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To be great, be good repeatably

blog.stephsmith.io

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Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#41

Post by badestrand »

> "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich"

That almost sounds like sarcasm to me. I currently live in South East Asia and you know who gets up early every morning grinding 12 hour shifts with little to no vacation? The million of poor people who don't earn much more than "survive" money.

Okay, probably it's about context so if you are in a first world country you just work hard and the wealth will come pouring in? Still sounds like sarcasm tbh.

Of the top of my head the five most well-off people I personally know didn't work harder than the average and I am sure wouldn't say so about themselves, either.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#42

Post by TeMPOraL »

maxxxxx wrote: post #19
billti wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re Elon Musk, this statement in the article is something I always consider when I think of what he has achieved: > Ask yourself whether you’d like to spend your days, weeks, months, and years in a constant uphill battle. Opinions of what anyone may have of Elon personally aside, I think any rational person has to be in awe of all he's been able to achieve. Yet the hours he puts in 7 days a week, and what the constant…

No way I would want to swap with any of the big CEOs. I don’t enjoy business enough to do it 24/7. Same for being leader of a country. No way I would want to do that.

No way I'd like to swap with most of the big CEOs, but I would like to swap with Elon Musk, for the simple reason - the former are businesses, mostly arbitrary to me (and, arguably, to them). In case of Musk, his businesses are all just vehicles to achieve goals (pushing humanity out into space, electrification of transport to combat climate change) - goals that strongly resonate with me. I think Musk can pull off the workload he does only because he cares for those goals, not for business.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#43

Post by wwqrd »

badestrand wrote: post #41

> "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich" That almost sounds like sarcasm to me. I currently live in South East Asia and you know who gets up early every morning grinding 12 hour shifts with little to no vacation? The million of poor people who don't earn much more than "survive" money. Okay, probably it's about context so if you are in a first world country you…

This is what I was thinking too.

Ed: And also, when you look back and see inevitable progression, it might just be hindsight bias.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#44

Post by ohaideredevs »

zbobet2012 wrote: post #10
stephsmithio wrote: post #2

I spent the last few days writing this piece as I was reflecting and frustrated with my short-term progress (or lack there of). This led me to consider what I think greatness even is, which was almost therapeutic to think through. Curious to know what people think about this. Can "greatness" really be achieved quickly?

While I agree with much of your article, it's interesting to me that you cite this tweet: Building products, writing, and painting are not mental excercises, they are physical ones. Reading to improve is like watching someone else workout – it does almost nothing for you. To run better, run. To paint better, paint. To write better, write. To build better, build. I certainly agree that practice is the core of all incr…

A lot of practice that's not directed properly is useless, especially for complex mental skills. For example, I learned Java's stream syntax to the point where I wrote an article that thousands of people read. Do I remember a single thing? No, because I don't use Java every day. I just remember that it sucked compared to LINQ because every collection type had a different method to turn it into a stream. That's it. From weeks of study, practice, and an article. Mostly a complete waste - if it didn't build into my rep, it would be a complete waste.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#45

Post by rainhacker »

badestrand wrote: post #41

> "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich" That almost sounds like sarcasm to me. I currently live in South East Asia and you know who gets up early every morning grinding 12 hour shifts with little to no vacation? The million of poor people who don't earn much more than "survive" money. Okay, probably it's about context so if you are in a first world country you…

> if you are in a first world country you just work hard and the wealth will come pouring in? Still sounds like sarcasm tbh

No. Later in the writeup, the author talks about 'Habit of Progression' which adds more context:

> "There is one thing to clarify: this habit of progression must come with the right inputs. Being consistent with something leading you in the wrong direction will unsurprisingly lead you in the wrong direction. So if this is the way you are constantly moving (excluding short periods of local minima), pivot until you determine what the right inputs are."

So it's not just about working hard. It's about working hard in the right direction by analyzing the outcome of efforts and using it to refine the approach to move forward.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#46

Post by coldtea »

>“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich” - Outliers

Yeah, billions of hard working people would disagree. Tons of factory workers woke before dawn (and worked 10 hours or more) and never got anywhere...

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#47

Post by cruano »

rainhacker wrote: post #45
badestrand wrote: post #41

> "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich" That almost sounds like sarcasm to me. I currently live in South East Asia and you know who gets up early every morning grinding 12 hour shifts with little to no vacation? The million of poor people who don't earn much more than "survive" money. Okay, probably it's about context so if you are in a first world country you…

> if you are in a first world country you just work hard and the wealth will come pouring in? Still sounds like sarcasm tbh No. Later in the writeup, the author talks about 'Habit of Progression' which adds more context: > "There is one thing to clarify: this habit of progression must come with the right inputs. Being consistent with something leading you in the wrong direction will unsurprisingly lead you in the wro…

To quote J. Cole, "The good news is you came a long way. The bad news is you went the wrong way"

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#48

Post by __rompy »

coldtea wrote: post #46

> “No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich” - Outliers Yeah, billions of hard working people would disagree. Tons of factory workers woke before dawn (and worked 10 hours or more) and never got anywhere...

He clarifies it later, saying that you must in the right direction. His whole article is written from 1st world perspective, imho.

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#49

Post by zuzuleinen »

wysifnwyg wrote: post #14
stephsmithio wrote: post #2

I spent the last few days writing this piece as I was reflecting and frustrated with my short-term progress (or lack there of). This led me to consider what I think greatness even is, which was almost therapeutic to think through. Curious to know what people think about this. Can "greatness" really be achieved quickly?

I see a couple ways to become great quickly. 1. Put in an extreme amount of effort to maximize the goodness you create and minimize the amount of bad. 2. Have extreme events impact your life (by no fault of your own) in a short period of time. 3. Change how you measure greatness. Ten years ago, I could not see myself in the life that I have now. Everyday I accomplish things which would have been impossible for my pre…

Can you expand a bit on your points? 2 and 3 are not so clear to me, but I'm quite interested in all 3 actually. Seems like you built a great life :) Congrats!

Re: To be great, be good repeatably

#50

Post by stephsmithio »

tminima wrote: post #38

This post is amazingly written. I have been thinking about things related to this topic and how to implement them in my life. It's been only a few months since I actually started thinking about this. I realised that I am an average person but slight burst of decent things in time. And to become great I have to work towards it. I have learnt that building habits is a big part of this. You need to build good habits to…

OP: Thank you for sharing your perspective! I think we all struggle with this, which is one of the reasons I wrote the article. We are taught to believe others are born great, but really everyone struggles to get from A to B. Focusing on a few things that are more important (ie: cutting out noise) certainly helps. Another book which I didn't mention in the article is Essentialism, which may be a good book for the particular obstacles you're facing.
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