"Don't think, just do" has been my go-to quote.
Process as a Proxy for Motivation
21–29 of 29 posts
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#22It hurts my soul to read of "Agile" as a fixed process consisting of arbitrary decisions like two-week sprints and 9:30 stand-ups. Agile is "responding to change over following a plan". https://agilemanifesto.org There's surely something to be said for bundling behaviors and triggers, but I do wish the world of software development hadn't missed the whole damn point of agile.
Good point, and I do agree with it. I suppose I was specifically talking about the processes that a team uses - I guess"Agile" just rolls off the tongue easier.
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#23> I was burdened with the mental labour of making this decision
But why, I always enjoyed having a choice. I also drove for a long time with several roads to choose, and I liked that each time I could like "naah, the sunset must be better on that road tonight, let's check it out" or "hopefully there's some fog going down the slopes today on another road". It's not labour, it was fun to play, kept out of boredom. Sometimes I even took roads that took longer just to have something new.
I believe you dread choices only when you try to min-max your life, overoptimizing every single choice. Just relax and let the life go its way.
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#24> I was burdened with the mental labour of making this decision But why, I always enjoyed having a choice. I also drove for a long time with several roads to choose, and I liked that each time I could like "naah, the sunset must be better on that road tonight, let's check it out" or "hopefully there's some fog going down the slopes today on another road". It's not labour, it was fun to play, kept out of boredom. Some…
Wow, thanks, I'm cured.
Before giving out asinine advice like "just relax and let the life go its way", you may want to consider if doing that was an option, the person would have done it already. It's the equivalent of telling a depressed person to "cheer up".
If you don't struggle with executive dysfunction, that's fantastic. But you're also not the intended audience for this article. Avoiding losing hours of one's day to decision paralysis isn't the same as trying to min-max or overoptimise.
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#25> ... I would just have a rule which I had to follow.
I don't mean to be a downer, but to prevent anxiety I try not to be so strict with myself.
A process can be freeing at first, but eventually the idea can seep in that I'm missing out, wasting precious time on earth, or that I'm "trapped". Nothing triggers a panic attack quite like depersonalization/derealization.
I try to question whether my motivations are covering up fear. I don't want to be so afraid of decision fatigue that it locks me into even more misery.
Anyway it's for that reason that I treat processes as recommendations instead of rules. At the crossroads, I'd prefer visualizing a blue star or green checkmark projected onto the turn. Like a GPS, I'm totally free to ignore it and force it to recalculate the route. Now it's a fun adventure when I deviate instead of "breaking the rules".
e.g. "You broke the rule! Now something bad will happen!" vs "I wonder what's new since the last time I came this way"
Huge difference.
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#26I am thinking of AI credit resets, it forced me to finish my project because I already spent subscription so better not waste it!
The cycle was a "process".
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#27> I was burdened with the mental labour of making this decision But why, I always enjoyed having a choice. I also drove for a long time with several roads to choose, and I liked that each time I could like "naah, the sunset must be better on that road tonight, let's check it out" or "hopefully there's some fog going down the slopes today on another road". It's not labour, it was fun to play, kept out of boredom. Some…
Wow, thanks, I'm cured. Before giving out asinine advice like "just relax and let the life go its way", you may want to consider if doing that was an option, the person would have done it already. It's the equivalent of telling a depressed person to "cheer up". If you don't struggle with executive dysfunction, that's fantastic. But you're also not the intended audience for this article. Avoiding losing hours of one's…
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Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#28I think I would use "habit" rather than "process" to describe this. Process perhaps implies a bit more intent and structure, whereas a habit is doing the same thing repeatedly because that's what you do.
Re: Process as a Proxy for Motivation
#29It hurts my soul to read of "Agile" as a fixed process consisting of arbitrary decisions like two-week sprints and 9:30 stand-ups. Agile is "responding to change over following a plan". https://agilemanifesto.org There's surely something to be said for bundling behaviors and triggers, but I do wish the world of software development hadn't missed the whole damn point of agile.
I think there's a lot to be said about why this didn't work out like that, using the cognitive load metaphor from the article. People like habits. If you're doing things differently every week you have to justify that among the team, and possibly outside it as well. Whereas (see checklist manifesto), if you turn "Agile" into a series of checkboxes that goes away. Standup? Tick. Done. Discussion of why we're having the standup? God no that's even more tedious.