Musings on committing and continually showing up to a place, a profession, or a person in an age of endless opportunities + persevering - even and especially when it's hard.
sometimes people ask something like “do you think this could work?” and I sorta waffle around on it
but I realize my truer answer is something like: it’ll probably work IF *you* believe it will work and *you* commit to making it work for 7+ years
Commitments become easier when you realize that, after enough wandering, the grass is unlikely to be greener, pursuing novelty has diminishing returns, and continuous optimizing comes at the cost of compounding—and nearly everything great compounds
I’m thinking about conviction, because it is so rare.
A lot of people start off with conviction, but life, hardships, and other people’s opinions get in the way, and they stop believing in the greatness of their own ideas.
I’ve met intelligent types with lots of skills and advantages at their disposal. But they usually don’t know where to go with... See more
the fear of commitment is really a failure of agency, of taking full responsibility for our choices and their consequences. A kind of learned helplessness dressed up as freedom. I think that’s why commitment feels so heavy to some people. You’re accepting full authorship of something, and you can't blame circumstances or timing or compatibility for... See more
I think obsessiveness is necessary for deep thinking. You have to stay with a vague sense for long enough that more and more of your mind is recruited for figuring it out. And then it's sort of like fishing: a waiting game. You need patience and persistence to catch the big one