The annoying habits of highly effective people • Hacker News Board

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#21

Post by toomuchtodo » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:08 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8

siruncledrew wrote: post #2

I think another thing that influences annoying habits of "effective" people is that no executive/manager is going to hold a CEO accountable for being late/strolling into work, whereas if a CEO didn't like it that person would be be immediately told to stop and change their behavior.

> no executive/manager is going to hold a CEO accountable for being late/strolling into work I did this. I had just been promoted to the lowest manager position at a global bank. Our global head had a habit of starting meetings late. After one, I asked to speak privately. I said I had been working hard with my team on improving their timeliness. They responded, and our mornings became more productive as a result. But…

Were you ever terminated or had your contract not renewed for providing upwards feedback that was rejected?

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#22

Post by harry8 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:09 AM UTC

It's not an exact analogy but if you start with the idea of "Characteristics of lottery winners." As the base and make it entirely up to the author to show with evidence that their content is actually better than that when they discuss CEOs, you'll avoid a bunch of total BS.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#23

Post by bcheung » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:13 AM UTC

giobox wrote: post #15

bcheung wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early rising isn't so much what time you wake up as it is waking up early enough so you have time to yourself before you have to go into the office or start your day job. The important thing is your first few hours after waking go to your most important goals.

Is the idea that working on your “important goals” in the first few hours after waking is more effective an evidence based opinion? I can’t imagine myself performing my best at any task I do the first two hours after waking, and that certainly seems to be the case for almost all of my colleagues too, if early AM meetings are any indicator.

Not sure about references but the general consensus I have seen and heard, and is congruently in my own life as well, is that willpower is at its strongest in the morning and as the day goes on we experience "decision fatigue" that drains us mentally.

Additionally, there seems to be some kind of slowdown that necessitates sleep. There have been studies (sorry don't have references handy) that show people who are sleep deprived are less likely to exercise self-constraint.

I would recommend the book "Miracle Morning" if you are interested in more.

As to not being productive in the morning, there is a consistency of waking up at the same time that needs to happen. In my experience, it takes 10-20 days before you can function well at the earlier time period.

Also, there are things you can do to increase alertness. Sunlight, drinking water (dehydration makes you tired and mentally sluggish), electrolytes, exercise (just a minute or 2 to get heart rate up), cold shower. All of these wake the body up and increase mental alertness. I frequently use them before I start my day and it makes a big difference. You can't just wake up and start working, you have to have a consistent routine that is aligned with human physiology.

It takes about 30 minutes after getting out of bed before I reach peak alertness.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#24

Post by PhasmaFelis » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:17 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #19

jjoonathan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same appeal as any other type of cargo-culting: it's a lot easier to get up at 5am, shake hands firmly, and dress for success than it is to spot an extreme growth opportunity, bet everything on it, and be correct.

> spot an extreme growth opportunity, bet everything on it, and be correct. Or be born into money. No amount of self-help is going to tilt the scale towards that.

Bo Burnham on getting into showbiz: "Don't take advice from guys like me who've gotten very lucky. Taylor Swift telling you to follow your dreams is like a lottery winner saying 'Liquidize your assets! Buy Powerball tickets! It works!'"

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JgG0ECp2U)

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#25

Post by bcheung » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:28 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #16

mamon wrote: post #10

I always laugh at this obsession with early rising. Many factory line workers wake up at 4:30 am every day, because their shift starts at 6:00 am, and somehow that does not make them billionaires.

Yep, and as an example of billionaire... Notch is a night owl and rolls out of bed pretty much at any hour and he did alright with Minecraft...

Can't really rely on an example like this because of Selection Bias and Survivorship Bias.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#26

Post by toofy » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:29 AM UTC

keyle wrote: post #17

Are articles like these even worth writing still? We're many years out of this type of self/help gluttony now, aren't we?

I thought we were as well, but here we are :/

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#27

Post by louprado » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #19

jjoonathan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same appeal as any other type of cargo-culting: it's a lot easier to get up at 5am, shake hands firmly, and dress for success than it is to spot an extreme growth opportunity, bet everything on it, and be correct.

> spot an extreme growth opportunity, bet everything on it, and be correct. Or be born into money. No amount of self-help is going to tilt the scale towards that.

Nearly every self-help book mentions the importance of goal setting. It is important even for those with a pedigree and born into wealth (I recognize not every student in this study was born into wealth but the median Harvard family earns at least 3 times the national average).

From https://sidsavara.com/why-3-of-harvard-mbas-make-ten-times-a...

“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” In 1979, interviewers asked new graduates from the Harvard’s MBA Program and found that :

    84% had no specific goals at all
    13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
    3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them

In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. You can guess the results:

The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.

Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

Edit: I had often heard of this study and just pasted the first reference I found. I would delete this post, if I could, as its credibility is questionable. Thanks femto.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#28

Post by matwood » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

mamon wrote: post #10

I always laugh at this obsession with early rising. Many factory line workers wake up at 4:30 am every day, because their shift starts at 6:00 am, and somehow that does not make them billionaires.

Getting up early is a sign of discipline, but it's only a start. It's a mentality of going after every day with a sense of urgency.

Obviously not everyone can become billionaires, but most people can better themselves by adding more discipline to their lives.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#29

Post by bcheung » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

giobox wrote: post #15

bcheung wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early rising isn't so much what time you wake up as it is waking up early enough so you have time to yourself before you have to go into the office or start your day job. The important thing is your first few hours after waking go to your most important goals.

Is the idea that working on your “important goals” in the first few hours after waking is more effective an evidence based opinion? I can’t imagine myself performing my best at any task I do the first two hours after waking, and that certainly seems to be the case for almost all of my colleagues too, if early AM meetings are any indicator.

Also, meetings first thing in the morning isn't exactly a productive, mind engaging activity. That would make pretty much anybody want to go back to sleep. It has to be something that benefits you that you are excited about achieving.

Re: The annoying habits of highly effective people

#30

Post by phakding » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:32 AM UTC

jiveturkey wrote: post #7

phakding wrote: post #3

Never understood people's infatuation with reading CEO biographies. I've read a few and never found anything in it that could relate to. May be I am not meant to be one of those people. Even if I worked hard, got in at work at 5 am every day, I don't think I could go from being a lowely team lead to cto or CEO of a multi billion dollar corporation. I don't think it just works that way. I could be very wrong, but that…

Interesting perspective. Is it your belief that people read these as how-to or self-help books? I enjoy reading them the same way I enjoy learning from my co-worker's habits. I take what matters to me and throw away the rest. I'm always trying to improve how I do my current job. It's not enough to have an open mind about work habits / techniques, one has to actively seek out new information. Also it's usually an inte…

> Interesting perspective. Is it your belief that people read these as how-to or self-help books?

My friends and acquitances definitely read these books to glean some sort of inspiration/hidden jem that would start them on path to riches.

My life has no parallel to lives of these people and there's nothing I could copy.

It's my opinion that the odds of me being a CEO of a huge Corp are same as a person who is homeless for years going through college and getting a job making six figures.