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This was mercifully shorter than the Cal Newport book. That's about all I can say for it. Ivan Sutherland had the secret, and it only took one paragraph to sh
by jstewartmobile 9y ago
This was mercifully shorter than the Cal Newport book. That's about all I can say for it.
Ivan Sutherland had the secret, and it only took one paragraph to share it:
'I used to hate washing dishes. I would delay as long as possible. Eyeing the daunting pile of dishes, I would say to myself, “I'll be here forever at this dumb task.” The enormity of the task deterred me from starting. I still dislike washing dishes, but I now get the dishes done promptly because I learned a simple procedure for doing the job from my wife's uncle. The procedure starts out “Wash first dish...” I have a similar procedure for starting travel vouchers, it goes “Record first expense...”'
edit: his rationale was equally short and sweet:
'Each of my little procedures embodies two different aids to getting started. By invoking a familiar procedure I reduce my need for courage. By breaking the task into smaller tasks through emphasizing that only the first dish need be washed or the first expense need be recorded, I reduce my estimate of risk. Both mechanisms work. These sources of courage are sometimes called “discipline,” especially when being taught to the young. Discipline relies on a practiced use of routine subgoals to avoid defeat by fear. Its highest form comes when the Lieutenant, charging up a heavily defended hill, says, “Follow me men!”—and they do.'
- Dolores12 9y agoa journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (c) Laozi
- jstewartmobile 9y agoHa! Love it!
- lxglv 9y agoPersonally I used the same approach to start running: “just lace the shoes”. After you finish this, you are almost running.
- PeOe 9y agoHaha! that´s genius. Could technically be applied to lots of unpleasant tasks. I sometimes have difficulties with getting out of bed in the morning. Might a "just stand up" help with that problem? I will test that tomorrow.
- singlow 9y agoI might test that today!
- kbutler 9y agoSomebody [else] has a hacker news first thing in the morning habit...
- Dangeranger 9y agoFor me it’s “just take off the covers”.
- PeOe 9y agoThat works for you? Haha! I think I´d just keep sleeping after that. Although it does get colder once the sheets are gone.
- tmnvix 9y agoI find there's something you can do even before standing up that helps get you closer to your goal of getting out of bed. If you stretch a bit while still in bed it gets your blood running and gives you the 'kick' you need. Feels good and requires no effort.
- rconti 9y agoI'm an expert at getting out of bed, walking across the room to snooze the alarm, walking back, and getting back in bed. Sometimes for hours! That said, I sort of rely on this process where each time I wake up I'm slightly less likely to fall back asleep. Sometimes I grab my phone and figure I'll just look at a few things while I lounge in bed, and within a minute or two my brain is awake and I realize I'm past the hump and may as well just get up. Whereas when I'm less alert, falling back asleep seems FAR easier than just getting up.
- swah 9y agoThis works very well for me. The trick is put the gym clothes without thinking about your feelings and thoughts. Then proceed to walk out the door with the same attitude, supressing the internal chatter..
- criddell 9y agoWould you say one should just do it?
- fapjacks 9y agoThis is exactly how I've done every insane, amazing, stupid, disgusting, crazy, dangerous, phenomenal thing in my entire life. From eating balut to asking my wife out to maneuvering under fire.
- moshiah 9y agoPlease describe the balut, and if you'd recommend the experience.
- tcpekin 9y agoA richer hard boiled egg with some texture. I liked it a lot. Ate it with a spoon and some sort of sauce. It was definitely different. Would probably do again.
- fapjacks 9y agoI ate it right out of the shell deep in the Filipino jungle. I knew for years what it was and had preconceived notions. Besides the texture of certain parts I could identify while chewing (e.g. feet, beak), it really just honestly tasted like a kind of hard-boiled egg. If I didn't know what I was eating, I wouldn't have second-guessed it at all. I do recommend it, for the adventure. The Filipino guys that gave it to me said it gives you a big burst of energy, and I thought they were full of it, but indeed, it gave me a kind of heady feeling. I think that just might have been getting a ton of calories all at once?
- mikhailfranco 9y agoI also use the thought: "I have to have a shower anyway, so why not go for a run first".
