itself, the people I meet in learning them, and the skills I pick up along the way.

Masakatsu Agatsu ("The Only True Victory Is Victory Over Yourself")

There's also little in the way of ranking for each art, which I like.

Aikido has a simple ranking system similar to Go, with ranks ranging from 6 kyu to 6+ dan, and shodan being the equivalent of "first degree black belt." Rankings are conferred after formally testing your ability to remember and execute a sizable library of specific techniques under pressure. Every student wears a white belt until they rank shodan.

Achieving shodan takes years, so it's best not to think about it: the general advice is to focus on learning the next thing you need to learn, and ranking takes care of itself.

Bagua Zhang, like most traditional Chinese martial arts, has no formal ranking system. I like the way this practitioner puts it:

“If all you're training for is a piece of coloured fabric that can hold up your pants, maybe you should reconsider your reasons for picking up martial arts in the first place.”

Nanakorobi Yaoki ("Fall Seven Times, Rise Eight")

Training in martial arts is a direct way to improve skills that make me uncomfortable: I'm not the most coordinated person you'll ever meet, and I'm generally not very good at things that require complex footwork.

One of the best things I took away from writing The First 20 Hours is a gut-level understanding that these sorts of things are skills, not immutable personal characteristics. I'm not "naturally uncoordinated" – if I want to improve my ability, I can practice doing things that will help build skills in these areas.

It might not be easy, and it might be frustrating (particularly at the beginning), but if I keep investing time and effort, I'll get there eventually.

Bunbu Ryodo ("Sword And Pen Are Both Ways To Enlightenment")

Exploring martial arts has given me significant insight into my work, which is not at all what I expected.

One interesting way to think about training in martial arts is that you're trying to "groove" a particular pattern of balance and movement into your body until it becomes second-nature. Then, when you're in a situation where your skills are needed, your body knows exactly what to do, and does it automatically.

For example, many Aikido practitioners have stories of automatically recovering from slipping on ice or falling from a bike in a way that protected them from serious injury. By practicing falling and rolling over and over, your body learns to respond to similar situations in a useful way.

That's remarkably similar to the approach I advocate in The Personal MBA. Mental models are specific useful ways of thinking about business and related situations. Studying them over time is a practical way to "groove" that method of thinking into your psyche. Then, when you're in a situation where your skills are needed, your mind knows exactly what to do, and does it automatically.

I was first exposed to this way of thinking about skills by Michael "Valentine" Smith, who has been practicing Aikido for many years now. I didn't fully grok it at the time, but after a bit of experience, it's a perfect analogy for the general "fuzzy" thinking skills I often teach.

It also provides a useful way of thinking about techniques like spaced repetition, which is useful beyond rote memorization. Periodic repeated exposure to the same core ideas is useful because it's a way to impress the relevant concepts into your mind in a deeper and deeper way over time. Then, when you're in a situation that reminds you of a particular idea or technique, your mind automatically knows what to do.

As a result, I'm updating my beliefs on the value of spaced repetitive practice. I've always assigned some value to it, but that value has been lower than is probably accurate. That'll have a significant effect on how I write, how I produce courses, and how I practice skills in the future.

Keiko Shokon ("Think Deeply On The Old Ways To Understand The New")

There's one more idea worth mentioning in this context: if you want to get extraordinary results, it helps to be willing to do things that look and feel a little weird.

It's likely I'm going to spend a significant amount of my time in the future walking around and around in a circle, and being thrown around by college students half my size. An outside observer could be forgiven for thinking that's more than a little strange.

Still: they are ways to achieve something that I want to achieve. As long as the methods are effective in producing results, and are worth the investment of time and energy vs. competing priorities, it's useful to not care too much about what other people think.

There's a wealth of information about how to move your body in various forms of martial arts. I'm excited to see what they have to offer.

Two excellent introductions to Aikido are Aikido And The Dynamic Sphere by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti, and The Aikido Student Handbook by Greg O'Connor. ↩
The best overall introduction to Bagua Zhang is Learning Bagua Zhang: The Martial Art of Change by Ted Mancuso, which also happens to be one of the best-written motor skill instructional texts I've ever read. The follow-up, The Eight Animals of Bagua Zhang, is also excellent. ↩

Strength Training For Non-Athletes

Fri, 13 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0000

I've spent the last year investigating various ways to improve my overall level of strength and general fitness.

By way of context: I'm an entrepreneur / researcher / author, not an athlete. I'm not training for competition, don't have a ton of time to spend at the gym, and I don't want to look like a bodybuilder.

That said, there's an enormous amount of research that strength training is one of the best things you can do for overall health, general fitness, and longevity.

The goal was to find a form of strength training that would:

Produce the best possible results in the minimum possible amount of time.
Minimize the risk of injury.
Fit into my daily routine in a way that doesn't detract from other priorities.

Here's what I learned…

Pumping Iron

I started by lifting freeweights, which I haven't done since competing in high school Track & Field. ¹ Weightlifting has never been my favorite form of physical exertion, mostly because delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is one of my least favorite sensations in the world.

That said, there's a ton of evidence that freeweights make your entire body stronger in ways that matter a great deal to overall health and longevity: your muscles get stronger, but the increased load on your bones and connective tissues encourages them to get stronger as well. ²

After three months of lifting freeweights, I noticed five significant problems:

I was still experiencing significant daily muscle soreness, which was an active detriment to training.
The movements are complex, and it's easy to injure yourself if your form is not solid. I had low overall confidence that I'd be able to continue training long-term without sustaining injury, either via an acute strain/sprain/tear or repetitive stress.
Mentally anchoring on the weight you're lifting is easy and very common, which makes it tempting to "lift heavy" even when it's not advisable. I'm not doing this to compete with myself or anyone else: I want to increase my general level of strength and fitness in a healthy, sustainable way, not obsess about setting a new personal record every time I exercise.
Training sessions took about an hour and a half, budgeting an hour for the workout and 30 minutes total transit time to the gym: long enough to be a significant part of the day that requires planning.
You can't train every day: rest days are just as important as lifting days, since the extreme level of exertion on lifting days requires dedicated recovery to let muscles repair and rebuild. As a result, I found it difficult to make lifting a consistent habit - it was way to easy to justify skipping a lifting day in favor of "more recovery."

After a while, it was clear that I needed another approach. That's not to say it doesn't work: I have many friends like James Clear, Tim Grahl, and Ramit Sethi who train with freeweights and swear by them. It's just not an ideal approach for me.

Kettlebells For Make Great Glorious Victory

James Todd, a former client turned close friend, encouraged me to investigate training with kettlebells. If you've never seen one, imagine a weight that looks like a cannonball with a handle attached, which you lift and swing in various ways.

One of the many interesting things about kettlebells is that they're ballistic: the load placed on your bones and muscles is much higher than the listed static weight if you swing it. That means you can do serious training with much smaller weights.

I started with the simplest and most well-known beginner kettlebell training protocol: Pavel Tsatsouline's "Simple and Sinister" program. It's an impressive act of synthesis: a short daily routine that manages to pack a full body workout into two primary exercises, which are backed by decades of research and practical experience, and delivered with a generous side of wry Russian humor.

Here's Pavel's "S&S" program in its entirety:

A short warmup with a few basic movements and stretches.
100 total kettlebell swings (either 10 sets of 10 two-arm swings, or 10 sets of 5 one-arm swings for each arm – you switch hands at the end of the fifth swing, for a total of 10 swings per set).
5 sets of "Turkish Get Ups" (TGUs), where a set equals one TGU on each side.
Repeat daily; move up in weight when it starts to feel easy and you can complete the entire protocol in less than 20 minutes.

There's slightly more to the program—you have to learn proper form ³ for the movements—but that's the gist of it.

Kettlebells have a lot going for them:

I found the movements much easier to learn than freeweights, and they feel more comfortable and safer to execute.
The movements train all major muscle groups and encourage the entire body to move in coordination, working accessory muscles and avoiding isolation of any one muscle at a time.
The protocol is time efficient: the entire workout can be completed in 20-30 minutes.
The load on your body is intense, but not so much that you experience significant muscle soreness, and you can safely train every day, making it much easier to build the training into a daily routine.
Swings and TGUs also produce significant cardiovascular load, with average heart rates comparable to running, so you get cardio benefits at the same time as strength training.
Kettlebells are inexpensive, relatively small, easy to store, and require no maintenance. I could've easily kept a set of kettlebells in my tiny NYC studio apartment. (A rack of freeweights, not so much.) ⁴

I started training with a 12kg (~26lbs) kettlebell. After a few months of training, I'm now completing the full S&S protocol with a 20kg (44lbs) kettlebell without difficulty, and I'm in the best shape of my adult life.

I usually train with a heart rate monitor ⁵, which I've found very useful: after a set of swings, I rest until my heart rate slows to 120-130 beats per minute, at which point it's time to do another set. Beyond that, I'm keeping a simple log of workouts to keep track of progress, and that's it.

I'm thrilled with my progress so far, and, in contrast to freeweights, can see myself continuing to use kettlebells to stay strong well into old age.

If you're not doing any sort of strength training, I highly recommend looking into kettlebells: you can get huge benefits from investing 20-30 minutes a day, even if you start with very low weights.

I used the Stronglifts 5x5 program, which I highly recommend if you're exploring freeweights for the first time: it's a solid program that teaches you common lifts and good form. ↩
Note that freeweights are ideal - it's best to avoid the weight machines common in gyms and fitness centers, since isolating muscle groups and restricting range of motion does not adequately develop the accessory muscles used in non-restricted movement. For more on this, see Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. ↩
Here's a fantastic kettlebell form video that'll give you a good idea of what the primary movements look like. ↩
I purchased a set of Metrixx Elite Precision E-Coat Kettlebells, which are excellent. A basic set will be 1-2 bells for weights that you're actively training, probably starting in the 12kg range. I ended up getting a broader set: 8kg, 12kg, 16kg, 20kg, 24kg, and 32kg, which will last me quite a while. ↩
At present, I'm using a Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate monitor alongside Polar's iPhone application, which I like a lot. Polar also has heart rate monitors like the FT7 that display data via a dedicated watch, which work well if you want to keep things simple. ↩

Do It The Hard Way

Mon, 16 May 2016 00:00:00 -0000

Everyone's looking for a shortcut.

