muizz
4
The 4-Hour Life
How much of a constraint is consistency space on agency?
The 4 hours aren't always 4. The energy you have in those 4 hours isn't always the same.
In payoff space, you can focus your energy for bursts of effort. Or you can focus your recharge/recovery times around your work.
The availability of rest after work likely affects how hard one is able/willing to work. The allure of rest is likely different.
Rest as an escape from work vs Rest as a place to prep for work
Athletes will perform differently in teams depending on if the system is built around them or they are recruited for the system; if the level of pressure is suited to their person; and if the coach is willing to be patient for them to adapt to their situation.
I'm reminded of that Mourinho press conference:
“Look at how they play, where they play, if they play”
Lots to ponder…
3
It's tempting, sometimes, to idealize the trope of the "lazy genius." I decline to do so. There is a great deal of tedious maintenance work someone needs to do to keep the world running, and an inability to consistently do so is not praiseworthy. Some smart, low-conscientiousness people manage to flourish without discipline, making careers out of flitting along to whatever seems interesting and adding enough value that they can justify shoving the crucial-but-dull stuff onto others. Others languish, trapped between an unattainable Potential and their weakness at keeping commitments, persisting in boredom, and maintaining consistency even in the things that matter most to them. Many people flinch away from structure because they've only experienced bad structures, but a freedom that leaves you prisoner to your own mind is no freedom at all. Build and celebrate environments that demand the best in people, don't idealize settings that let them rise no higher than the limits of their own unreliable will.
Well written thread on discipline / tenacity / sticktoitiveness
a guy on tiktok just rocked my world a bit? he was saying how many people label themselves ‘self-aware’ when what they actually are is just addicted to shame. for all the things they can list that they suck at and need to work on, you ask them what they’re good at and……..
You can make a habit of many things. Might as well make a habit of reflecting on your strengths
"I could have done it, but I didn't try." Of all the stories people tell themselves, this is the most harmful. The truth is: If you didn't do it, and you haven't done it, then you can't do it (yet). Until you face this harsh reality, you won't make the necessary changes. Show more
6
The industry’s biggest recruiting challenge, however, is the industry’s invisibility. It’s a truism that people don’t think about infrastructure until it breaks, but they tend not to think about the fixing of it, either. In his 2014 essay, “Rethinking Repair,” professor of information science Steven Jackson argued that contemporary thinking about technology romanticizes moments of invention over the ongoing work of maintenance, though it is equally important to the deployment of functional technology in the world. There are few better examples than the subsea cable industry, which, for over a century, has been so effective at quickly fixing faults that the public has rarely had a chance to notice. Or as one industry veteran put it, “We are one of the best-kept secrets in the world, because things just work.”
What the Bubble Got Right
Still aging well
6
Thinking back to things I claimed to want really bad during the pandemic and the things I actually did… The time passed.