- sotojuan 9y agoAs much as I respect Mr Newport, a lot of books like his could be one long form blog post (or paragraph!) instead of a 200~ page book.
- jrgifford 9y agoThis is true, however he is trying to explain the idea to multiple people, so he's explaining his ideas in multiple ways. So no, it could not be a long form blog post.
- freyir 9y agoIs the idea that complicated? Can it not clearly and concisely be explained in a way that makes sense to a large audience? We see more complex ideas explained more concisely all the time. It's not just Cal Newport, it's self-help and productivity authors in general. They have an idea, and then they repeat it over and over again until they have a book. Maybe the repetition benefits the reader. Maybe it's easier to internalize an idea when it is hammered into your skull. Or maybe books are just more profitable than blog posts.
- ashark 9y agoI find this even in well-respected and oft-recommended but relatively light non-fic outside the self help genre. Sagan's A Demon Haunted World and Cialdini's Influence both struck me as being twice as long as they had any reason to be, but they're nigh-classics in certain circles. It makes me reluctant to read non-fic, which tends either to be very specialized and ultra-dense (i.e. beyond my reach with a reasonable time investment) or fluffy trash. However, better small-scale (paragraph to paragraph) structure of the text and somewhat higher info-density, or simply being more entertainingly-written, can go a long way. See Graeber's Debt for the former and Fussell's Class for the latter.
- AlexCoventry 9y agoIt's not just exposition, it's rhetoric. Self-help books take a lot of words because they're exhorting you to an ideology, not just explaining things.
- agumonkey 9y agoI used this numerous times. It works often but not always.
- PeOe 9y agoThat´s interesting. In which case hasn´t it helped you? I mean, breaking up tasks into smaller pieces does make the "big task" way more manageable.
- agumonkey 9y agoI was mostly commenting on the start slow and simple and get going. Sometimes having a low entry barrier and then have some inertia in the activity does create a good rhythm/regular schedule. But sometimes I just give up. Other times what I need is some god damn good old drive to start rolling up my sleeve and get done with that pile of whatever. So yes in theory, breaking things down is good, but it's not always the determining factor. I hope it's a bit clearer.
- PeOe 9y agoYeah, true! I see your point now! I guess the determining factor is a mix of motivation and drive combined with "getting started". Breaking tasks up into smaller tasks doesn´t really do anything if you have no motivation and don´t get started.
- agumonkey 9y agoSometimes I think we should have resistance training. Just to get used to slightly unpleasant things, done a dozen times.
- PeOe 9y agoWould definitely benefit the motivational factor a lot. In fact, people nowadays would describe most tasks as "unpleasant". "Necessary" or "has to be done" are often categorized as unpleasant.
- kaybe 9y agoThere is a second step to this: 'You can stop if you want to.' Just washing one plate does not mean I have to wash all of them. Stopping after only half of them is acceptable and preferable to not starting. So I can pick up and wash one without worrying about the full task.
- berdon 9y agoBut can you leave your friends behind cause they don't stop and if they don't stop they're no friends of mine? The beauty of telling yourself "I can stop" comes in when you're really just lying to yourself to reduce the barrier of the first dish. "Oh, I'll just do a couple and then stop. Well I only have a few left..."
- singlow 9y agoI am not quite sure but are you talking about something other than dishes? :)
- tbirrell 9y agoThe first paragraph is a reference to this gem from the 80's called "Safety Dance" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs
- Omnius 9y agoYou can dish if you want to
- swah 9y agoA similar trick works for avoiding sugary treats: don't strongly oppose this desire - instead say to yourself you can eat it at a later time and move your mind to something else. (When you finally eat whatever it was you so much desired, you didn't really fail, because you are only consuming 1 unit for those 3/5/whatever days, instead of one every day...)
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- jventura 9y agoI searched for the quote and did find it in "Technology and Courage", by Ivan Sutherland (https://www.seas.harvard.edu/profdev/spring09/TechnologyCourage.pdf https://www.seas.harvard.edu/profdev/spring09/TechnologyCour...). It's a very interesting reading, sometimes quite illuminating things are hidden among other, more common, things.. Thanks for the quotation!