And yet: the overwhelming majority of people who accomplish meaningful things do it the hard way. ¹

Focused effort. Training. Skill acquisition. Battling confusion, anxiety, uncertainty, doubt, and fear. Persistence. Work.

It's tempting to wait, to hope someone will come up with a simple and easy way for you to get what you want.

Usually, you wait in vain.

A quick personal example: I've wanted to use a very specific sort of online training system for a long time. As far as I can tell, that system doesn't exist.

I've waited for years for someone to create it for me. It hasn't happened yet. In all likelihood, it never will.

So, for the past few weeks, I've been creating it myself. It was one of the primary reasons I learned how to program a few years ago, and I'm finally skilled and experienced enough to make it happen.

It's not easy: much of the effort is complex, tedious, and anxiety-provoking. What if it doesn't work? What if I forget to add something important? What if it breaks? What if I don't do it right? What if I'm wasting my time?

It would certainly be easier to wait for someone to make it for me.

And yet, after two weeks of "doing it the hard way," the system is almost done.

That's the hidden downside of placing a high value on ideas like "efficiency": the wise-seeming impulse to avoid unnecessary investment often devolves into putting important things off in the hope that someone else will save you the effort.

What would happen if you decided to stop waiting for a miracle and finally committed to "doing it the hard way"?

The exceptions? Dumb luck. As a strategy, I don't recommend it. ↩

Creating a Personal Masterplan

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0000

“Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it. You need good taste and an upright judgement; intelligence and application are not enough. There is no perfection without discernment and selection.”
Baltasar Gracian, philosopher and aphorist

To achieve what you want in life, you generally need to do three things:

Identify what you really want. (Not what others want or what you think you should want.)
Decide what's most important, so you can start working on it.
Act to make progress on your most important priorities.

Creating a “Personal Masterplan” is the best way I've found to stop dreaming about what you want and start making progress.

What Is A Personal Masterplan?

A “Personal Masterplan” is a short planning document that captures what you want to achieve most within the next three years, then systematically breaks down those goals into the most important actions you need to take this week in order to achieve them.

Once you’ve created your Masterplan, planning your day is a simple matter of choosing 2-3 things to accomplish today from your weekly list (your Most Important Tasks), then doing them before you do anything else that day.

Why the three-year time horizon? Simple: it’s short enough to be able to visualize clearly, but long enough for you to be able to make drastic changes and accomplish major goals. It's a good rough estimate for the “foreseeable future,” which makes it useful for this type of planning exercise.

Writing down your goals and having a clear plan of action is critical if you want to make the best use of your finite time and energy. This process is the most effective means I’ve found to identify what I really want and focus on what really matters. After creating your Masterplan, you’ll be amazed at how clearly you’ll be able to visualize what you want to achieve and what you need to do right now to move forward.

Phase #1: Dreaming on Paper

First, you'll need to spend some time thinking of all of the things you'd like to accomplish. The best way to do that is to write down everything you think you'd ever (even remotely) like to do, without editing or censoring yourself in any way.

It's easier to prune your list of active projects than to feel vaguely uncertain if you've captured everything, so err on the side of completeness.

Also err on the side of being completely honest with yourself about what you want: if your lists contain things you'd be embarrassed about if someone else reads it, you can always destroy your notes when you're done.

1.1: Gather Materials

For this exercise, you’ll need at least 5 sheets of paper, your favorite writing instrument, and at least an hour of uninterrupted personal time. (Depending on how deep you go in this process, it can take longer: 2-3 hours is typical. It's a great process to go through over the course of a long lunch break or similar block of time alone.)

Label each piece of paper paper as follows:

Health / Fitness
Relationships
Skills / Personal Growth
Wealth / Career
Enjoyment

Resist the temptation to do this on your computer: there's too much potential for distraction, and writing longhand will help you think in a more relaxed way.

1.2: Brain Dump

Pick up one of the papers, consider the topic area, and ask yourself the following question:

“What are all of the things I might want to accomplish in this area within the next three years?”

Write down everything that comes to mind - avoid self-editing as much as possible. Think and write as fast as you can, and fill all five pieces of paper with as many ideas as you can muster.

1.3: Apply the “Five-Fold Why”

Once you're done, go back and read over one of your lists. Look at each desire you’ve recorded and ask yourself:

“Why do I really want this?”

When you think of an answer, ask yourself the question again. You should ask yourself this question at least five times or until you absolutely can’t come up with another answer. (That usually comes in the form of a reply like “because I want to.”)

When you’ve reached this point, ask yourself:

“Is the original wording of this goal the best way to capture the essence of what I actually want?”

The point of this step is to help you question your assumptions and focus on the true intent of each of your goals instead of getting caught up in arbitrary specifics or social conditioning.

For example, many people have the goal of earning an arbitrary large sum of money. (Let’s say $10 million.) After asking themselves why, they often find that it’s freedom or security they really want, and they don’t need need $10 million to achieve their true objective, making their desire attainable in a much shorter period of time.

A better goal might be to find a reliable way to earn enough income to meet their financial needs using a minimum of time and energy, thereby giving themselves the freedom to invest their time as they see fit.

Once you know the root of your desires, you can go about pursuing them in a more effective manner.

1.4: Is it Positive, Immediate, Concrete, and Specific? (PICS)

To ensure your goals are well-formed and clear, ask yourself:

“Is this desire Positive, Immediate, Concrete, and Specific?”

Positive is something you can pursue vs. something you want to avoid. “I want to exercise every day” is positive. “I want to stop sitting on the couch all day” is not.

Immediate is something that you can pursue now vs. something that might happen in the future if other things happen first. “I want to land a lead role in a movie” is immediate. “I want to become a famous actor” is not.

Concrete is something that can be defined in objective terms. “I want to visit Russia this year” is concrete. “I want to travel the world” is not.

Specific is something that has defined parameters. “I want to earn at least $8,000 each month” is specific. “I want to make a lot of money” is not.

Rewrite your desires in Positive, Immediate, Concrete, and Specific language. If you can't, discard that desire for now by crossing it off.

1.5: Is it Ambitious, Meaningful, and Exciting? (AME)

This step ensures you’re stretching yourself and engaging your emotions appropriately in forming your goals. Ask yourself:

“Is this goal Ambitious, Meaningful, and Exciting?”

Most of us are far too conservative when it comes to planning for the future. If your desire doesn’t push your limits and give you a strong sense of anticipation, reword it until it does.

Here's an example of a well-formed goal:

Within the next three years, I want to write a book about {TOPIC} and sell 20,000 copies worldwide.

Phase #2: Focusing Your Efforts

2.1: Pruning Your Lists

As tempting as it is to try to accomplish everything on your lists all at once, it’s far more productive to consciously restrain yourself so that you can focus your time, energy, and attention on just a few important things at a time.

When you divide your efforts and attention across several projects, it’s difficult to achieve the critical mass of thought and action necessary to accomplish what you set out to achieve.

By temporarily eliminating non-critical projects, you’re freeing yourself to focus on the small core of projects that are most important to you right now, allowing you to accomplish more with less effort.

The goal of this phase of the Masterplanning process is to reduce your list of active goals to five:

One health / fitness goal
One relationship goal
One skill acquisition / personal growth goal
One wealth / career goal
One enjoyment goal

By focusing on these five goals, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a productive, sustainable, and balanced life.

2.2: Choosing What’s Most Important

Pick up one of your lists and ask yourself the following question:

“If I could only accomplish half of these things in the next three years, which ones would I choose to accomplish?”

Cross out the goals that don’t make the cut.

2.3: Recursive Elimination

Apply the same selection process to your remaining goals:

“If I could only accomplish half of these things in the next three years, which would I choose?”

Again, cross out all of the goals that don’t make the cut. Continue asking this question until you have one goal remaining, hen move on to the next list.

2.4: Build Your “Someday / Maybe” List

Don’t completely discard the goals you decide aren’t important enough to focus on right now: they’re still useful, since they represent things you’d like to do at some point in your life.

Place your items on a “Someday / Maybe” List so you can easily refer to them at a later date. (For more on “Someday / Maybe” lists, read Getting Things Done by David Allen.)

2.5: Finalize Your Most Important Goals

At the end of this phase, you’ll have five goals you’ve identified as the accomplishment that will make the largest positive difference in your life. These goals will form the basis for the next phase in the process: creating an action plan that will help you achieve them quickly.

2.6: Self-Check - How Do You Feel?

After making these edits, check your current emotional state - how do you feel? If you’re excited, happy, and relaxed, you’re on the right track, and the goals you have are well-formed.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, or apathetic, re-examine your choices before moving onto the next phase.

Phase #3: What Can I Do Right Now?

Now that you’ve identified your single most important goal in each of the five areas, it’s time to use them to build an action plan you can use to decide what to spend time doing right now.

The process is simple: we’re going to break down your long-term goals into manageable steps you can accomplish immediately.

3.1: Define Objectives For This Year

For each of the five objectives, create a single goal that expresses the most important thing you can do to move yourself towards the accomplishment of the three-year goal in the coming year.

Example Three-Year Goal: “Within the next three years, I want to create a cash-flow positive business that allows me to earn at least $10,000 each month.”

Example One-Year Goal: “I want to launch my online waffle iron store and generate at least $3,000 in profit per month before January 1 of the coming year.”

3.2: Define Objectives For This Month

Once you know what you need to accomplish this year, define what you need to accomplish this month to keep you on track:

Example One-Year Objective: “I want to launch my online waffle iron store and generate at least $3,000 in profit per month before January 1 of the coming year.”

