4 ms·

I'm not sure I agree with this advice in its current form, since the "adjust" phase of the three-year rule is arguably the most important. My current self woul

I'm not sure I agree with this advice in its current form, since the "adjust" phase of the three-year rule is arguably the most important. My current self would be unrecognizable to myself three years ago. I'm still learning how to be productive long-term. I started gaining a lot of momentum when I shifted my thinking from short-term impulsiveness: Wow, I just discovered X! I will read everything there is to know about X today! To long-term sustainability: In three months, I want to be someone who is familiar enough with X to recognize when it might be useful, and pull out that knowledge as needed.

conductr 6y ago
That’s a hurdle everyone crosses and usually doesn’t go backwards. It sounds like it just happens to be less than 3 years in your rear view. I don’t know anything about you. But I know being young and having disposable time to dive into everything is a common trap. Using myself as an example, I got married, had a kid, work a lot, and still try to have a bit of a social life. This means I scrutinize heavily how my time is utilized on side projects. I pretty much know when I can build something. Or know i could fill necessary gaps. So I skip that and go straight to “then what?” Is it for hobby? Can I sell this? Do I want to find someone who can? Am I wanting to spend years focused on this? The fact is, I have a lot of ideas that are just-for-fun projects that I would have dived right into in my younger days. Now I rarely do that. I occasionally have an idea that I’ll push forward. I read a lot and like to learn without doing if you will. I also assemble teams to do the labor intensive parts and act as a project manager when I want to build something these days. I find it just as enjoyable and usually learn a lot along the way.

4 ms·

I'm not sure I agree with this advice in its current form, since the "adjust" phase of the three-year rule is arguably the most important. My current self woul

by benrbray 6y ago

conductr 6y ago
That’s a hurdle everyone crosses and usually doesn’t go backwards. It sounds like it just happens to be less than 3 years in your rear view. I don’t know anything about you. But I know being young and having disposable time to dive into everything is a common trap. Using myself as an example, I got married, had a kid, work a lot, and still try to have a bit of a social life. This means I scrutinize heavily how my time is utilized on side projects. I pretty much know when I can build something. Or know i could fill necessary gaps. So I skip that and go straight to “then what?” Is it for hobby? Can I sell this? Do I want to find someone who can? Am I wanting to spend years focused on this? The fact is, I have a lot of ideas that are just-for-fun projects that I would have dived right into in my younger days. Now I rarely do that. I occasionally have an idea that I’ll push forward. I read a lot and like to learn without doing if you will. I also assemble teams to do the labor intensive parts and act as a project manager when I want to build something these days. I find it just as enjoyable and usually learn a lot along the way.