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Nice article. One part in particular stood out to me: > 7) The best swimmers don’t spend a lot of time dreaming about big goals like winning the Olympics. They
by basicallydan 13y ago
Nice article. One part in particular stood out to me:
> 7) The best swimmers don’t spend a lot of time dreaming about big goals like winning the Olympics. They concentrate on “small wins”: clearly defined minor achievements that can be rather easily done, but produce real effects.
Recently, I've found my own attitude changing towards focusing on the smaller wins, too, and found myself both happier and more successful in the work that I do. When you're putting together a large puzzle, it's quite difficult to think of it as a picture which is made up of hundreds of little pieces. It's easier to focus on a few large, more manageable chunks of the puzzle, each of which is made up of several small pieces rather than hundreds. This can be applied to many types of challenge.
This isn't new advice, but it's an important reminder not to let the bigger picture cloud your view if you're trying to achieve something.
- nyrina 13y agoBut my boss keeps telling me to go look down from the helicopter, like it's some magical answer. "Hey, iPads aren't showing some of our websites at all, I've tracked it down to IIS, I think, as every time I recycle the app pool, it shows our website perfectly, but then fucks up every time you refresh it after that." "Ohh, that's easy, just look at the bigger picture, take a trip in the helicopter and look down" Argh!
- unlikelymordant 13y agoyour boss sounds like he is at least 2 levels higher than you :p
- ansimionescu 13y agoPointy-haired boss is so yesterday. I vote for [10] boss http://i.imgur.com/uKcUCHd.png http://i.imgur.com/uKcUCHd.png
- pgeorgi 13y agoYou must have a generous helicopter budget :-)
- ChristianMarks 13y agoI love platitudinous bosses. They never level up.
- kaybe 13y agoDoes he provide the helicopter? (You probably are talking about a meta helicopter, but it sounds like you should take the company helicopter for a ride to think about it. I like the idea.)
- aaronem 13y agoI think the metaphorical sort might be preferable in this case. Real ones are awfully noisy.
- neverminder 13y agoI can relate to the puzzle analogy. Take my profession - IT engineering as an example. When you are just starting out, you know nothing and you're completely overwhelmed - you feel like you're sitting in front of a shuffled million piece puzzle. The only thing you can do is slowly start piecing the puzzle together bit by bit. Eventually (after a long time) you have enough pieces in place to start seeing "the big picture".
- weego 13y agoDavid Brailsford (Performance Director of the GB cycling team) implemented a very similar strategy. The general gist is that anyone who already excels at something is unlikely to manage to improve on that thing by any measurable amount by just focusing on being better at it. If instead you break down everything that intersects with it and improve those by 1% then you get an 'aggregation of marginal gains'. This can be things directly related, or something really as simple as, I believe I remember hearing, making sure that the athletes own pillows are packed for them when staying at hotels for events rather than relying on people getting used to the bedding provided.