Example Monthly Objective: “I will launch the new WaffleMaster 5000 via an online and direct marketing campaign by the end of this month.”

3.3: Define Objectives For This Week

Once you know what you need to accomplish this month, define what you need to accomplish this week:

Example Monthly Objectives: “ I will launch the new WaffleMaster 5000 via an online direct marketing campaign by the end of this month.”

Example Weekly Objective: “This week, I will develop three drafts of sales copy for the WaffleMaster 5000 and pre-test response rates using pay-per-click advertising.”

3.4: Test Your Objectives

Examine your yearly, monthly, and weekly goals to ensure they pass the Five-Fold Why, PICS, and AME tests.

Once all of your goals have passed, review the entire list and check your emotional state.

Are you excited to get started? If not, re-examine your intermediate goals and adjust as necessary until you find yourself itching stop writing and start making progress.

Phase #4: Getting the Most From Your Master Plan

Your Masterplan is only valuable if you use it. Here are a few tips that will help:

4.1: Morning Routine

Make reviewing your Personal Master Plan a part of your daily routine. I review my plan every day, immediately after exercising, showering, and eating breakfast.

By reviewing your plan every day, you’ll strongly reinforce what you want to accomplish, making it easier to stay motivated and on track. Establishing this habit is critical.

4.2: Most Important Tasks

Immediately after reviewing your Masterplan in the morning, write out the two or three most important tasks for you to accomplish that day, then commit to completing them by 11:00 am, before checking e-mail or working on less important tasks.

To plan your day, I highly recommend using David Seah’s free “Emergent Task Planner” worksheet. Filling out an ETP each morning is a great way to plan your day’s tasks and visualize how your time will be invested.

4.3: Weekly Review

In Getting Things Done, David Allen recommends setting aside a few hours every week to do a thorough review of all of your outstanding commitments. A few minutes of review every week will help you keep yourself clear, calm, and focused.

Using this time to review your Masterplan and make updates as necessary is an excellent way to ensure your immediate actions are leading to the fulfillment of your long-range goals. You can also use this time to update your “Someday / Maybe” list as necessary.

Create Your Personal Masterplan Now

Creating a Personal Masterplan takes a few hours, but they'll be some of the most productive hours you spend this year.

Happy planning, and good luck.

Debugging Dysthymia: Overcoming Chronic Fatigue

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0000

Update (2024-09-19): I've made significant progress in getting to the root cause of my health issues, which turned out to be a major chronic health condition. Here's the latest information. If you're struggling with similar issues, I hope these posts are helpful.

I've been exhausted for over a decade.

Imagine recovering from a bad cold. The symptoms are gone, but there's a lingering sense of overwhelming weariness: like your body needs to use all of the energy it has available just to keep existing.

That's how I felt almost every day for ten years.

It's as fun as it sounds.

What's Wrong With Me?!

I've struggled with low-level chronic fatigue ¹ since college. Every day, I'd wake up feeling low-energy, and that feeling persisted throughout the day. It didn't matter what I did the day before:

4-7 hours of sleep? Tired.
8-9 hours of sleep? Tired.
12+ hours of sleep? Tired.
Vitamins and supplements? Tired.
Amino acids? Tired.
Stressful day? Tired.
Easy day? Tired.
Exercise? Tired.
No exercise? Tired.
Blue light in the morning? Tired.

This wasn't "tired" as in wanting to sleep: it was "tired" as in "don't have the energy to do anything today." Any extended physical, mental, or social effort just made it worse.

I've tried everything over the years: I've read all of the books, tried all of the weird supplements and interventions, drastically changed my diet and sleep habits in various ways, had all of the medical tests.

Nothing worked. Nothing helped.

All of the typical biological factors related to fatigue were normal: thyroid was normal, cortisol was normal, testosterone was normal, et cetera. Medically speaking, my body was fine along all of the common parameters.

I noticed a few patterns over the years, but they didn't really point to a consistent cause or potential solution:

Getting 9+ hours of sleep made it more likely I'd have a better-than-average day, which was the best I could hope for. Days were never really great in terms of energy.
Removing gluten from my diet helped, but didn't fix the issue.
Exercise made me feel more tired, not less, which was odd: most people report that exercise increases energy.

Every day, I'd do the best I could with the energy I had. I could still function: I just had less energy to work with than I used to have, and way less energy than other people seemed to have.

Social interaction decreased: at first, I chalked it up to introversion, but over time, it was clear that the fatigue was the major limiting factor. Being social took energy I didn't have, so over time I spent less and less time in social situations.

To make matters worse, I also started having issues with middle-of-the-night insomnia: I'd wake up between 1:00-2:30am for no reason, and not be able to fall back asleep until 5:00 to 6:00am. The next day, I'd be completely exhausted: a night of broken sleep destroyed any hope of productivity.

This situation made the early years of life with each of my children quite difficult. Every parent experiences a certain level of chronic sleep deprivation in the first few years of child-rearing: there's really no avoiding it, unless you go full aristocrat and have your child tended to by night nurses in a separate wing of your estate.

The trouble was that any sort of night disturbance would trigger the insomnia: once I was up, I was up (but still exhausted), and there was a high probability that the next day would be a wash. With kids, the probability of night disturbance approached 100%, and that made a bad situation much, much worse.

I run my business by myself: when I stop, progress on my business stops. That's quite a liability when your body isn't cooperating with your plans. I mentioned to a friend that my productivity seemed to be attached to a random number generator: there was no way to predict which days would be decent or bad. All of the most valuable professional things I do require long stretches of sustained mental effort, and a poor night's sleep would kill a day or two of productivity.

I was at the mercy of my biology.

That's how I've lived for a decade now: trying to get as much done as I could on the good days, weathering the bad days, and looking for a solution to this weird, unpredictable fatigue that's made everything in my life more difficult than it should have been.

A few months ago, however, I tested something I've never tried before… and it changed my life.

Standard Disclaimer: I Am Not Your Doctor

In the remainder of this post, I'm going to discuss the solution to my chronic fatigue and why it worked. Please note that I am not a doctor, and you shouldn't take medical advice from random essayists on the internet.

If anything in this post sounds familiar, treat it as a testable hypothesis and talk to your doctor before you do anything else. Everyone is different, the human body is a horrifically complex system, and any issues that you experience are likely to have different causes and effects.

In any case, if you're experiencing something out of the ordinary, the best first course of action is to pay close attention to what's happening, write it down in detail, spend time doing research using credible sources to form hypotheses, and discuss those hypotheses with your doctor. From there, your MD can recommend the best course of action, given your unique body, medical history, and potential side effects, which can be dangerous. DO NOT SELF-DIAGNOSE.

A New Hypothesis: Dysthymia

One of the first potential causes you find in any sort of research about low energy / sleep disturbance / insomnia is depression: they're very common symptoms of major depressive disorder.

The diagnosis didn't fit, though: I didn't have any of the other symptoms. I was still engaged with my family and my work, my appetite was fine, and my thoughts and feelings weren't the issue. Most of the negative thoughts and feelings I experienced stemmed from my fatigue. I was frustrated and down, of course: I had things to do, and I was sick and tired of not having the the energy to do them.

Given the circumstances, it seemed like I was handling it okay psychologically and thinking about the situation in in a rational way. It felt like a body issue, not a mood or mental issue.

As a result, I'd always discounted depression as the root cause of the fatigue: it just didn't make sense.

That changed somewhat when, after two solid months of extremely low energy, I once again started researching to figure out why I felt so terrible. I found an article from the Columbia University Mood Disorders Research Center that was closer to what I was experiencing than anything else I'd read:

Dysthymic disorder (abbreviated as DD) is chronic low-grade depression. It is one subtype of what the DSM-5 now calls "Persistent Depressive Disorder," or PDD. […]

The main symptoms of DD include: depressed mood (lasting 2 or more years); feelings of hopelessness; poor concentration or difficulty making decisions; low self-esteem; low energy or fatigue; poor sleep; and poor appetite or overeating.

Most of the time when people talk of “depression,” they have meant what the DSM-5 would call “acute major depressive disorder.” Major depressive episodes are generally severe, and may be fairly brief in duration—lasting perhaps weeks or months. In major depression, mood drops markedly, and is usually accompanied by poor sleep, loss of appetite, weight loss, hopelessness, and often with suicidal ideas. In contrast, [dysthymic disorder] is not as severe on a day-to-day basis, and (by definition) it lasts for years (even decades) rather than weeks or months.

[T]he symptom profile presented by people with PDD or DD is striking, particularly because it is so long-lasting and persistent within one person's experience, even though specific symptoms may differ from one person to the next. Whereas normal sadness or unhappiness generally improve once one's life circumstances improve, the typical person we see for our dysthymia program describes being 'depressed as long as I can remember' or since primary school, middle school, or 'over the past ten years.'

PDD is one of the most common mood disorders. It affects as many as 3 to 5% of the general population. It occurs about equally in men as in women, though women are generally more likely to seek treatment. Different studies suggest that the percentage of people with 'pure' dysthymia, or without a history of major depression, is about 1-2 %, and the rest of people with PDD have either intermittent or chronic episodes of major depression.

Regardless of subtype, many people with PDD have no idea that they have a mood disorder. They often think that they are “meant” to be depressed, or that negativity, pessimism, sadness, low energy and so on are just part of their “personality.”

That's… me. That's what I've been experiencing. I officially had a new hypothesis to test.

Why did it take me so long to find this?!

Answer: dysthymic disorder was added to the DSM-5 in 2013. When I was doing my initial research, it didn't formally exist as a diagnosis. Most of the high-quality resources on the topic from credible research institutions are new, written in the last two years. No wonder.

