[extropy-chat] Personal effectiveness

[David Lubkin]

At 02:32 PM 11/23/2003 -0800, Hal Finney wrote:

>It's hard to give advice without knowing more about the kinds of projects
>you work on, but I have a couple of suggestions.

I spoke in generalities because I see this pattern pervade my life.  Let me 
give a few disparate examples:

I rake leaves, then stop before they are removed from the lawn.  Before I 
get out again, the wind has undone the raking.  Was there a payoff?  Yes, I 
was outdoors, getting some exercise.  But the focal goal was not attained.

I perceive a market window for a software product.  I invest effort, 
yielding a work that isn't done.  Before I get back to it, 18 months have 
gone by, and where there was previously no competition, there are now seven 
well-funded rivals.

I learn Chinese ideographs.  I stop.  By the time I think about Chinese 
again, I've forgotten what I'd learned.

>I sometimes work on small software projects, with the idea of eventually
>releasing them in some form, but I never get them finished to the degree
>that I am comfortable putting them out.  The work ends up being basically
>wasted.

I realize that part of the story is that I am a perfectionist.  When I work 
for someone else, they get to override my standards.  On my own, I indulge 
in deferrable bells-and-whistles that push the schedule out.  I'm gradually 
learning to be brutal with myself.

>Then you'd be interacting with other people and get some feedback.
>You might be more likely to stay engaged and get it finished, but even
>if you don't, at least other people will have seen your work.

I did observe that everyone I can think of who is high-talent and 
high-achievement is happily married, usually to someone who is comparably 
gifted.  It's very useful to have an in-house cheering section.

>Another idea which might be more generally applicable is another principle
>from the open source software world: release early and often.

This is a key for me.  It doesn't apply to every situation but it says go 
breadth-first rather than depth-first.  Take my leaves example.  It may be 
more efficient to do all the raking first then all the removal.  But if I 
cycle on (rake, remove) then whenever I stop, N loads are gone from my lawn.

The other tremendous benefit for me of "release early" is that it provides 
the carrot and stick that you now have other people to compliment you on 
what you've done and impatiently await your next release.

>Another idea that works well with this is, if you do abandon a project,
>try to leave yourself enough notes and documentation that you will be
>able to pick it up again in the future.

A related question is how to stay organized and tidy.  I found myself in a 
high-amplitude sawtooth:  Either my disgust at not being able to find 
anything amid the clutter or the press of someone coming to visit would 
drive me to a frenzy of cleaning and organizing.  Then day by day, it would 
deteriorate.  Repeat.

The most common problem is/was my work area.  I'm working on X, so the 
materials I need are at hand.  Before I finish X, I get pulled to do Y.  So 
the materials for Y are placed on top of the stuff for X.  Before long, 
it's twenty strata deep.

The right answer, which I'm conditioning myself to, is when switching from 
X to Y, put all X materials away.  For household, adopt routines that 
insure a short-period return to norm, such as making sure the kitchen sink 
is empty before going to bed.

>Trust that this will happen eventually.  Think of all your projects
>as life-long endeavors, with different ones active at different times.
>Then you won't get so hung up on which ones are finished.  Think of them
>all as constantly being works in progress.  By applying these other ideas,
>you can still arrange that these unfinished works can be of value to
>others, so you won't have that guilty feeling of your work being wasted.

I do think that way, but some of the projects -- like building my own 
company to the point I can live off it -- are logical predecessors to others.

And some, like the care and feeding of my relationships with friends and 
family, require an on-going effort.  When my daughter recently graduated 
high school, I took the opportunity to get back in touch with people.  It 
was bittersweet:  many connections were re-established as if no time had 
elapsed but I also learned of too-many deaths in the interim.

One of my conscious tricks is to have multiple reasons for each thing I 
do.  Yard work raises property values and provides aerobic exercise, 
increasing stamina and longevity.  Building a family web site strengthens 
family ties, gets out software that may be resalable, and hones marketable 
technical skills.


-- David Lubkin.