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Start before you think you’re ready

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Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#71

Post by derialstrazus »

riazrizvi wrote: post #26
derialstrazus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on what are the consequences for failure. In war, lack of preparation means death of your men at minimum, and the collapse of your nation at worst. In training, failure makes you stronger. It's a good argument for managers to create a working environment where employees are not afraid to fail. I absolutely agree that starting early is the best and fastest way to learn. Too many people avoid it because of t…

> In war, lack of preparation means death of your men at minimum, and the collapse of your nation at worst. This is the fallacy that keeps people locked in over preparing. The way past it is to identify less risky goals that are still aligned with that particular objective. So in war your objective is to learn the enemy's weaknesses. So you could try trading with them, to survey their defenses. Imagine the Vikings at…

I would say that all these alternative goals you mentioned can be classified as preparing.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#72

Post by RobertRoberts »

afarrell wrote: post #61
RobertRoberts wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have bad motivations, but that is not true for everyone saying these things. I had no choice, I couldn't do anything but start a business, I was a failure as an employee because of how I looked at life and the process of building/creating. I was always at odds with my employers to make things work better. (I was told to work slower and less hard because I made others look bad sigh ) So what do you say to…

But when you started your business, was it: - With a goal of supporting your health and personal needs - An exercise of your own judgement, where your decisions were based on your own huristics for evaluating reality? When you looked at something and thought "this is, based on my genuine judgement, impossible" did you decide to do something else? Or did you say "I have strong evidence that this cannot possibly work,…

I think we completely agree on what good advice is, and I think I see where I was missing something before.

"You can do it" is not advice per se, it's encouragement.

If I am already doing it, or I intend to, or I am trying to or failing, or I am about to quit or not start, "you can do it" helps me not lose hope. It's not technical or directional, it's uplifting. "Someone cares" can be enough to turn my day around when I am on the knife's edge of success and failure. Then I can do what I already know needs to be done. Thanks for your views on how to give good advice, I think they are quite useful.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#73

Post by riazrizvi »

derialstrazus wrote: post #71
riazrizvi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In war, lack of preparation means death of your men at minimum, and the collapse of your nation at worst. This is the fallacy that keeps people locked in over preparing. The way past it is to identify less risky goals that are still aligned with that particular objective. So in war your objective is to learn the enemy's weaknesses. So you could try trading with them, to survey their defenses. Imagine the Vikings at…

I would say that all these alternative goals you mentioned can be classified as preparing.

(Over) Preparing in the context of war or business is where you keep working without engaging the enemy or the customer. The classic problem in startups, which i’ve been through myself, is where you keep working on making your product without developing your market. If you are doing sales interviews in a startup without a product yet, then you are engaging with the customer, and by coordinating with your product team, you will reduce the problem of over building the product. You need to partition the problem space (the goal space, the overall objective space) in terms of the separate essential pieces that need to be accomplished, once you have this partition of endeavors, then you start making progress in each channel. Over-Preparing is not defined (IMO) as a problem of inadequate rate of progress, rather it is that you can never succeed with your activities because you are not making any progress in a critical channel, and this weirdly magnifies the perceived difficulty of the missing piece, leading to more and more effort in the other channels. A bit like France overbuilding their defenses with the Maginot line when instead aggressive military action in some theater of war before WWII would have exposed the extreme inadequacy of their tank and soldier communication methods.