Testing The Hypothesis

A few years ago, I signed up for MDVIP, a subscription medical service, partly due to this issue. One of the major benefits is that your primary care physician conducts an extremely thorough medical examination every year, of the type that C-level executives of public corporations have annually to ensure they're fit enough to do the job. The routine testing is extensive, and your doctor spends about an hour and a half with you discussing the results. As a result, I have a great working relationship with my MD, with years of detailed medical history.

So here's what I did: I compiled my research on dysthymia with my log of symptoms, spent a day conducting a literature review using resources like PubMed and Examine.com to find potential treatment options, and went to talk to my doctor.

I narrowed my "first things to try" list to three options, each of which had performed in clinical testing as well (or better) than both standard medication and placebo, with excellent safety and minimal reported side effects:

The idea was to try each of these options first, then move to testing more traditional prescription anti-depressants if they didn't work.

My MD confirmed my hypothesis as reasonable and gave the go-ahead to test each of the options in isolation.

My testing didn't start off well. St. John's Wort, which has many of the same effects as prescription antidepressants like SSRIs, produced terrible side effects: acute, persistent feelings of anxiety along with severe insomnia. I discontinued after two days.

Not terribly encouraging.

SAM-e was another story.

SAM-e: The Missing Keystone

S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAM-e) is a vital part of the human body's one-carbon cycle, which involves the production of a dizzying array of molecules essential to human metabolic function, including the production of neurotransmitters. SAM-e is essentially methionine (an essential amino acid) bound to an ATP molecule, and is produced within the body as a part of normal metabolism.

When the body doesn't produce enough SAM-e, however, the deficiency can create a host of issues, including symptoms of depression. Supplementing SAM-e can, in theory, correct this deficiency and restore normal function, in the same way that supplementing other amino acids can help correct other forms of deficiency. ²

Clinical research shows that SAM-e supplementation is very effective at reducing a wide variety of symptoms with excellent safety, very few reported side effects, and very low risk of toxicity at typical doses. Everyone reacts differently, of course, but it was an obvious thing to test.

I took 400mg of enteric-coated SAM-e, then waited.

It didn't take long: I felt better within hours of the first dose.

I slept better than I'd slept in years that night, and I woke up feeling refreshed.

I had energy again: everything was better. I was in a good mood, exercise felt normal, and social interaction was no longer draining.

Given the strength and immediacy of my body's response, it's very likely that I've been SAM-e deficient for many years: potentially since high school, which is the last time I've remember having consistently restful sleep.

SAM-e deficiency also makes other observations make sense: a few of my very worst years coincided with adopting a vegan diet, which I adopted as a test to see if it helped. Unfortunately, vegan diets are typically very low in folate, B6, and B12, which are cofactors the body needs to synthesize and process SAM-e. In retrospect, it was one of the worst dietary choices I could make, given that my body wasn't producing enough SAM-e in the first place. ³

After experimenting with dosage, 800mg of SAM-e twice a day on an empty stomach + a B-vitamin complex for cofactors produced the best results. All of my symptoms, including the insomnia, disappeared completely, and have not returned.

In my case, dysthymia (in the form of chronic fatigue and lack of restful sleep) was the result of SAM-e deficiency. I found the needle in a haystack: the solution to my most pressing personal problem.

There was, however, a nagging worry: is this just the placebo effect? Will it stop working over time?

It's been several months now, and the effects are consistent and stable. All of my symptoms have resolved. I'm sleeping well, waking up refreshed, and have enough energy to exercise, be social, and be productive again.

I feel like a new person.

This is the best case scenario, really: assuming that SAM-e deficiency is the root cause, correcting it is likely to continue to have the same effects, and the efficacy is not likely to decrease over time.

Everything changes, however: fixing this doesn't preclude having future issues. I'm investing a good portion of my newfound energy in things that make it more likely I'll be healthy, happy, and energetic long-term: exercise, social interaction, and self-care.

It's good to be back.

Lessons Learned

The human body is extremely complex: an imbalance or deficiency in any area can have huge effects on the entire system. I really wonder how many common medical issues have a root cause in some sort of deficiency.
Research works. Even in areas like health, where it's important to listen to experienced / credible professionals, doing your own research to form hypotheses is a good use of time. Your medical provider may only have a few minutes to spend researching your case, and has many other patients. You are able to spend much more time researching your particular situation than your medical provider can. Anything you can do to provide relevant information and reduce the search space for your medical providers is helpful.
If you have a persistent medical issue, don't give up. The more consistently you track symptoms, research potential hypotheses, and try potential treatments (under medical supervision), the more likely you are to find something that works. It may take a while, but it's worth it.

Sources

It's important to note that I don't have what's currently referred to as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," which can be extremely severe. I could get out of bed and be somewhat functional - I was just operating at a substantially reduced level of energy for an extended period of time. ↩
For more on supplementing amino acids to correct deficiencies that can lead to common mood disorders, read The Mood Cure by Julia Ross, MD. ↩
I also happen to be gluten-sensitive in the medically-validated sense: vegan diets tend to contain a lot of wheat gluten, making it a very poor dietary choice for my particular genetic composition. ↩

Strategic Apathy

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0000

In my essay on Status Malfunction, we discussed the problem of allowing the promise of social status to warp our decision-making.

We didn't discuss the solution: making a conscious, deliberate choice to not care about the forms of status that don’t lead us toward the fulfillment of our current priorities or long-term goals.

I call it strategic apathy.

Meh…

Every day, you’re bombarded with things that other people think you should care about:

Marketing messages
Random world, national, regional, and local news
Celebrity sightings
Political campaigns
Charity requests
Personal favor requests, etc.

A firehose of information asking you to pay attention, to change your mind, to change your plans, to care about what they care about.

Imagine for a moment what it would be like to open the gates of your mind and emotions completely: to care about everything that comes your way to the maximum possible extent. To not have the option to not care.

Overwhelm. Anxiety. Horror. Insanity.

In order to function in a world overflowing with information and options, we’re forced to filter. The easiest filters are usually proximity and status: is this close to me, and will this make me look good to others? If so, pay attention. If not, filter it out.

The name of that filter? Apathy. We all use it every day in the service of sanity.

The Benefits Of Apathy

Apathy gets a bad rap, mostly from people who are telling you to care about something important to them. (“Don’t care about XYZ? Shame and guilt be upon you!”) But apathy can be a useful tool if you learn how to wield it.

Here’s an example: if you want to act in effective ways, it’s important to pay attention to your Locus of Control. If you can’t control or influence something, your investment of energy is wasted. Better to invest yourself in things you can change or improve in some way.

There’s a supervolcano that lies dormant under Yellowstone National Park in the US. Geologically speaking, it’s overdue to erupt, causing widespread devastation. Worrying about that possibility would affect what happens in the next 10,000 years by 0% – it’s not in your Locus of Control.

But if you’re worried about it anyway, focusing on what you can do – stocking up on emergency supplies, just in case – is way better than aimless anxiety and rumination. You can control your own actions, so you can choose to act in ways that improve upon any given situation.

So: it’s better to choose to care about things that are important to you AND things that you can influence or control. Choosing not to think or worry about things you can’t influence or control is apathy: strategic apathy. Apathy in the name of sanity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Status & Supervolcanos

That insight – that apathy can be consciously deployed in useful, positive ways – gives us a weapon against status malfunction.

As we discussed, you can never fully eliminate status considerations in your decision-making: it’s a foundational part of the human psyche. But strategic apathy can help ensure the promise of status doesn’t blind you to more important factors.

Here’s how it works: realize that what other people think of you is fundamentally outside of your control. You can influence how people perceive you to a certain extent – that’s why people work to accumulate status signals – but you can never fully control it.

So let’s deploy strategic apathy: what if, for any particular status signal, you consciously chose not to care about it? What would happen? What opportunities and results would you have, and what options would be closed or more difficult?

Instead of blindly assuming the status signal is valuable because status or that it will singlehandedly make you happy (it won’t), take a moment and actually do the calculus. What do you really gain, and what do you really lose?

Someone's Always Caught Up In The Fast Life

Here’s a straightforward example: luxury vehicles. Fancy, fast cars are pure status signals: they’re designed to grab attention, and if you drove them to the full extent of their capability on anything but a closed race track, you’d wind up in jail.

So let’s choose not to care about the flash for a moment: why do you really need a vehicle? What’s the purpose? What valuable results are you looking to produce?

If getting from “Point A” to “Point B” in a safe, reliable manner is the priority, almost any mechanically sound vehicle will do – maybe even a bicycle. Status considerations aside, it’s the exact same end result at a fraction of the price.

Have the money, know you’re buying a status signal, and don’t have other higher priorities? Buy the fancy car guilt-free. Otherwise, strategic apathy about fancy cars is a quick, easy, and painless way to save tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in malinvestment.

What’s Important To YOU?

Strategic apathy can prevent unwise status-motivated decisions, but it can’t tell you what you do want. What are you working towards? What do you care about? What are you doing right now to move towards those valued ends?

Those are personal questions, and no one can answer them for you.

I can say, however, that these questions are easier to answer (and the ends easier to accomplish) if you take advantage of strategic apathy.

Here’s a question I asked my clients a lot in my consulting days:

“What if you got everything you want, but no one could ever know? All of your dreams come true, but no one will ever be aware of – or impressed by – your efforts or results. How would that feel?”

It’s a very useful question for determining if the end result is meaningful to you in itself, or if you’re primarily interested in the potential status increase associated with that course of action. Once status considerations are isolated, it’s easier to avoid any potential status malfunction.

Automatic Status

Here’s a wonderful thing about human societies: if you pursue important goals in an effective way, you will accumulate a certain amount of social status. That’s just how the human mind operates.

By deploying strategic apathy when appropriate, you’re not really giving anything up: you’re just making it more difficult for the world to distract you with shiny, worthless baubles.

Strategic apathy is a check on your own decision-making: a way to make sure you’re working on what you value long-term instead of what seems enticing on the surface.

