Pushing yourself

I was watching a bit of the tour de France the other day and this young Frenchman was way out in the lead, like really far in front. But there was a group behind him and they were gaining. Being in front, the guy would have been able to think to himself “I am going my hardest” while the riders in the group would have been thinking “I need to push way harder to keep up with the group” this difference in attitude was causing the gap to shorten.

I have noticed this a lot, when training alone you can push yourself but it’s nothing compared to how much a second person can push you.

Like a few years ago I ran a half marathon. It was very packed and you couldn’t move 5 meters without catching up to someone else (It was like that the whole way). But because there was always someone that could be overtaken the urge to overtake was always around, and I ended up running the whole thing really easily.

Sometimes to make yourself achieve more you need an external influence, and other people are a good source of encouragement.

———

If you watch some of Usain Bolts runs the guys that come second and third often break their personal bests because they are trying to keep up with him

2012
07/10
CATEGORY
Fitness
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Don’t Stop Learning

They reckon the day you stop learning is the day you die.

I love that saying however I believe there is more to it. Most people experience a period of rapid learning during their youth but then they plateau. They become set in their own ways and close themselves off to learning more.

I think this happens when we start working in our long-term career path. Yes the younger mind is always going to be more open to new ideas (A trait that I fear losing) but once we start getting paid for your skills the mindset of “I am good enough” kicks in.

This is a promise that I want to make to myself: NEVER let my learning plateau. Always find new ideas and perspectives. Do Not let a day go by without making a conscious effort into expanding myself (Be it my mind, body, soul, horizon, whatever).

Don’t let the lazy mindset takeover

2012
07/09
CATEGORY
Future
goals
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Little things throwing you off

It sometimes seems like the world is out to stop you from achieving. You can be working with something, enjoying it and making good progress, then suddenly something so insignificant throws you off.

This happened recently with one of my programming tutorials, as usual you learn more if you follow along with these things but my computer wasn’t playing the game. It turns out because I was using windows virtually one step would completely fail, because of this I have felt discouraged and really lost the momentum I had.

The only method I know that can combat this is to keep pushing through. Hopefully my passion for it comes back sooner rather than later.

2012
07/08
CATEGORY
goals
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Moving to Hawaii

I doubt that I will be moving to Hawaii but there was this idea for a new tech company startup I read not to long ago. It centred around the company headquarters being in Hawaii, the employees would go for a surf every morning, enjoy the sun, then work on their project in a stress free environment.

I wonder if this could be applied to a self imposed “University”. Imagine moving to a country with an good exchange rate, and using your savings (Of which you wouldn’t need much) to live. You could enjoy the relaxed environment and read and learn without having to concentrate on working to survive.

In a country where $5,000 will last you a year you could easily take the time off to write that book you have been planning.

Or I guess if you wanted to get away from the rat-race you could just live there permanently.

2012
07/07
CATEGORY
Travel
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Alcohol

Alcohol is hated on so much in today’s society and rightly so, the drug does some terrible things to your body/mind and can ruin people very easily. However even with all the negatives there are some positives that exist.

Humans have the tendency to over think stuff, our brains are programmed to be scared of the big dangerous world that existed when we were hunters and gatherers. Back then every little decision had reverberating consequences, for example getting a small cut would lead to an infection then death. These days everything is pretty safe, that same cut that would lead to death now only needs a band-aid put on it. But our brains still think the world is dangerous.

Physical risks can end badly, but the majority of the time nothing comes from them. Climbing up a crane could lead to falling and death, but if you are careful it is unlikely, and you would get an amazing view.

Social risks are another thing humans are terrified of, males in particular can become paralysed in fear from the consequences of looking like an idiot. Our ego is so precious, but there are NEVER any negative repercussions from social risks EVER.

Now imagine a drug that has been with us since the beginning of time, that allows us to stop over-thinking the consequences of these risks. Risks that in today’s society often amount to nothing and create important learning experiences. There are too many young males who have underdeveloped social skills that could be changed if they got slightly intoxicated then socialised.

But hangovers suck.

********

Mixing stupidity and alcohol is never a good idea though.

2012
07/06
CATEGORY
goals
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Passion and Practice

To become professionally skilled at something they reckon you need to work up 10,000 hours practising the activity. For most people dedicating that much time to anything seems daunting but I think the key to clocking up that much experience lies in being passionate about it (Duh).

If you are working at/practising something, and have a deep love for the activity, then the activity doesn’t seem like work. Hours literally pass while you are having a good time, so someone who enjoys carpentry and can spend 8 hours a day in their workshop without thinking about it will easily reach the 10,000 hour benchmark. However someone who unhappily works at something, rarely spending half an hour a day, will never develop to the same level. The unfortunate thing about this is that once a certain level of skill is reached then enjoyment comes simply by being good at the activity.