I feel like this would be a lot easier to explain by phone. My email is riazrizvi at gmail, if you want to set that up. I’m on Pacific Standard. Open invite to anyone.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#74

Post by marcmerce »

afarrell wrote: post #61
RobertRoberts wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have bad motivations, but that is not true for everyone saying these things. I had no choice, I couldn't do anything but start a business, I was a failure as an employee because of how I looked at life and the process of building/creating. I was always at odds with my employers to make things work better. (I was told to work slower and less hard because I made others look bad sigh ) So what do you say to…

But when you started your business, was it: - With a goal of supporting your health and personal needs - An exercise of your own judgement, where your decisions were based on your own huristics for evaluating reality? When you looked at something and thought "this is, based on my genuine judgement, impossible" did you decide to do something else? Or did you say "I have strong evidence that this cannot possibly work,…

"An exercice of your own judgement [...]" Very interesting point. It's a very pragmatic way to test your perception and your judgement on so many level.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#75

Post by Answerawake »

throwaway35784 wrote: post #43
RobertRoberts wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have bad motivations, but that is not true for everyone saying these things. I had no choice, I couldn't do anything but start a business, I was a failure as an employee because of how I looked at life and the process of building/creating. I was always at odds with my employers to make things work better. (I was told to work slower and less hard because I made others look bad sigh ) So what do you say to…

> So what do you say to someone like me? Welcome to the club! You are an entrepreneur. It is really hard. Depressingly so sometimes. You are on your own because you can do it! Learn to sell. Learn what selling is. Find a problem you have. Solve it in a repeatable way. Sell the solution. Talk to people. What are their problems? Repeat. Build up multiple cash flows. Software. Real estate. Consulting. Find entrepreneurs…

I wanna be like this...but I just don't have the energy and discipline so I have failed before I even began.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#76

Post by ozzmotik »

Answerawake wrote: post #75
throwaway35784 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what do you say to someone like me? Welcome to the club! You are an entrepreneur. It is really hard. Depressingly so sometimes. You are on your own because you can do it! Learn to sell. Learn what selling is. Find a problem you have. Solve it in a repeatable way. Sell the solution. Talk to people. What are their problems? Repeat. Build up multiple cash flows. Software. Real estate. Consulting. Find entrepreneurs…

I wanna be like this...but I just don't have the energy and discipline so I have failed before I even began.

we are all born lacking all the things that we currently possess. just because you don't have something right now doesn't mean you can't develop and cultivate it over time. all it takes is being willing to grind and even suffer a little bit if necessary to develop it. i have the same problem myself but im at a crossroads in my life where i just can't sit around being upset with myself for not having the skills and such that i desperately need to live a functional and fulfilling life, so i understand the difficulty. you're not alone. just know that you can do it if you keep on keeping on, i believe in you!

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#78

Post by Doxin »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #67
Doxin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I've seen this advice before and I do see it's value, but it doesn't quite work for me. I know that sucking when you're new at something is expected and merely a step towards the goal, but that doesn't stop me from still feeling inadequate. The knowing/feeling dichotomy is something I struggle a lot with, and I haven't quite found the solution to that yet.

IMO one of the super important things is not struggling with your feelings. Feeling inadequate is a natural process in sucking. It's a self-defense thing to keep your standing in the socially competitive atmosphere of human social dynamics. It's telling you that you look silly and you're taking a risk in doing this. And that's okay! It's part of it. Comfort yourself with other things while you do the difficult thing…

well yes, but that's rather the point: I know that it's normal to feel inadequate, but that doesn't make it feel any less terrible.

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#79

Post by kpennell »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #45

It's perhaps worth keeping in mind that Kleon is giving this advice about writing books, and that in context, this isn't "you can do it" pithy advice of the sort that DayDollar's comment is mocking. The quote from David McCullough seems to be at the heart of his point: "When I began, I thought that the way one should work was to do all the research and then write the book. In time I began to understand that it’s when…

Exactly. People somehow mis-read this as generic advice perseverance porn or something like that when the original essay is just about starting something like an essay/noel (while feeling underprepared) vs. justifying delays through excessive research

Re: Start before you think you’re ready

#80

Post by fuzzfactor »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #4

The counterpoint being that "months in the lab saves hours in the library" (Westheimer)

>months in the lab saves hours in the library

It's possible to outperform other laboratories by accomplishing both regardless.

Working harder AND smarter has its unforseen advantages.

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