So consider this formal permission to be strategically apathetic about fame, fortune, power, awards, recognition, luxury goods, and high position. You don’t have to climb the ladder. You don’t have to impress anyone. You don’t have to “change the world” or dedicate your life to any particular cause just because someone else wants you to.

What do you care about? How do you want to invest your time and energy? What are your priorities? What are your next steps?

Choose to care about the answers to those questions.

Choose to be apathetic about the distractions.

Status Malfunction

Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 -0000

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

The Tao Te Ching, as translated by Stephen Mitchell

One of the most important lessons in modern psychology is that the human mind malfunctions in specific, predictable ways.

The study of these malfunctions - pioneered by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who won a Nobel Prize for their work on prospect theory - is becoming more widely known as the field of cognitive bias. Today, there's a growing industry of books and speakers on the topic, including New York Times bestsellers like:

Thinking, Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Influence by Robert Cialdini
The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

But no one is talking about the biggest mental malfunction of all: the mother of all cognitive biases.

That's because it's so common - so utterly ubiquitous - that it's difficult to see and impossible to fully ignore. Just as fish don't notice the water that surrounds them, we're steeped in information about a quality that warps almost every facet of how we think, how we act, and how we feel about ourselves and our place in the world.

That quality is social status. I've already used it three times in the previous paragraphs to manipulate your thoughts.

You probably didn't notice. ¹

"Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better..."

Every minute of every day for your entire life, a non-trivial part of your brain has been devoted to keeping track of how you measure up against the rest of the world. Without very much effort, you could rattle off a list of things like:

Who is more attractive than you are.
Who is stronger than you are.
Who is wealthier than you are.
Who is more influential than you are.
Who is more powerful than you are.
Who is more famous than you are.
Who is better than you are in some specific area of skill. (Regardless of whether or not you're skilled in that area at all.)

Humans are social creatures - we're built to survive and thrive in groups. Group behavior confers many advantages when it comes to ensuring survival in an often-hostile environment, but it also introduces intra-group competition for scarce resources. The individuals who prosper within the group tend to be the ones who most successfully compete on obvious reproductive survival dimensions (like beauty, wealth, strength, group political influence, etc) and those that innovate by inventing a useful new dimension to compete on - that's why humans have direct incentives to explore, create, and build skill in millions upon millions of different areas. ²

That, in short, is the whole idea of social status: how do you stack up against others along some specific dimension, and where do you have a fighting chance of being considered "the best"? Relative status is often tricky to calculate precisely, so we rely on status signals: visible indicators of a more subtle, hard-to-quantify quality.

And so a substantial amount of our cognitive resources are devoted to tracking our current status and changes in our status relative to others. Likewise, many things that factor into our emotions and behavior boil down to this: "does this (or will this) improve my social status in some meaningful way?"

Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous

I'd list some examples of status-motivated thought and behavior, but there are so many it's probably not possible to produce a complete taxonomy.

Have you ever dreamt of being a movie star? Performer or musician? Professional athlete? Astronaut? CEO? Politician or world leader? Celebrity? Those are all occupations that carry significant social status, and the status is a huge part of the compensation for the otherwise extreme demands and sacrifices required to break into, compete, and maintain position in those fields. That's status-motivated cognition.

Ever wanted to buy a Rolex or a gold Apple Watch? A Bentley, Lamborghini, Ferrari, or Tesla Model S? A private jet, or your own yacht? A private island? That's status-motivated cognition.

Ever wanted to win a Nobel Prize, be Time Magazine's "Person of the Year," win an Oscar, or be awarded some prestigious medal of honor? That's status-motivated cognition.

Ever felt envy when someone accomplishes something impressive, buys something cool, or receives some sort of difficult-to-attract attention? That's status-motivated cognition too.

This sort of thought and behavior pattern operates at all levels. Celebrity gossip is everywhere, and some people are famous primarily for being famous. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is as common as ever. We notice things that win awards, and happen to know the names of the wealthiest people in the world. We have favorite sports players and teams, and their performance on game day affects our mood. Believing you'll finally like yourself once you accumulate just a little more renown, only to find that, after attaining it, the reward was a mirage... but maybe the next goalpost will finally deliver the happiness you seek.

And we can't forget the legions of salespeople who are happy to promise you fortune, fame, and attractiveness of all sorts - if only you buy today. (Don't delay!)

Then there's the ugly: fighting dirty to win. Talking trash about the competition. Putting down people we envy. Investing self-identity in political parties, turning words into weapons to make one side look great and the other side look terrible - as if there were only two sides to the issue in the first place, truth and accuracy and rational governance be damned. Lawsuits. Group discrimination, oppression, and violence. Gang fights. Wars. Genocide.

All forms of status-motivated cognition: it's a difference of degrees, not of kind. The mother of all cognitive biases.

Defining Status Malfunction

So, here's a handy heuristic: the more attractive an option looks in terms of status, the more likely it is to have significant drawbacks or pitfalls (given extreme competition for that status), and the more likely we are to ignore or undervalue those drawbacks and pursue that option anyway, which is a pretty dumb thing to do, and we should stop ourselves from doing that if we can.

I call this tendency "status malfunction." The greater the potential perceived status increase, the higher the risk of serious error or malinvestment.

I'll let you in on a secret. Most of my work to date, and most of my planned work in the future, involves identifying and disarming status malfunction, and choosing to do something more effective instead. If you're able to inhibit your status seeking tendencies long enough, it's trivial to find ways to get better results in a more reliable and less expensive way.

Want to learn business? Skip the MBA (status malfunction) - just learn the fundamental principles yourself, then go out and use them in a real business.
Want to pick up a new skill? Don't worry about being the best (status malfunction) - just figure out what you want to be able to do, then practice doing that in an efficient way.
Want to have a rewarding career? Don't work at a prestigious company, chase venture capital, or go out and hire a bunch of people to grow fast (status malfunction) - start your own business, keep it small, control your costs and commitments, and grow it only as much as you want to given your other priorities.

I've spent many years debugging this part of my mind: trying to ignore status factors long enough to figure out what I really want, then spending my time doing that instead of mindlessly seeking attention and approval. It works so well that it almost seems like an unfair advantage, and it's applicable to pretty much every part of life. But it's difficult - status-motivated cognition can be inhibited, but it never really goes away. The mental and emotional hooks are just too deep. But practice makes status malfunction easier to notice, easier to block, and easier to redirect attention once you notice it.

Now, I'm much better at noticing status malfunction on the fly, and it's not as difficult to inhibit. It's nice whenever status signals appear, but I don't consciously pursue them anymore. It's the pursuit of status that usually gets you into trouble. I'm not immune to the siren song of status - not by a long shot - but I've managed to build a healthy resistance.

This is a major factor in why my work tends to be polarizing: some people love it, and some people hate it. On the one hand, I'll never run out of things to talk about - there are millions of ways to get better results in important areas of life if you're willing to ignore the sexy/shiny distractions and focus on doing what works. On the other hand, I'll always have a vocal segment of status-oriented readers who will be offended by any recommendations that don't appear to be a direct path to substantial renown.

Example: Status and Skill

The First 20 Hours is a great example of this. Skills are often used as social signals, since performing better than others at something visible and valued is a way to differentiate yourself. Accordingly, skills are often valued to the point of being considered parts of our core identity. Competition and perceived status encroachment or upsmanship are met with distain, scorn, and reciprocal competition and upsmanship. ³

Here's a different way of thinking about skill: independent of status, acquiring a new skill is always a win from a capability standpoint, since the skill opens up new options and opportunities. Some skill in an area is always better than no skill.

From a status perspective, being average is terrible, since it doesn't differentiate you from others, and doesn't improve how other people think about you in a meaningful way - if anything, being perceived as average decreases your status in the eyes of some people. From a capability perspective, being average is fantastic, since it lets you accomplish things you otherwise couldn't do without that average level of skill.

That's the thing: you can accomplish millions of valuable and meaningful things with skills that are mediocre in every way.

Being able to build skill in any area in short periods of time is a fundamental advantage that provides extreme value. We all learn how to do thousands of things over the course of our lives, and so it stands to reason that learning how to be a better beginner and improve quickly is the most valuable thing to learn about skill acquisition.

And yet the vast majority of attention, conversation, and research on skill acquisition focuses on "mastery": how to become the "best in the world" or achieve flashy results, claiming the skill as a status signal. Claiming mastery is high status, but doing the work necessary to get there is low status, so everyone is interested in the former, not the latter.

That's a classic example of status malfunction, and it's everywhere. It's in the "ten years to overnight success" pattern that shows up every time someone new appears in the spotlight: everyone notices the success, but few pay attention to the effort. In the immortal words of Ronnie Coleman, just before squatting 745 pounds: "Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weight."

It's the same in business. The real core of commercial success is finding a valuable problem, solving that problem, selling the solution, keeping your customers happy, and not being stupid with the money you make. That's it. Do that well in a consistent way, and you'll prosper.

But that doesn't sound as impressive or exciting as chasing credentials from top universities, raising millions of dollars in venture capital, being featured on Techcrunch, making money on the internet while you sleep, or driving a brand new BMW if you can figure out how to recruit a few more people into your multi-level-marketing downline to sell magical bottles of lotion at a 10,000% markup to people who believe they'll be able to drive a brand new BMW if they can figure out how to recruit a few more people into their multi-level-marketing downline to sell magical bottles of lotion at a 10,000% markup.

And so it goes. Guess which strategy gets better results in the long run?

Avoiding Status Malfunction

So how do you go about avoiding status malfunction?