Once an expert level of skill has been achieved the return on the hours dedicated starts to plateau, it requires many hours a day practice to maintain proficiency.

If at any stage the passion disappears, the willingness to simply maintain proficiency drops and there will be a decline in skill. The negative feedback loop occurs here and because of the loss of skill there will be lower levels of enjoyment. Meaning that further decline in skill is imminent.

This is why passion is so important for anything, passion makes developing a skill easy, but also means maintaining the high level of skill is possible.

Always Follow Your Passion, it will guide you to the best place to be.. the top percentile.

2012
07/04
CATEGORY
goals
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Google is the omnipotent being of our society

In the past if you had a question that needed answering, or a problem that needed solving, you would turn to the smartest person you could find and ask them. This smart person had a unique form of power, a power that would stem from being the ‘go to’ person. This person (or entity) had the ability to shape the community with the responses and answers they gave.

Some example are: Religion, schools and universities.. BUT the entity that that has been given the most of this incredible power is Google.com.

Any question imaginable can be typed into their search and answers are given immediately; this is amazing for people searching for knowledge because everything has been placed at their fingertips (if you are like me, learning for yourself is so much sweeter than being shown how to do something).

However one must be aware of the entity abusing the power given to them. Google returns results based on their idea of relevance, and often this is based off generalisations. This gives answers that don’t challenge the status quo. So all new knowledge you gained from googling is not going to be world changing.

This is why sometimes calling up your old expert is the better option than simply googling for an answer. Seeking unconventional viewpoints often inspires innovation and unfortunately google results will never do this..

But even with this shortcoming it is amazing what can be achieved when the worlds knowledge is easily accessed.

2012
07/03
CATEGORY
Future
philosophy
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A Product of Your Environment

Everything around you affects the way you think and behave. Live in a house that encourages productivity and you will forever be a productive person, work within a culture that promotes laziness and you will become incompetent. A person surrounded by greats will be great themselves, however being in a bad environment is truly disabling.

BUT there is a trump card. That is that humans, unlike any other animal in the world, have the ability to change their environment.

If you are living in a house with lazy room-mates who drink lots and don’t understand the importance of health and fitness you can always do certain things to “change your environment”, promoting being healthy to yourself. One example could be hanging your running clothes up before you go to bed so when you wake you are dressed to go for a run.

If you are stuck and nothing encourages you to achieve your goals you need to first address the environment.

Changing the environment will change you.

Because you are a product of your environment, but your environment doesn’t exist separately from you (It is subject to your will).

2012
07/02
CATEGORY
goals
philosophy
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Commuting

So I spent the greater part of today driving home, after 3 years of studying in city six hours away from my family it was time to come home. Six hours in a car is always really boring and it makes me appreciate the importance of avoiding commuting. I can’t imagine myself driving an hour a day to get to work, and my preference will always be to live closer to work, or work at a different place.

Having a house that is really far away from where you “live” (Where you spend most of your time) is an inconvenient home.

The bit that annoys me is that the time spent commuting is wasted. If you dedicate an hour a day, every day for a year to any activity you will become pretty proficient at it; if this theoretical activity is a marketable skill (Say Poker) the opportunity cost of commuting is huge. There is so much money that future you could be making off the skill you developed rather than sitting in a car.

The only way I can imagine that utilises time spent in the car is to listen to educational podcasts or audio-books. But even that can be done while eating breakfast, so the benefit is negligible.

I guess my adverse taste to commuting is why I am finding it so hard to get a job (I am so damn picky), especially considering that most of the graduate jobs in my industry are concentrated in the capital cities. Irregardless this is not an area that I am willing to compromise in (My ideal is a job walking distance from home).

Commuting really is just detrimental to living.

2012
07/01
CATEGORY
Travel
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Neutral

no hope and no fear for expectations are the root of all misery

Sebastian Marshall quoted a Buddhist quote in his take on strategy and I also really like this quote. I have roughly followed this concept and the idea is regarding any possible future outcome that is out of your control, you should have no preference to which way the dice rolls.

Obviously this is different in situations where you actively try to achieve something (Because you really want it to happen) and because you tried you made it more likely to occur. But when something is no longer in your hands, such as whether a pretty girl likes you or not, or whether you win the lottery or not, the stance you should take is not being affected either way, you should not be sad nor happy as a result of either outcome.

This I guess stems from the Buddhist noble truth (Not that I know much about Buddhism) about the origin of suffering, which relates to avoiding material desires (To make it more confusing, the desire to have nothing is still a desire).

But the reason to do all this is exactly as the Buddhists say, to eliminate desire is to eliminate suffering.

2012
06/30
CATEGORY
philosophy
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