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The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

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Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#531

Post by kmmlng »

achow wrote: post #486

Effectiveness of just showing up works wonderfully for fitness as well. How much ever unfit one is, just showing up for a long period of time changes oneself. All one has to do drag oneself to the class, day in and day out, and then universe takes over..

If you can't manage it every day, a less frequent habit will still have benefits.

I've been doing strength training once a week since the pandemic startet, and it has been great. Obviously I could have made much more progress with more frequent training, but I still look much better naked and more importantly, I feel much better. So many random aches and pains have just disappeared.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#532

Post by randomswede »

munificent wrote: post #40

I've written two books over the past decade as well as learning some other skills and hobbies and this is absolutely the most vital lesson I've learned. There is an incredible power in simply pouring a little time into something every day over a long period of time. It feels like a superpower when you see it start compounding. The Grand Canyon was created by little drops of water bouncing off rocks for millenia. Cons…

I wrote a novel-shaped object (OK, it was never printed, so "object" is perhaps a bit bold) over about 6 months, by the simple expedient of making sure I spent at least 15 minutes every morning with the NSO editor open. Target was "Minimum one word", but (apart from a long stretch in the middle), more like 500-1500 words per day.

The long stretch in the middle was when I had to figure out how to deal with the main character dying half-way through, due to the logic of the story. That took a fair bit of revising previously written prose and setting things up for a sequel character, as it were (the main "protagonist" of what was intended as a series was an organisation, not an individual; as it turns out, there's a reason that is not a common format).

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#533

Post by mariusor »

angarg12 wrote: post #527

I used to think like this. At it's core, it's a variation of "never give up", mixed with "the power of habit". I agree with "the power of habit" part. From the "never give up" point of view, I've changed my mind, thanks to books like The Lean Startup, Blitzscaling, and my own experience. The bottom line message seems to be "keep insisting and you'll be successful". I spent 3+ years working in a game that never took o…

If you don't strongly believe in the work that you do, I doubt that any amount of discipline and punctiliousness will give you satisfaction at the end.

I don't believe it's enough just having "taking off" as an incentive. You should be trying to either improve yourself, or the "world" at large with what you're doing.

Also apologies if this sounds too preachy, I can't find a better way to express what I mean in the moment.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#534

Post by zhdc1 »

angarg12 wrote: post #527

I used to think like this. At it's core, it's a variation of "never give up", mixed with "the power of habit". I agree with "the power of habit" part. From the "never give up" point of view, I've changed my mind, thanks to books like The Lean Startup, Blitzscaling, and my own experience. The bottom line message seems to be "keep insisting and you'll be successful". I spent 3+ years working in a game that never took o…

> From the "never give up" point of view, I've changed my mind, thanks to books like The Lean Startup, Blitzscaling, and my own experience.

It depends on whether you're giving up on the process or the goal. Startups "give up" or pivot on their original and subsequent ideas so often that's it's considered a best practice. This is different from founders giving up on starting a business.

Like you mentioned, the habit is what matters.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#535

Post by zhdc1 »

robocat wrote: post #351
king_panic wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Slight Edge is an amazing book about an amazing concept. Dramatic change happens one percent at a time at a consistent cadence. Also great chapter in The Psychology of Money about Warren Buffet. He's been investing since he was a child and is now in his 90s -- He's been compounding returns on a longer timeframe then anyone else alive.

> Warren Buffet That is selection bias at its worst: he really is an outlier. There are plenty of investors that beaver away every day and do not get his returns. I suspect you could pick one of his decades and only find a few people that exceed his ability.

> There are plenty of investors that beaver away every day and do not get his returns.

There are very few investors who consistently manage to exceed average market returns. It doesn't negate the importance of consistently investing.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#536

Post by FriedrichN »

angarg12 wrote: post #527

I used to think like this. At it's core, it's a variation of "never give up", mixed with "the power of habit". I agree with "the power of habit" part. From the "never give up" point of view, I've changed my mind, thanks to books like The Lean Startup, Blitzscaling, and my own experience. The bottom line message seems to be "keep insisting and you'll be successful". I spent 3+ years working in a game that never took o…

There is a difference between tenacity and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results when there are no signs of progress.

Ideas like "never give up" and "the power of habit" are not universally true, they are heuristics you can apply to your daily life.

In complex systems there are no absolutes. If you have an idea that can be applied to all things equally you're in a cult.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#537

Post by habosa »

Inspiring post! I am sitting here right now working on my side project, which I try to do for an hour or two before work every day. It really is amazing how much I get done in this tiny block of time vs. the 8 hours I spend at my full-time job. Just "plugging away", hoping to go from 1 user to 10 to 100.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#538

Post by chejazi »

querez wrote: post #414
chejazi wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're doing the few simple errors in judgment, time will expose you, no matter how well you appear to be doing right now. Like smoking pot. I love smoking pot, but wow can it cascade errors in judgment (only realized upon looking back)

I'm curious, because I sometimes worry of stepping into this trap, as well: what kind of error cascades?

For me, mostly work issues. While I find pot is great for interpersonal relationship building, I've struggled with the following while smoking and running a startup:

* I can't prioritize tasks properly (both within work and outside e.g. fitness)

* I become passive as a leader, which isn't good leadership

* I evaluate situations based on emotional resonance rather than factual data

There are more, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. These led to bad decisions, poor productivity, and ultimately hurting my trust with the team.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#539

Post by machinehermiter »

iamricks wrote: post #278
kabdib wrote: post #58

Reading one paper a week is 520 papers a decade, and there's your "Oh wait, I've seen a solution to this problem before..." superpower as a senior dev. Not your only one, but one that's easy to acquire.

Whats the best place to search for and read papers?

I have a few interests that I randomly search for on arXiv.org and try to stay on top of.

Sometimes I will just randomly see what has been posted to one of the areas I am interested in as well on arxiv.

Then often I end up just googling references in the paper to other papers.

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