How To Enjoy The Process

by Britt Gage and · updated 4d ago

“It’s the everlasting switching that’s the dangerous thing, not what they choose — while others actually build a life in which things gain meaning and significance, this is not true for the restless.” writes Sheila Heti in How should a person be. She continues with “The antidote — to build on things they have begun and not abandon their plans as so... See more
from The Case for Intellectual Loneliness by Emily Kuret
Britt Gage added 4d ago
Set aside time for experiments . Straightforward calculus suggests that doing what you’re already good at has the best payoff. But you won’t encounter nearly as many opportunities if you never learn anything new. Setting aside time for hobbies you’re bad at, books you know nothing about or skills you’ve never practiced may seem wasteful, but it’s

from Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older? - Scott H Young by Scott H Young

To keep progressing means to keep learning and experimenting

s you invest in some skills, but not others, you get a greater return from activities where you have considerable training. Thus, your opportunity cost for learning new things increases. Therefore, a failure to learn new things is perfectly rational, even if it can result in inflexibility as we get older.

One way this manifests is the time horizon y... See more

from Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older? - Scott H Young by Scott H Young

Britt Gage added 3mo ago

Learning isn’t linear. How do you continue to enjoy the process as you get older?

Once you choose a project, you are confined to a relatively narrow band of impact (

Figure 1

B); barring an unexpected surprise, the solution to a mediocre problem will have incremental impact, whereas solving an important problem will have greater impact. Even if you execute well, it is hard to make the solution to a middling problem interesting. In... See more

from Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering: Cell

Britt Gage added 5mo ago

If not things like money, awards, honors, prizes, and medals—what should we strive for? “When we were writing Good Will Hunting ,” Matt Damon said, “Ben [Affleck] and I always talked about just wanting to love it. We would say, ‘If it’s just a tape on our mantel that no one ever watches, we want to love it.’ We kind of stumbled into a very wise str... See more

from SIX at 6: Pacific Salmon, a Heartbreaking Thought, the .01%, the Pinnacle, the Nobel Prize, and the Work Itself by Billy Oppenheimer

phoebe added 5mo ago

In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay ( Good Will Hunting ). After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, and looked at the award. As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought: “I remember very clearly looking at that award and thinking, ‘Imagine chasing... See more

from SIX at 6: Pacific Salmon, a Heartbreaking Thought, the .01%, the Pinnacle, the Nobel Prize, and the Work Itself by Billy Oppenheimer

phoebe added 5mo ago

One must seek Knowledge, but be a little wary of finding it. Perhaps excessive, but one could say the idea of possessing knowledge represents a kind of complacency. This is what Socrates meant: Once you think you know, you stop looking. You cease your wonder.

from Long Distance Thinking by Simon Sarris

Britt Gage added 6mo ago

To quote the always-brilliant Philip Kiely: “First you do X, then you make content about doing X, then you make content about that content… One day you realize you haven’t done X for six months. And there is only so much room for content at the highest levels of abstraction.”

from The Meta-Creator Ceiling by Shaun Wang

James Stevens added 6mo ago

Rather than wait passively, "wait for it" requires that you do three things while you wait:

1. Think about what you're waiting for.

2. Visualize what it will look like.

3. Talk to others about it and seek advice.

from Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Surprising 3-Word Phrase ...

Britt Gage added 7mo ago

from The Case for Intellectual Loneliness by Emily Kuret

from Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older? - Scott H Young by Scott H Young

from Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older? - Scott H Young by Scott H Young

from Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering: Cell

from SIX at 6: Pacific Salmon, a Heartbreaking Thought, the .01%, the Pinnacle, the Nobel Prize, and the Work Itself by Billy Oppenheimer

from SIX at 6: Pacific Salmon, a Heartbreaking Thought, the .01%, the Pinnacle, the Nobel Prize, and the Work Itself by Billy Oppenheimer

from Long Distance Thinking by Simon Sarris

from The Meta-Creator Ceiling by Shaun Wang

from Emotionally Intelligent People Use a Surprising 3-Word Phrase ...