It's not easy, but it's worth it. Here are a few things that'll help:

Decide what you really want. Here's a useful thought experiment: assume that you can have everything you want except status, attention, recognition, and fame. You'll succeed in every way, but no one will ever know. How does that change your goals and priorities? The results will be close to your true priorities, and you'll make more progress if you focus on those things.
Understand that status, fame, and attention from external sources is fickle by nature. Even if you get them, you won't have them for long, so it's probably a better idea to invest in results that are longer-lasting and more within your locus of control.
Learn to pause and reflect whenever you think about doing something primarily to impress other people. Is it necessary? Is it wise? Will they care, or change their actions based on your behavior? Is it in line with your other non-status priorities, or is this a temporary departure or distraction that feels good? Does this get you want you really want?
Don't envy the status-seeker. It's a generalization, but many people who compulsively chase status are struggling with their own inner demons, mental and emotional. They often accomplish impressive things by using that struggle in a productive way, and that's fantastic. They're still fighting a very real battle, and given the choice, you probably wouldn't want the demon. Be wary of comparing your inside vs. another person's outside. If you're free of the compulsion, be thankful you don't have that battle to fight.
Ignore opinions. Everyone has their own goals, values, and priorities, and that's okay. You'll always be able to find more than a handful of people who will tell you what you're doing is wrong, suboptimal, misguided, or stupid. Do what you're doing for your own reasons, and find people who will support your efforts.

It's not foolproof, but being aware of the pattern is half the battle, and you'll find it easier to notice situations where status malfunction is a significant risk.

Status and attention are nice to have, but substantially overrated. Decide what you want, figure out a smart strategy, then put in the effort required to get it.

Ignore the crowd.

Kahneman & Tversky's work on prospect theory would still be useful even if it didn't win the Nobel Prize. The books I mentioned would still be great even if they weren't New York Times bestsellers. Status malfunction would still be important even if I hadn't suggested it's more important than other cognitive biases, and that it's a secret that I know that you - and other important and famous people - don't. ↩
I'm partial to Seth Roberts' theory that diverse skill specialization confers evolutionary advantages, resulting in substantial cultural and economic incentives to explore, innovate, improve, and signal advanced skill in an extreme variety of human activities. ↩
A few examples: threads on Hacker News any time the subject of programming skill and productivity comes up (“there's no way you can be a 10x programmer if you don't [programming flavor of the month]”), audio recording engineers discussing their gear (“that microphone is okay, but it's nothing compared to this custom mic I had made by a secret master engineer in Belgium”), or martial arts enthusiasts debating which style is best in a real fight. (“Nice dance moves, but any random [style practitioner] would destroy them.”) ↩

Explore / Exploit

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0000

To build skill from scratch, you need to know How to Climb A Ladder.

But how do you know which ladder to climb?

There are millions of skills you could acquire, and billions of subtle variations. Which set of those skills and variations is the optimal path to getting what you want? How do you determine those things in advance, before you invest in learning them?

And what if "getting what you want" changes over time? What then?

Barring some form of omniscience, is there a better strategy than taking a wild guess and hoping for the best?

Yes, there is.

The Bandit Problem

Figuring out which skills will give you the best outcomes is very similar to a venerable and important problem in probability theory: the multi-armed bandit problem.

Here's a short version of the problem: imagine walking into a casino and deciding to play the slot machines. ¹

There's a row of machines, each of which has a different probability of paying a reward when you pull the lever. Some machines pay more – some much more – than the other machines, but you're not sure which machine has the highest return.

If you knew the best machine in advance, you'd just pull that lever all day long, but you don't have a clue, and no one is going to tell you. The only way to find out is to start pulling levers, pay close attention, keep track of what works and what doesn't, and do the math.

There's a tradeoff to be made, however: when you choose to pull a lever you haven't pulled before, you get new information about that option, and that information is valuable in finding the best overall machine. But pulling the less-tested lever has an opportunity cost: you're not pulling the lever you currently think will give you the best return. There's a risk that the lever you pull will return less than what you would've brought in pulling the current optimal lever, and that's a very real cost.

Information is valuable, but it comes at a price - experimentation is sometimes a form of malinvestment. That insight is the key to solving the bandit problem.

Exploration and Exploitation

Without going too much into the math, the solution to the bandit problem is easy to understand: the optimal strategy is to start with a period of exploration, where you pull levers at random and gather information. When you have more information about what works and what doesn't, you shift to spending the majority of your time pulling the best lever (exploitation), but you keep exploring the other options in case your current best option isn't the very best that exists.

Here's the thing: the exploration phase never stops. Even if, in your heart of hearts, you're positively certain you've found the best possible option, you never stop experimenting, because the information you gather by experimenting is still valuable.

The only way to beat the bandit is to keep trying new things.

Life Is A Bandit Problem

There's a set of skills you can pick up that will help you get what you want out of life. You have no guarantee that anything you choose to learn will produce the intended outcome, and you start with very little information on what's best for you as an individual.

You do have a major advantage, though: other people are playing the same game, and you can watch what they do to gather information about what works and what doesn't without having to do the exact same things they did.

The optimal strategy remains roughly the same: experiment as much as possible, with as much variation as you can, and pay close attention to the experiments other people are doing. ² As you find things that appear to produce the outcomes you want, spend more time and energy doing them. As your efforts produce results and your certainty in that option increases, increase your investment in that option accordingly.

But never stop experimenting: trying new options, discovering new opportunities, exploring new things. The master key to a satisfying life is experimentation. The more you experiment, the more you learn, the more information and options you'll have at your disposal, and the better the chance you'll discover the things that will produce the best outcomes for you.

You can't make positive discoveries that make your life better if you never try anything new. Start experimenting, and never stop.

Special thanks to Jon Kameen and Andre Davoodi for their thoughts on How to Climb A Ladder, which informed this post.

Slot machines are sometimes referred to as "one-armed bandits," which is how the "bandit" problem got its name. I don't recommend playing slot machines, by the way - there's a reason casinos are profitable. Under standard odds and given a long enough period of time, the house always wins, so the only way to win is to refuse to play. Let's assume, for the sake of this thought experiment, you're not paying to play - each game only costs you the time it takes to pull the lever and see the result. ↩
Of course, try to be sure the people you're observing have the same general goals, aspirations, and values that you have. Otherwise, you risk optimizing for something you don't really want. ↩

How to Climb a Ladder

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0000

Say you want to climb a tall ladder. Here's the worst way to go about it: refuse to move until you find a way to teleport yourself straight to the top.

You have to take small steps. You put your foot on the first rung, check your balance, hold on tight, then push yourself up to the second rung. Then you put your foot on the next rung, check your balance, hold on tight, and push yourself up again.

Repeat however high you want to climb. Small amounts of progress add up.

Skipping a rung is foolhardy. Just focus on the next rung. Then the next.

Here's why this is important: every skill is a ladder. There's no shame in starting at the bottom. That's just how it works.

If you want to climb the ladder, you have to put your foot on the first rung.

The Practice of Wisdom

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0000

"Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place."
Iroh, retired General of the Fire Nation, The "Dragon of the West," and proprietor of The Jasmine Dragon tea house in the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated television series

Most people grow up wanting to be famous, to be wealthy, to be loved, to be powerful.

I've always wanted to be wise.

Of all of the qualities people can develop, wisdom is potentially the most beneficial. If developed and used in a skillful way, wisdom can help you (and the people around you) get most of the benefits of common worldly values like attention, status, money, esteem, and influence while mitigating most of the severe drawbacks and tradeoffs.

It's also one of the most difficult human qualities to define, let alone cultivate.

What is wisdom, really? How do you know if you, or someone you know, is actually wise, not just pretending, bluffing, or trying to signal special insight? Appearing to be wise and actually being wise are very different things, and self-deception and puffery are common, since wisdom is usually considered a valuable status signal.

Philosophers have attempted to define wisdom in many ways over the years, without much luck. Most of the philosophical definitions of wisdom I've found boil down to "acting in a wise way" or an abstract sentiment like "the right application of knowledge," which suffers from hindsight bias. Psychologists and neuroscientists have been studying (and trying to measure) wisdom as well, so they usually define it along the lines of "a demonstrated superior ability to understand the nature and behavior of things, people, or events." ²

Those definitions aren't so useful if you're trying to cultivate wisdom yourself. I'm all about developing "a demonstrated superior ability to understand the nature and behavior of things, people, or events." The question remains: how exactly do you go about doing that?

Media depictions of "wise" characters don't do us any favors, either. In practice, being wise doesn't have anything to do with acting like a Zen master, Yogic guru, or Stoic sage. It's not about spouting aphorisms, acting detached and aloof from the rest of the world, or having supernatural insight above and beyond the reach of mere mortals.

Part of what makes wisdom hard to define is that it isn't just one thing: it's a cluster of several specific qualities that are used together. Here's my current working definition of wisdom, based on many years of research:

A set of specific, learnable ways of thinking and acting that…
Are used in combination…
To make decisions and recommendations that are…
Likely to produce positive outcomes…
In uncertain, ambiguous, and changing circumstances.

People who decide to learn how to make decisions (or advise others) in ways that are likely to result in positive future outcomes in uncertain conditions are learning to be wise: it's a skill that can be developed, albeit a very complex one.

Here's what I've been able to piece together about the primary qualities of wisdom over the years:

1. Understanding

Accurate knowledge of how the world works in fundamental ways. Why things are the way they are, how they got that way, and how to potentially go about changing them without producing unintended consequences. Acting to change something without understanding it first is the definition of foolishness.

Understanding requires learning as much as you can about the world, cultivating curiosity about how things work, considering novel information, expanding your worldview, updating your mental models whenever you have new information, and noticing when you're wrong, surprised, or confused so you can change your mind and use the information in the future.

2. Prudence

Acting in ways that are likely to produce the best possible outcomes for everyone involved. You don't quite know what the future holds, you don't know what others will do (or not do), and unexpected things always happen, so those uncertainties must be taken into account. It's usually prudent to look out for the best interests of everyone, not just yourself: harming others is myopic, detrimental, and a good way to make enemies.

Prudence requires collecting information, considering the available options, and making considered decisions that use that information to produce the desired result.