- chasd00 9y agoIn college a friend of mine gave me a book on Zen Buddhism once as a joke more or less. I read it cover to cover, what you describe is very zen ( well it is as much as it isn't I suppose ;) ). When i was reading that book i was in college and I remember dreading and dreading studying for a particular boring class. I was miserable thinking about it and then it just sort of dawned on me, i got up and went to the library and studied. It's hard to put in words but you only dread these dreary tasks when you're dreading them.
- EpicBlackCrayon 9y agoDo you remember the name of the book?
- pault 9y agoNot the OP but The Wisdom Of Insecurity by Alan Watts is a total life changer in my experience.
- mtarnovan 9y agoYes, Alan Watts comes to mind in the context of Zen and dish washing :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4fUpalvTU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4fUpalvTU
- chasd00 9y agoI looked and looked but couldn't find it online. it was just called Zen Buddhism but the author had a very western name. The book had a pretty big impact on me but not in a religious or hooky "one with the cosmos" sort of way. More like it just sort of clicked with me, which is as good a description of the concept as any really. I may still have the book somewhere, if I find I'll post it here.
- ytwySXpMbS 9y agoJust seconding my interest in the book, if you manage to find it. Perhaps you could ask your friend if he remembers?
- throw7 9y agoYou just reminded me of a song from one of my favorite childhood shows... "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" from a stop-motion film titled "Santa Claus is comin' to Town". Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor. You put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door.
- blonky 9y agoThis was a mantra both my brothers used while going through Marine Corps bootcamp. You don't have to get to the end of the 50-mile-hike. Just take one more step. I always remember this when facing my own seemingly impossible tasks. Mental or physical.
- marcuschristie 9y agoI do something similar when running. When I feel like stopping and walking the rest of the route I'll pick a landmark up ahead, like a telephone pole or a mailbox, and say to myself, "I'll just run to that." Once I get to the landmark though, I feel I can still go on a bit so I pick another landmark up ahead that I'll run to. And so on.
- arlindohall 9y agoThanks for sharing - this is a wonderfully succinct way to say something I've been trying to model my "to-do" process around for years now. I have spend more time than it's worth switching between to-do apps and processes; I've used calendars, notepads, all sorts of things. Finally, and recently, I've come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, you've got to just do the thing that is bothering you the most, and keep a record of the things that are also bothering you. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter how you keep track of what needs be done, just so long as you take the first step on something.
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- axiomdata316 9y agoCal Newport wrote the book "Deep Work". David Allen wrote "Getting Things Done". Do you mean David Allen instead of Cal Newport?
- jstewartmobile 9y agoSee reply to danial
- axiomdata316 9y agoJust read reply. I'm confused then because both books are about different things. I guess we could also say it was "mercifully shorter than Leo Tolstoy's book".
- jstewartmobile 9y agoIn specifics, different. In general, the same. Both are ultimately productivity books.
- danial 9y agoI think you meant David Allen, rather than Cal Newport. Cal Newport seems to think GTD is flawed because it doesn't help you prioritize meaningful work: http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/12/21/getting-unremarkable-things-done-the-problem-with-david-allens-universalism/ http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/12/21/getting-unremarkable-t...
- jstewartmobile 9y agoNope. I meant Cal Newport. After reading "Deep Work," I gained a new insight into why hametz is forbidden on Passover.
- rickdg 9y agoThe difficulty lies in identifying that first dish or in having to keep too many plates spinning because their tasks depends on someone else.
- gdubs 9y agoYou can also follow a structured procrastination approach to dishes: Identify the dish you dread washing; the dirty pot with baked on grime. Wash the all other dishes in an effort to avoid the disgusting pot. Throw out the pot.
- Chris2048 9y ago> Its highest form comes when the Lieutenant, charging up a heavily defended hill, says, “Follow me men!”—and they do. That doesn't really endear me to the concept...
- jstewartmobile 9y agoHad the same feeling on that part. I give Sutherland the benefit of the doubt on that one though. He's closer to the WWII generation than the kill-brown-people for "reasons" generations that came before and after.