Things read - Week 39

For last week, I am just going to focus on this one video by Daniel Pink where he mentions 40 things that he wished he knew in his 20s. For daily readers of this blog (presumably 0) it might not come as a surprise that I am obsessed with advices. Mentioning and reiterating some of them that resonated with me at this point in time.

Shortcuts are scams

In my early days, I always went looking for the most efficient ways to get something done, but in disguise, they were all essentially 'shortcuts.' I should have known back then that shortcuts are scams because they don't scale as well as taking the long road. Initially, it might not seem like that we are using our time effectively by taking the long road, but it's the only way to get something you want over and over again. e.g. this blog, I could have automated posts like these to generate a summary of things that I read, and I would have skimmed through it. But would these learnings stick by me as well as they do when I type it word by word? I don't think so.

You're not the main character

You're not the main character in other people's lives. I resonated with this because it's just a nice reminder to get over yourself. Nobody thinks about you as much as you think they do. And this reminder is freeing. This reminder also helps us in becoming more empathetic. Nobody out there is purposely trying to hurt your feelings. We all are struggling in our own ways, and if you're curious, you can be aware of other people’s struggles too. Pink in his video mentions "Spotlight effect" where we think people are watching us and evaluating us, but that's not the truth. That spotlight is shining only in your head. Everyone is just focused on themselves.

Body of work > resume

What have you done? What have you built? What have you created? It's these answers that have higher chances of getting you to the next opportunity instead of the resume. For us, the web designers, it's the portfolio. Something that people can see. So focus on showing off the body of work more effectively than crafting a perfect resume.

Cynicism isn't intelligence

Two years ago, I looked up highly to people who were always cynical about things. I assumed that they knew things that we didn't. But now I know that they were just trying to sound smart with their cynicism. The true measure of intelligence is how open they are to new ideas. And in the words of John Maynard Keynes: 

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

Overtime, you regret what you didn't do

Pink spent years studying the painful emotion of regret. He found that people regret inactions longer and more deeply than actions. The inactions haunt us. So, the remedy? Take the chance and let yourself regret the actions instead of inactions, and in comparison, you'll probably regret less. 

Hofstadter's law

It always takes longer than you expect. Even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. However, I do remember reading somewhere that if you wanted to increase the precision of your estimates, go as granular as you can in your planning. Consider the smallest possible unit required and then build from there.

Mean reversion

In the long run, things get smoothed out. It's a well-studied phenomenon in statistics, applied widely in investing but also in life. If you're getting phenomenal returns, pretty soon it will be averaged out or vice versa. Same in life, if things are going exceptionally well, it will come back to average. If life sucks currently, it will soon average out. The key is to persist and prepare while expecting these.

And at last, in the end, it's on you.