3. Discernment

It'd be easy for an omniscient being make the best possible decision, but you're not all-knowing: the future is always uncertain and changing. Making important decisions often feels like trying to walk along a trail in the fog – you can see a step or two in front of you, but beyond that, the path is fuzzy and indistinct. Your desires and goals are often just as fuzzy, other people have their own ideas of what you should do, and people often lie and dissemble to get what they want. If it "sounds too good to be true," it often is, but not always – that's a determination you have to make for yourself.

Discernment requires deciding what you want to do and why, looking for subtle clues to determine what's best and avoid false trails, paying close attention to avoid being mislead or deceived, and being cautious and self-aware when you want very much for something to be true or false.

4. Foresight

What do you want things to look like in the days, weeks, months, decades, and centuries ahead? What do you need to do to make that potential future a reality? Are there challenges, barriers, or potential opponents to that future? How could you work around, avoid, or work with them? Could you develop new skills, find helpful people, prevent unnecessary setbacks, or mitigate the risks?

Foresight requires taking the time to think through likely future events, acting in ways that prevent problems from happening in the first place, and making investments and decisions in the present to make the future better in some specific way.

5. Control

Acting in ways that will lead to more of what you want, less of what you don't want, and avoid major unrecoverable errors. Many a person – even the most "successful" people for various definitions of the term – has been brought low by failing to control their emotions and actions, or failing to act when action was necessary. Inhibiting and tempering hubris, arrogance, anger, and despair is necessary if you want to make good decisions. Even then, you don't want to be too controlled, and overlook the value of flexibility, intuition, and fun.

Control requires fighting akrasia, resisting temptation, and inhibiting unproductive impulse in favor of considered and deliberate action.

6. Flexibility

Avoiding being tied to a single, permanent, static way of thinking and acting. Many things are possible if you're willing to consider all of the possible paths and change your strategy. Rigidity is fragile, and it's easy to over-constrain your options in a way that forces poor decisions. On the other hand, you don't want to be too flexible – compromising on something critical doesn't help anyone.

Flexibility requires active exploration of what's possible, keeping an open mind, and being willing to admit your first impulses or gut instincts might be sub-optimal.

7. Persistence

Moving toward the future you want and overcoming errors and setbacks. Everyone wants to have great results, but few are willing to put in the effort necessary to get them. The most important and valuable things in life require effort, and it's easy to give up too early. Almost everyone who achieves or builds something important or valuable puts in years, often decades, of focused energy and attention.

Persistence requires working through the rough spots, keeping the faith in the hard yards, and being patient enough to keep doing what's important long after most people would give up. As long as Discernment says the goal is still worth pursuing, the wise person keeps going.

The more you cultivate wisdom, the better your life becomes. You'll produce better results with fewer major issues or unintended consequences. You'll handle challenges in a more skillful way. You'll troubleshoot your own issues, prevent unnecessary mistakes, and give useful advice to people who are struggling with their own unique problems.

The qualities of wisdom aren't innate: they're cultivated, mostly by paying attention in the moment and remembering to use them as the situation requires. Wisdom – real wisdom – changes the way you approach every part of your day-to-day life.

It's also a continuum – wisdom is not a binary thing. Like intelligence, you can go to bed with a little more wisdom than you had when you woke up. All it takes is patient, long-term practice of the right qualities.

"Uncle Iroh" is one of the best depictions of a wise character I've seen in fiction: he thinks ahead, plans ahead, collects information to better understand the world, accounts for uncertainty, controls his desires and emotions, exercises restraint while retaining flexibility and fun, advises others in their actual best interest, acts decisively when prudent and necessary, and makes a long-term persistent effort to bring about a future that solves major problems and benefits everyone. If you haven't watched the series, I highly recommend it - it's available on many streaming video services. ↩
Legesse B, Price BH., Murray ED Brain-Behavior Relations. In: Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, 2nd Edition. Vilanayur S Ramachandran MD PhD(ed) Academic Press. 16 March 2012. ISBN 978-0123750006. Citation via Wikipedia. ↩

True, Useful, and Clear

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0000

Here's a simple structure I use to evaluate the non-fiction (books, articles, essays, etc) I read:

Is it true?

Does this explain the world in some way? Does the information appear to correspond to how things work in the world, given prior knowledge and experience? Does the material cite sources? Does the material abuse cognitive biases to appear more appealing or persuasive?

Is it useful?

Can this be applied to produce better results in important areas, or is it an intellectual form of entertainment? Is there a clear next action from reading this material? Does the material suggest things to do or try? Are you taking notes to apply the material when you finish reading?

Is it clear?

Does the author / essayist present the information in a way that makes the information straightforward to understand and apply? If the subject matter is technical or challenging, do they attempt to make it more approachable? Do they anticipate and answer objections or common barriers to understanding?

The best material has all three qualities. If it's not true, not useful, or not clear, it's probably best to find another resource unless your purpose is entertainment.

This framework also happens to be a good starting point for writing non-fiction. If what you're working on isn't true, useful, and clear, you still have work to do.

Special thanks to Ben Casnocha - we discussed this over tea a few months ago. The importance of clarity is Ben's contribution, and his comments changed my thinking on this topic. I'm more willing than most to wade through the obscure, so I was originally willing to settle for true and useful.

Schadenfreude and Mudita

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0000

Schadenfreude is experiencing pleasure at the misfortunes of others. A rival suddenly goes bankrupt, an enemy takes a fall, karma finally catches up to a shady dealer… and you smile at the news, without a touch of consideration or remorse.

An ugly reaction, really, but it's an easy emotion to experience.

Mudita (Muditā in Pāli) is the opposite: experiencing pleasure from the well-being of others. A rival achieves a big goal, an enemy becomes a millionaire, a shady dealer wins a prestigious award… and you smile at the news, without a touch of anger or envy.

A lovely reaction, really, but it's a difficult emotion to experience.

That's because mudita is a skill, and skills only get better if you practice.

Source: English Language & Usage (Stack Exchange) - "What's the antonym for Schadenfreude?"

Do To Become

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0000

Want to be somebody?

Do something. Then do it again. And again. And again.

Want to be an artist? Make some art. Then do it again. And again. And again.
Want to be a writer? Write something. Then do it again. And again. And again.
Want to be a performer? Perform something. Then do it again. And again. And again.
Want to be an entrepreneur? Start a business. Make it better. Then do it again. And again. And again.

You get the picture. If you want to be, you have to be willing to do.

Artists make art. Writers write. Performers perform. Entrepreneurs start businesses.

That's the challenge: you have to do to become. No doing, no becoming. Labels are meaningless.

And when you start doing things often enough, you start to realize the doing is way more valuable than the becoming anyway.

Kakorrhaphiophobia: Persistent, All-Consuming Fear of Failure

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0000

"Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt."
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Here's a new word for you…

Kakorrhaphiophobia is an abnormal, persistent, irrational fear of failure. In clinical cases, it's debilitating: the fear of even the most subtle failure or defeat is so intense that it restricts a person from doing anything at all.

Kakorrhaphiophobia is the most extreme version of what we all experience when we decide to acquire a new skill: doubt, uncertainty, anxiety about our capabilities, and fear of what others will think:

"What if I fail?"
"What if I look bad?"
"What if others think I'm stupid?"
"What if others think I'm not very good?"
"What if others aren't impressed with what I can do?"

Please Don't Look At Me

Have you ever wondered why everyone is willing to talk about the things they can do well, but are almost never willing to discuss the things they're trying to learn how to do, but can't yet do very well?

Have you ever noticed that, if you can get someone to show you what they're learning, they almost always begin with an apology, and speak in an embarrassed tone of voice, regardless of how skilled they are or how much they've practiced?

That's why.

One of the primary reasons I wrote The First 20 Hours was to break the general silence that surrounds the early stages of skill acquisition. Researchers and authors who cover skill acquisition almost universally prefer to speak in terms of "mastery": an amorphous topic that's aspirational and often inspiring, but seldom helpful when it comes to using the research to level up your own skills.

I prefer to focus on the useful part: how to actually go about acquiring new skills. Not hand-wavy theory: nuts-and-bolts practice.

Everyone who decides to learn how to do something new struggles at first, and being a beginner is never easy. Most people give up too soon for the wrong reasons, or feel bad about giving up for the right reasons. Millions of people avoid starting at all out of a misguided fear that others will think less of them if they try.

Here's the great thing about irrational fears: you can often diffuse them simply by paying conscious attention to them. So let's dance with our irrational fear of failure for a moment…

What if you fail?

Well, what does "failing" mean? Unless it's something permanent like death or disability, it's probably not that big of a deal, and even major risks can be prevented with a little advance planning.

Even if you don't get everything you want, almost no effort is a complete waste: you'll have many interesting experiences, be able to do new things, and have a few new stories to tell. That's not so bad.

What if you look bad?

Look bad to whom? Do they matter? Should you care?

The people who matter most (including family, close friends, and colleagues) will very seldom think poorly of you for trying something new or improving yourself in general. They may not understand at first, and they may feel concerned about you for reasons of their own, but that's not a good reason to avoid trying at all.

Also, the vast majority of the skill acquisition process happens in private. It's common to talk about skills in the context of public performance, but that's not where skill is developed. You get better working in private, day-by-day, without notice or fanfare.

The real audience that matters here is yourself: can you turn off the self-criticism long enough to sit down and practice well? That's what counts.

What if others think I'm stupid?

First: you'd be surprised how little most people think of you at all. They're not being uncharitable or apathetic: they're just busy worrying about their own stuff most of the time.

And if someone notices your effort and thinks less of you? Those people aren't worth worrying about. If someone decides to be that uncharitable, why limit yourself just to impress them?

Trolls, haters, and pigeons ¹ certainly exist - for proof, take a look at the 1-star reviews I earned for The First 20 Hours by being willing to talk frankly about being a beginner, not an expert. Several people were "not impressed," to put it mildly.

Here's the thing: what other people think doesn't matter when it comes to developing skill. Are you going to let some random malcontent prevent you from being able to do what you want to be able to do?

