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How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

japhr.blogspot.com

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Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#81

Post by gnosis »

sireat wrote: post #74
nathanbarry wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fantastic method. I wrote an iPhone app around this concept: http://thinklegend.com/commit One of my current commitments is to write 1000 words each day.

I can highly recommend 750words.com if daily writing is what you are after , lots of those little psychological hooks to keep writing. I just love all those semi-useless graphs and stats you can generate if you wish. Completely Free too (it shows around 5% of people as donating something).

Gah!

You have to log in to use it.

Worse, it the login has to be Facebook, Yahoo, or OpenID.

No fucking way am I going to sign up for any of that shit, or let them track me as I visit sites I'm interested in.

No thanks!

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#82

Post by dreeves »

its_so_on wrote: post #35
anthony_franco wrote: post #2

Jerry Seinfeld used this exact technique to become a great comic. As told by software developer Brad Isaac when he asked Jerry for career advice[0]: He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll h…

There's only one problem. When you do break the long chain you're out for the count. When was the last time you heard anything from Seinfeld after his long-running eponymous show was cancelled? How are you supposed to motivate yourself to start a new chain, when it means you'll be working on this shit for the next 3,000 days?

I wouldn't call Seinfeld himself an argument against the Seinfeld hack (aka "don't break the chain"). I think things worked out quite well for him!

But I agree that the Seinfeld hack's greatest strength is also its fatal flaw: Once you do break the chain, all the motivation it provided bursts like a bubble. You've got to somehow motivate yourself to build up another long chain to not break. Until then you're on a "one more day won't matter" slippery slope of sloth.

My startup -- http://beeminder.com -- is trying to get the best of both worlds: stay on a "yellow brick road" to your goal every day. You have to maintain a certain overall average every day but you can build up a safety buffer that allows you to, say, take the weekend off without relinquishing that psychological momentum.

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#83

Post by mangodrunk »

reddit_clone wrote: post #76
mangodrunk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't canceled, he chose to stop the show, and at the time it was the most viewed show [0]. They offered him a lot more money but he decided to leave on a high point [1]. After having one of the most successful shows of all time, he went on to create a successful movie (Bee Movie) [2] and continues to do stand-up. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld#Ratings [1] http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9712/26/seinfeld/ […

> successful movie (Bee Movie) This is debatable. The way I remember it, it was a clunker.

Well, let's look at the numbers. With a budget of $150 million and a global box office release gross of $287 million [0], which doesn't factor in things like DVD sales/rentals and licensing, etc means they made about $137 million more than their budget. That seems like success to me, but maybe it's not that simple in the movie industry with Hollywood accounting [1] and as a lot of it seems to depend on costs after the making and a simple general guide is that the movie needs to make at least twice as much of the budget to be considered profitable [2].

[0] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=beemovie.htm

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

[2] http://io9.com/5747305/how-much-money-does-a-movie-need-to-m...

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#84

Post by gnosis »

reddit_clone wrote: post #76
mangodrunk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't canceled, he chose to stop the show, and at the time it was the most viewed show [0]. They offered him a lot more money but he decided to leave on a high point [1]. After having one of the most successful shows of all time, he went on to create a successful movie (Bee Movie) [2] and continues to do stand-up. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld#Ratings [1] http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9712/26/seinfeld/ […

> successful movie (Bee Movie) This is debatable. The way I remember it, it was a clunker.

Seinfeld is also simply not funny. Not on his show, not ever. So it's not surprising his movie was also total shit.

