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Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

sivers.org

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Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#91

Post by furyofantares »

The number of things that I have an impulse to accomplish vastly exceeds my physical ability to accomplish them. This used to cause me great frustration but I’ve learned that I get a lot of value out of thought exploration, even if I can’t tell the difference between something I’ll want to stick with and something I’ll want to dump at any specific stage in the process.

If I announce my plans and am left without a need to follow through, that’s great. Apparently I didn’t really have a need for the thing, I just had a need for exploration, and I didn’t know that’s all I needed from the idea yet. I have plenty of things I want to do and can move on to the next thing.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#92

Post by GCA10 »

sfink wrote: post #90
beaner wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Everything that looks like genius from a distance is 95% craft when you see it up close.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#93

Post by t34543 »

mbarronj wrote: post #37

I call them "Secret Plans". You gotta save up the emotional energy and reward. On so many projects, you get the same neuro-chemical reward by talking about your project plans and how cool the result will be, as you do by making progress. By holding out, and only allowing progress itself to be a reward, and not just the talking, I usually get much further. The project may still die, but then I have something in my han…

This is why I refuse to do stand ups

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#94

Post by beaner »

sfink wrote: post #90
beaner wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah I think you're right on that. Challenge a pop musician to make a song using only a banjo and a synth and they'll produce something cool and unexpected. Good cuisine has come over time from the scarcity of food, and people putting effort into making what little they have taste good. Etc.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#95

Post by jmatthews »

jniedrauer wrote: post #7

I sometimes wonder if a similar mechanism might be at play when you imagine accomplishing your goal in a Walter Mitty sort of way. There are many projects which I can envision completing, and which I know I have the technical skills for. But I gain a certain amount of satisfaction just from picturing the completed work, and in the end I don't actually put in the effort to make it reality.

I suffer from the same affliction. Daydreaming forward often reveals additional functionalities and synergies and implications, so it even "feels" like progress, but I've learned the hard way that skipping to the last page of the book is counter-productive.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#96

Post by dreeves »

This is (mostly) wrong. Sivers himself seems to have regretted how his talk was interpreted and posted this semi-retraction: https://sivers.org/zipit2

But identity-based goal or not, the conclusion that you make yourself less likely to achieve a goal by telling people about it defies common sense. I mean, here's the peer-reviewed science saying my common sense is wrong -- http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Se... -- but this is a psychology paper from 2009 so I'm willing to bet real money on common sense, despite seeing no obvious flaw with the paper.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#97

Post by ijpoijpoihpiuoh »

dreeves wrote: post #96

This is (mostly) wrong. Sivers himself seems to have regretted how his talk was interpreted and posted this semi-retraction: https://sivers.org/zipit2 But identity-based goal or not, the conclusion that you make yourself less likely to achieve a goal by telling people about it defies common sense. I mean, here's the peer-reviewed science saying my common sense is wrong -- http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwi…

A single psychology paper showing a certain result is some evidence, but it's not much. Replication crisis and all that. With that said, it does make some intuitive sense to me (not that that counts as evidence either!). It may be that the pressure to change is relieved somewhat simply by announcing plans to do so.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#98

Post by v64 »

dreeves wrote: post #96

This is (mostly) wrong. Sivers himself seems to have regretted how his talk was interpreted and posted this semi-retraction: https://sivers.org/zipit2 But identity-based goal or not, the conclusion that you make yourself less likely to achieve a goal by telling people about it defies common sense. I mean, here's the peer-reviewed science saying my common sense is wrong -- http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwi…

Not generalizing, but for me personally, I'll often tell people about my plans as a way to hold myself to them. If I keep it to myself, it's easy for me to talk myself out of it, but once it's out there to other people and I know they're going to ask me for followup, I can commit.

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#99

Post by mzkply »

jhoechtl wrote: post #18
mzkply wrote: post #8

That has the exact opposite effect on me. I actually use that method to shame myself into accomplishing what I've announced...

That's gernerally true for polster-types who brag around with what they have done wjile others see their contribution rather miniscule. I know this could be understood insulting, still my observation though.

That's only if you're talking about major accomplishments, like "I'm gonna make Director by 2021". Ya that's bullshit and bragging. I'm referring to things like saying "Guys i'm gonna not drink for a month" or "I'm gonna finish that damn car repair this summer".

Re: Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

#100

Post by Florin_Andrei »

mbarronj wrote: post #37

I call them "Secret Plans". You gotta save up the emotional energy and reward. On so many projects, you get the same neuro-chemical reward by talking about your project plans and how cool the result will be, as you do by making progress. By holding out, and only allowing progress itself to be a reward, and not just the talking, I usually get much further. The project may still die, but then I have something in my han…

I've always taken this for granted. Shut up and keep digging - you'll be digging that much harder.

Sure, once the whole thing is done, tout the horn all you want.

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