What if others think I'm not very good?

Is that a tragedy? Is that a permanent sentence of eternal un-coolness?

Everyone who develops any level of skill in anything went through a period where they weren't very good at all. It's an unavoidable part of the process. The people who persist through that period, and keep practicing in a smart way, are the ones that develop impressive skills.

How long will that period last? It depends on what you're doing, how much you practice, and how smart your practice strategy is. The best news is that the practice strategies that work best in the beginning phases of skill acquisition work best during all phases of the process.

Fundamentals are fundamentals.

Fear Not Trying

Being scared of failing prevents most of us from noticing the truth: if you practice in a smart way, pay close attention to how you're performing, and adjust your strategy as you progress, you'll improve. Simple as that. Fear of "failing" is an illusion: a toxic mix of self-consciousness, fuzzy objectives, and all-or-nothing thinking.

Here's something that's worth being fearful of: not trying. Ignoring the desire. Avoiding the uncertainty and effort. Abdicating your responsibility to improve your own knowledge and capabilities.

Don't fear failure. Fear not trying at all.

A "pigeon" is a colorful term for a person who swoops in, craps all over everything, then leaves. ↩

Notes on 'The Happiness of Pursuit' by Chris Guillebeau

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0000

About Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is the bestselling author of The Happiness of Pursuit, The $100 Startup, and The Art of Nonconformity. Chris recently completed a decade-long quest to visit every country in the world, and The Happiness of Pursuit is a retrospective of that quest and an examination of finding purpose in life by working to accomplish big goals and seeking out adventure.

In addition to writing books and traveling the world, Chris is behind World Domination Summit, where fascinating people from all over the globe gather in Portland every year for fun and adventure.

1. Happiness is often found in pursuit of a quest.

The most straightforward path to happiness and satisfaction in life comes from pursuing a significant long-term goal or objective: a "quest." We're far more likely to be happy while working to achieve something great than after we've accomplished it.

Quests take on many of forms, large and small. Chris decided to visit every country in the world. The people Chris profiles in the book chose a wide variety of quests: taking a vow of silence, walking across countries, publishing a million photos, and circumnavigating the globe solo in a sailboat.

You can choose to pursue whatever quest happens to move you: opportunities are legion.

2. Choosing a quest is a big decision.

Choosing to pursue a quest is a life-changing moment, and it's in your best interest to make sure the criteria of the quest is as clear as possible. Set an unambiguous objective that's:

Challenging.
Has clear criteria that are measurable.
Requires sacrifice, effort, and persistence.

Otherwise, it's not much of a quest, and you won't get much out of the experience. Fuzzy criteria don't help you.

This suggestion has a lot of overlap with the process of acquiring new skills, which can be thought of as a type of quest. The more clearly you define what you want to achieve, the easier it'll be to accomplish it.

3. There are always risks – don't let them stop you.

Nothing is perfectly safe, and any major undertaking is going to have a certain amount of risk involved. Depending on the nature of the quest, you could very well get injured – even die. You might strain relationships with friends and family. You could lose your job, go broke, and have to live in a van down by the river.

Of course, all of these things can happen to you even if you don't pursue the quest. Life's not perfectly safe or certain in any case, so the presence of risk doesn't mean you shouldn't move forward.

Don't be stupid, of course: prepare, plan, and mitigate whatever risks you can in as smart a way as possible, then jump in.

4. There are always costs – count them.

There's an old saying: "you can have anything you want, as long as you're willing to pay the price."

Quests aren't free: you'll spend a significant amount of money, time, and energy completing them. Those resources are finite, but most people assume big projects are impossible without actually sitting down and figuring out what the project will cost.

That's a huge mistake. "What would it take?" is a powerful question.

Consciously taking the time to research and calculate the true costs of the quest before you begin is both prudent and necessary. You'll know exactly what you're getting into, what it's going to take in terms of money / time / energy, and what you're going to have to do to complete the adventure.

5. There are always tradeoffs – make them consciously.

What are you not going to do in pursuit of the quest?

The bigger the quest, the more you're probably going to have to give up to accomplish the objective.

It's tempting to try to do everything at once. That's a mistake. It's better to decide what you're willing to forego or postpone in advance than have the tricky tradeoffs forced upon you in the moment.

If you have more than one quest you'd like to pursue, pick the most compelling one. The others can wait for a while, ready to pick up after you accomplish the first, or if (for whatever reason) you decide your original quest is no longer worth pursuing.

6. Persistence will correct many errors. Keep moving.

Maybe your careful planning will prove unrealistic or useless. Maybe you won't budget enough money. Maybe you'll make a decision that proves to be unwise. Maybe you'll realize you're in way over your head, and don't know how to proceed. Maybe you'll experience unexpected setbacks or resistance.

You'll make a ton of mistakes – that's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. The bigger the quest, the more things that can (and probably will) go wrong.

Don't use your mistakes as reasons to give up: use them as opportunities to learn and adjust along the way. Persistence will overcome many obstacles.

7. Think big, plan big, act big.

Most people think too small. Even daydreaming about huge projects can feel intimidating: it's tempting to avoid taking on big projects because they feel "too big."

Chris recommends creating a list of ideas for potential quests, and capturing even the most outrageous possibilities. If you start to feel uncomfortable with an idea, you can always tell yourself: "It's only a list!"

Planning on paper is easy, so you can go as wild as you want. Giving yourself explicit permission to think bigger than you normally think opens up a lot of potential opportunities you'd otherwise gloss over as "not realistic."

Once you start evaluating the ideas, you can "count the cost" to see what each idea will really take.

8. Every quest will change you forever.

Every quest you undertake will add to your life experience in unique, valuable ways. Regardless of the subject or objective of the quest, you can expect improvements in your self-confidence, skills, and maturity.

Your experiences will change you in deep ways that'll be difficult to explain to other people, and you won't be able to go back to doing and seeing things the way you used to.

Here's one of my favorite passages from the book, which appears on page 254:

"Perhaps the biggest adjustment to life at 'home,' wherever home may be, is understanding that you're different from when you started. You've gained experience and seen things that others haven't. To quote the words of Steve Kamb, who used the analogy of a video game with me in describing his quest, you've 'leveled up.' In the same way that the first level of a game can become boring and repetitive, once you've leveled up, you may not be able to go back to the same habits and routine…

How do you go back? In many ways, you don't. You can't."

9. After you complete a quest, you'll probably experience a post-quest funk. That's normal.

Finishing a long-term quest is an event that generates mixed feelings: accomplishment, pride, and self-confidence, but also relief, sadness, and anxiety about the future.

It's normal to feel down and lost between quests. When the quest you've been pursuing for so long is no longer a driving force in your life, there's an empty feeling that's difficult to ignore.

Recovery is straightforward: rest a bit, reflect on your experiences, capture the stories you've collected from your experiences, then choose your next big adventure. Happiness doesn't come from the accomplishment of quests… it comes from the pursuit of the quest. Keep moving.

10. Quests are personal. Do it for you.

Some people won't understand your quest: why it's important, why it matters, or why you're pursuing it. Your family, friends, colleagues, and random acquaintances might think you're crazy. Doing things that other people don't normally do will attract attention, sometimes in not-so-great ways.

That's okay. You're not doing this for them: you're doing it for you. As long as you find your experiences worthwhile, keep going.

Happy questing.

For more on the value of quests, adventure, and finding purpose in life (including many detailed examples), pick up a copy The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau.

The Braindead List

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0000

“Thoughts flowing like toxic sludge this Monday morning. Brain feels like it needs an oil change."
Venkatesh Rao, ribbonfarm.com

Ever have a day where your brain just doesn't seem to want to turn on?

It happens to all of us: I'm having one of those days right now. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the old synapses just don't want to fire.

That's okay - you are not a robot.

Energy cycles are very real. Instead of trying to force yourself to be brilliant, it's usually best to recognize what's happening, accept reality, and change your strategy.

Creating Your "Braindead" List

Here's a useful technique I learned from David Allen, who picked it up from Robert Peake: it's useful to have a short list of low-thought, low-energy things you can do when you're tired or having an off day.

It's called a "braindead" list. Here's mine:

Exercise or go for a walk.
Clean off desk.
Scan and shred papers.
Organize storage cabinet.
Organize research database.
Do household chores + listen to an audiobook.

It's important to write these things down: when you're off your game, the last thing you want to do is spend too much time thinking about what you should do. Write it down, keep it close at hand, and use it as necessary.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going for a walk…

Do you have a "braindead" list? What should you add to it?

The Three Best Investments

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0000

“You have a gold mine between your ears: your mind and your imagination."
Earl Nightingale

If you're going to invest your time and money, why not get the best possible return?

Here are the best investments…

Knowledge

Anything that helps you figure out what you really want and how to go about getting it.

Websites, books, courses, seminars, and training programs can make you smarter, savvier, and better prepared to complete active projects and handle future challenges.

The better the resource, the higher the ROI, which routinely exceeds 1,000 times the purchase price.

Tools

Anything that helps you get better results per unit of time and effort.

Equipment, hardware, and systems are Force Multipliers. The better your tools, the more you can accomplish with quality results.

Some people complain that tools are expensive: they cost a lot, and they're often difficult to use. That's often true. It's also true that doing the work without the best available tools is even more expensive and difficult.

As a rule of thumb, if you intend to use a tool for more than an hour per day one day per week, get the very best you can afford.

Skills

Anything that increases your ability to act in ways that result in getting what you want as quickly as possible.

Skill is how you use knowledge and tools to their best effect. Starting from nothing, you can learn how to do anything you decide is worth the effort and persistence. It's not always easy, but it's always possible.

Skills are at the center of 100% of your income and a healthy percentage of your fun. Investing in your own abilities can and will increase your income, and give you access to new untapped opportunities.

Investing in your own knowledge, tools, and skills will trounce any other investment you can possibly make. Who needs the stock market when you have a gold mine between your ears?