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#86

Post by gnosis »

ctdonath wrote: post #38

Someone else with a similar attitude I find inspiring: Les Stroud. He'd go to some random remote wilderness location, take a few video cameras and nothing else, and record himself surviving for a week. Result: Survivorman , a hit TV show going into its fourth season, with at least 3 spinoff shows. A more mundane example: my brother took a photograph every day for a year. Not a big deal, no particular subjects or goal…

There's also this guy, who painted every day for nine years, and went from a completely unskilled beginner to a master artist:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3031684

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#87

Post by ctdonath »

gnosis wrote: post #86
ctdonath wrote: post #38

Someone else with a similar attitude I find inspiring: Les Stroud. He'd go to some random remote wilderness location, take a few video cameras and nothing else, and record himself surviving for a week. Result: Survivorman , a hit TV show going into its fourth season, with at least 3 spinoff shows. A more mundane example: my brother took a photograph every day for a year. Not a big deal, no particular subjects or goal…

There's also this guy, who painted every day for nine years, and went from a completely unskilled beginner to a master artist: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3031684

And the guy who, to test Gladwell's "10,000 hours" theory, has taken up golf and intends to turn pro. He knew nigh unto nothing about the game when he started. (BTW: how's he doing on that? anyone have updates?)

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#88

Post by jbigelow76 »

prawn wrote: post #63
anthony_franco wrote: post #2

Jerry Seinfeld used this exact technique to become a great comic. As told by software developer Brad Isaac when he asked Jerry for career advice[0]: He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll h…

I've used this in the past to track multiple goals in this way: http://www.joesgoals.com/

Thanks for the suggestion, I like this so far. My biggest beef with idonethis is the single check mark to indicate any activity whatsoever, making it less usable for tracking multiple goals.

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#89

Post by stevetursi »

its_so_on wrote: post #35
anthony_franco wrote: post #2

Jerry Seinfeld used this exact technique to become a great comic. As told by software developer Brad Isaac when he asked Jerry for career advice[0]: He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll h…

There's only one problem. When you do break the long chain you're out for the count. When was the last time you heard anything from Seinfeld after his long-running eponymous show was cancelled? How are you supposed to motivate yourself to start a new chain, when it means you'll be working on this shit for the next 3,000 days?

True. But you're focusing on the chain for the chain's sake. Remember the chain is a hack - a method of altering your behavior to produce a result - and that result should be the focus. Of course, I'm not going to lie and deny that the chain has its own intrinsic value, which only intensifies as it gets longer. But consider-

a.) The longer the chain, the less willing you are to break it, the more you learn not to let superficial things (like the futility of starting a new 3000-day chain) get in the way.

b.) The longer the chain, the more you've achieved your result, and the less you need the chain. If that result didn't happen, then you should reconsider the chain in the first place (as per my point above.)

Example of a.) As of today I have not missed a day of running in 485 days. After finishing a 100-mile ultramarathon 3.5 weeks ago, I got out and hacked together a 1-mile run the day after. Super painful, and took me 15 minutes, but it was an honest jog, and it counts. If my streak was much less than 460 days (at the time), I would not have continued the chain.

example of b.) The result of the chain? It helped me to finish a 100-mile ultramarathon, even at 6'6" 285lbs. If I have to break the chain tomorrow, and its length keeps me from ever starting a new chain, well - look at what I accomplished. I'd say it was worth it. And I suspect Seinfeld would agree regarding his chain.

Re: How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

#90

Post by huhtenberg »

utnick wrote: post #72
ozataman wrote: post #69

I applaud the author for his tenacity. There is no doubt that kind of discipline produces results, both in terms of work product and personal advancement. However, I have serious doubts about the merits of writing a book about a subject intricacies and philosophy of which you have not yet had the chance to distill through the lens of experience. The method may, perhaps, work for simple recipes, how tos and other proc…

Generally I agree, but the topics of his books (SPDY, Dart, and backbone ) are all extremely new technologies. Like they have all been released only in the past year. Very few people have a ton of real world experience with these. So I think the book reader probably will know that the author doesn't have years of battle tested experience but understand that the book is meant to be a good way for a beginner to get up…

They might be "extremely new technologies", but how do they fit into existing picture?

This is akin to a layman writing a book on International Klein Blue, but having no idea of what other colors are out there. It's a form of a "blind leading the blind" situation.

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