I'd be interested in seeing what happens when someone else announces your plans. You don't get the same payoff, but still feel the obligation.
Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
81–90 of 179 posts
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#82Reminds me of a quote from Sara Blakely: “I was very careful right away, it was a gut instinct that I had, to keep it to myself because I believe ideas are most vulnerable in their infancy, and it’s instinct to turn to your right or left in that moment and tell a friend, or tell your husband, and the moment you do that ego is invited into the mix, and then you end up spending all your time defending it, explaining it…
I have definitely had my battles with people who want to poke holes in my plans, rather than support me. They think they're helping me, but they aren't. They're just killing my enthusiasm. If I'd been left to try, I'd have worked hard at it, had an experienced, learned some things, and maybe even accomplished it. Instead, they did their best to stop me. I now snap at people who do this to me. I no longer let them thr…
That's too bad. I invite criticism of my projects, because I want to make sure I'm not fooling myself. Other people's perspective can shine new light on a problem and force you to reconsider the idea, hopefully leading to improved design.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#83I've heard the exact opposite from a lot of people I respect. That announcing plans and communicating with your peers and getting support and accountability for your plans actually increases the likelihood of success.
But I mean, that doesn't let you shit on the "posers" so whatever.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#84I've heard the exact opposite from a lot of people I respect. That announcing plans and communicating with your peers and getting support and accountability for your plans actually increases the likelihood of success. But I mean, that doesn't let you shit on the "posers" so whatever.
I believe that communicating a plan already in motion is not the same as expressing an idea one might have. If I understood correctly this article points out to the latter. While having already a plan in motion, you will want to share it with the people and colleagues that you want in order to continue an idea. But if you have an idea that you want to set in motion, and just share it around with everyone there's a high chance that it wont kick off.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#85yeah I have this feeling as well. At the same time if someone asking “what’s up?” and you say nothing, I feel like lying.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#86This article treats all types of announcements as being equal. Not so! A hazy announcement like "I'll be doing more to fight climate change" may indeed be empty virtue signaling that leads to nothing. But what about a more precise announcement like: "I'll be writing a book on Topic X, which I plan to publish 15 months from now, and I'll be completing one chapter on the 25th of every month until then"? Now we've got i…
Anecdotally, I think you've got the examples wrong.
For me, announcing specific projects that I'm working on definitely demotivates me. After announcing personal projects that may or may not fully happen, it feels like I'm then working for others who have expectations, rather than for myself. That's not fun.
But telling people about things like changes to my lifestyle are different. I feel like it almost even helps to have people ask me if I'm still working out, motivation to fulfill that expectation.
Maybe it's because in the first example, what I want to accomplish requires creativity, while in the second, it only requires regimen. Expectations of my regimen challenge me to work, expectations of my creativity feel like boundaries, which are antithetical to the creative process.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#87Oh, thank God, I'm not crazy.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#88The best thing I did last year was going to a gym 2 weeks before xmas and getting a membership and a trainer. I didn't tell anyone, I didn't make it my "new year resolution", I just went and did it. I'm still happily chugging along about 10 months later.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#89This very much depends on how motivated you are by external validation. For some people, the fear of losing social capital by not following through on a public commitment is motivating enough to accomplish stretch goals.
Source: used this technique to overcome my own procrastination trying to launch my first app as a solo founder. It worked, and I went on to raised a million VC to see if I could scale up the vision of a social goals app.
The downside of relying on external validation, as I learned the hard way, is when your self improvement startup goes down in flames, you really feel like a fuckup.
Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)
#90This article treats all types of announcements as being equal. Not so! A hazy announcement like "I'll be doing more to fight climate change" may indeed be empty virtue signaling that leads to nothing. But what about a more precise announcement like: "I'll be writing a book on Topic X, which I plan to publish 15 months from now, and I'll be completing one chapter on the 25th of every month until then"? Now we've got i…
Anecdotally, I think you've got the examples wrong. For me, announcing specific projects that I'm working on definitely demotivates me. After announcing personal projects that may or may not fully happen, it feels like I'm then working for others who have expectations, rather than for myself. That's not fun. But telling people about things like changes to my lifestyle are different. I feel like it almost even helps t…
> feel like boundaries, which are antithetical to the creative process.
I agree with your overall point, but I wanted to point out that this is precisely backwards. Boundaries are essential to creativity. In a way, they are the source of creativity.
Or maybe I should say it as: the imposition and refinement of self-imposed boundaries is the creative process -- from the vast sea of all possibilities, you are winnowing down to one, the thing that you produce at the end. Artificial or external boundaries at the outset just give you a head start.
But that doesn't change your point, just the terminology. I agree that announcing projects can be highly demotivating. It's sort of like the winnowing process above is no longer happening exclusively in my own head, but rather I become dependent on what's going on in others' heads in order to match what I think their expectations are.
After telling someone else, half of the sea of possibilities is gone -- but I'm not sure which half, and drive myself crazy guessing. As you say, I'm now at least partly working for others instead of myself.
That's separate from the problem where announcing a cool project delivers much of the payoff, reducing motivation to work on it.