4 ms·
>Rowers have a word for this frictionless state: swing... Recall the pure joy of riding on a backyard swing: an easy cycle of motion, the momentum coming from t
by andai 3mo ago
>Rowers have a word for this frictionless state: swing... Recall the pure joy of riding on a backyard swing: an easy cycle of motion, the momentum coming from the swing itself. The swing carries us; we do not force it. We pump our legs to drive our arc higher, but gravity does most of the work. We are not so much swinging as being swung. The boat swings you. The shell wants to move fast: Speed sings in its lines and nature.
Our job is simply to work with the shell, to stop holding it back with our thrashing struggles to go faster. Trying too hard sabotages boat speed. Trying becomes striving and striving undoes itself. Social climbers strive to be aristocrats but their efforts prove them no such thing. Aristocrats do not strive; they have already arrived. Swing is a state of arrival.
—Houghton Mifflin, Mind Over Water
- MichaelZuo 3mo agoHmmm, so it sounds like the root cause isn’t really about “speed” at all… but something else? For example, someone in a meeting saying things lacking credibility and everyone else just goes along with it anyways. Then it snowballs meeting after meeting.
- TeMPOraL 3mo agoWeird analogy. Nonsensical from both physical standpoint (the only energy input when swinging is the person on the swing "pumping their legs"), and practical one (you usually sit down with the swing already at an angle and then kick off, so a good 50% of the arc/momentum is there from the setup).
- Zxian 3mo agoYou clearly didn't read this. It's about rowing. Not being on a playground.
- SetTheorist 3mo agoThe original quote is a bit unclear, but it does refer to being on a playground: "Recall the pure joy of riding on a backyard swing: an easy cycle of motion, the momentum coming from the swing itself. The swing carries us; we do not force it. We pump our legs to drive our arc higher, but gravity does most of the work. We are not so much swinging as being swung."
- ricardobeat 3mo agoIt's a bit confusing since it starts with "Rowers have a word for this frictionless state..." I spent a good minute or two trying to picture what 'drive our arc higher' could mean during rowing, as that is not when force is exerted...
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- andai 3mo agoI found it excerpted in Getting Things Done, where the author presented it as the ideal for how one should approach their life, both professionally and personally.
- TeMPOraL 3mo agoGTD is the opposite of being on a swing. It's the constant fear of the parents shouting your name from the balcony to tell you the playtime is over and you need to get back home for a Weekly Review.
- dwaltrip 3mo agoIt's not bad I think. We must be open-minded and humble, like a child, and learn how the system actually works in order to be effective. Often times our first instincts will not work, so we must observe, experiment, and try again. And not be afraid of looking foolish with our legs flailing around. Find the underlying rhythm and flow with it, not against it.
- roughly 3mo agoRight, and remember how getting the rhythm right was the whole trick of it? Learning when to bend back and when to lean forward? When to pump your legs, so that your relatively small inputs were additive to the momentum of the swing, not fighting it? How when you kicked at the wrong time, you could feel the balance upset, you could feel the swing slow?
- drob518 3mo agoAka “mechanical sympathy”
- fragmede 3mo agoMechanical empathy