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To Become Wise, Do Less

leveragethoughts.substack.com

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Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#51

Post by mark_l_watson »

Another take, from Yogananda: put your energy into accomplishing things in the world but when your work day is done turn off your working engine.

At 71 (I am still working) I have had an unusual career. Since I was 25, for the most part I stopped working full time, capping my work at 32 hours a week. I was able to do this at some great companies working in great teams. My boss from 40 years ago visited me [1] from out of town 6 weeks ago and I apologized a little for causing him any hassles because of this. He laughed and said that while it was true that I was missed in my no work Mondays, that I was the easiest person he ever managed because I really focused on my 4 work days.

[1] so far this year, I have had 4 visits from old coworkers who traveled to my town, ranging from working together 1 year ago to 40 years ago. I like to keep in touch with people.

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#52

Post by peoplefromibiza »

drannex wrote: post #10

To become wise, do everything, fuck up on most of it, and know what works and doesn't by direct experience. I am a minimalist (Essentialist) by choice, but a maximalist regarding knowledge and experience. Try and do everything you can, that way you know what does and doesn't work. Done. Anything else is overly reductive. You can't know how to do anything if you do or experience close to nothing. Leisure is good, I am…

brute forcing is rarely the best solution to a problem.

the best solution usually involves studying the problem, dissecting it in smaller problems, finding a way to do the same thing brute force does, by doing much less (work smarter, not harder).

Which also means you have to slow down at first, to be faster when you encounter the same (or similar) problem again.

i.e. become wiser

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#53

Post by akudha »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #51

Another take, from Yogananda: put your energy into accomplishing things in the world but when your work day is done turn off your working engine. At 71 (I am still working) I have had an unusual career. Since I was 25, for the most part I stopped working full time, capping my work at 32 hours a week. I was able to do this at some great companies working in great teams. My boss from 40 years ago visited me [1] from ou…

This is awesome. How did you manage to convince your employers, of 4 day work week? I was just thinking about it, I don't think there is any chance that I can convince my own employer of it :(

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#54

Post by Jensson »

papito wrote: post #42
drannex wrote: post #10

To become wise, do everything, fuck up on most of it, and know what works and doesn't by direct experience. I am a minimalist (Essentialist) by choice, but a maximalist regarding knowledge and experience. Try and do everything you can, that way you know what does and doesn't work. Done. Anything else is overly reductive. You can't know how to do anything if you do or experience close to nothing. Leisure is good, I am…

That used to work for me when I was younger. Just power through it. Make all the mistakes yourself. Now I am older, and I prefer learning from the mistakes of others. I ain't got time for brute force.

So you used to build wisdom, but now that you are older you don't feel like you need to become wiser so you just take the easy route.

There is a reason all education depends on students trying and failing to solve problems, that is how we learn things properly. When you stop doing that you stop learning new things at a deeper level.

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#55

Post by koonsolo »

vikaveri wrote: post #38
koonsolo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came here to say the exact same thing. Maybe people who do nothing and think all day assume they are wise, but it's the other way around. Experienced people are wise. Thinking alone just creates false assumptions in your head. It's the doing part that will teach you, it's life itself that will be your toughest teacher.

Doing without thinking first is a recipe for disaster, but often doing is required to confirm your thinking. And of course, it helps to think even more afterwards, see what else you can learn that you didn't think of beforehand. Doing without thinking is probably how most Darwin award winners are made

I would say doing without thinking is better than thinking without doing. I know plenty of successful people in the first group, and plenty of unsuccessful people in the second. But opinions might differ.

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#56

Post by tpxl »

akudha wrote: post #53
mark_l_watson wrote: post #51

Another take, from Yogananda: put your energy into accomplishing things in the world but when your work day is done turn off your working engine. At 71 (I am still working) I have had an unusual career. Since I was 25, for the most part I stopped working full time, capping my work at 32 hours a week. I was able to do this at some great companies working in great teams. My boss from 40 years ago visited me [1] from ou…

This is awesome. How did you manage to convince your employers, of 4 day work week? I was just thinking about it, I don't think there is any chance that I can convince my own employer of it :(

You can try for shorter work days (5x6hr), and once that proves to work, go for 4x8hr?

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#57

Post by coolnow »

koonsolo wrote: post #55
vikaveri wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing without thinking first is a recipe for disaster, but often doing is required to confirm your thinking. And of course, it helps to think even more afterwards, see what else you can learn that you didn't think of beforehand. Doing without thinking is probably how most Darwin award winners are made

I would say doing without thinking is better than thinking without doing. I know plenty of successful people in the first group, and plenty of unsuccessful people in the second. But opinions might differ.

What do you define as successful? Purely by financial success or does it include a good work/family life balance with kids etc?

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#58

Post by papito »

Jensson wrote: post #54
papito wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That used to work for me when I was younger. Just power through it. Make all the mistakes yourself. Now I am older, and I prefer learning from the mistakes of others. I ain't got time for brute force.

So you used to build wisdom, but now that you are older you don't feel like you need to become wiser so you just take the easy route. There is a reason all education depends on students trying and failing to solve problems, that is how we learn things properly. When you stop doing that you stop learning new things at a deeper level.

I look back, and I realize I wasted a lot of time on brute force, instead of just reading the docs, in many cases.

What you are describing in the opposite of wisdom - that's just perseverance.

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#59

Post by koonsolo »

coolnow wrote: post #57
koonsolo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say doing without thinking is better than thinking without doing. I know plenty of successful people in the first group, and plenty of unsuccessful people in the second. But opinions might differ.

What do you define as successful? Purely by financial success or does it include a good work/family life balance with kids etc?

It includes everything that you mention. I know people who constantly read books about finances, health, relationships, ... . They are broke, health is terrible, depressions, ... . If they would just apply what they read, it would be fine. But they don't.

And then there are the 'sales type'-guys if you know what I mean. They just talk and do: have their finances more or less straight, have a family, lots of social connections, ... .

I agree that both thinking and doing is best (as hopefully most here are doing). But if I have to choose, I would choose doing over thinking.

Re: To Become Wise, Do Less

#60

Post by Ken_At_EM »

drannex wrote: post #10

To become wise, do everything, fuck up on most of it, and know what works and doesn't by direct experience. I am a minimalist (Essentialist) by choice, but a maximalist regarding knowledge and experience. Try and do everything you can, that way you know what does and doesn't work. Done. Anything else is overly reductive. You can't know how to do anything if you do or experience close to nothing. Leisure is good, I am…

Some days I really feel like I embody the "fuck up on most of it" part.
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