Archive for May, 2008

Incrementalism

5 comments Written on May 26th, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity
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The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
- Lao Tzu 

 

journey

Here's my definition of incrementalism: One step at a time. One problem at a time. Working and producing in small batches. Here's another definition and some examples (from Wikipedia):

Incrementalism is a method of working by adding to a project using many small (often unplanned) changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps. Wikipedia, for example, illustrates the concept by building an encyclopedia bit by bit, continually adding to it. In a similar vein, it is said that Virgil wrote the Aeneid in an incremental process, averaging one line per day.

 

To me, incrementalism is the opposite of gold plating: adding an excessive amount of features or attributes to a given endeavor because they are possible, or cool. In a direct way, incrementalism is the negation of my post on perfection and why it's a productivity killer.

One thing that has always amazed me about software development is that once you have a small core set of functionality, you can incrementally add new features here and there over time. Before you know it you have an amazing feature set and the software often starts to take on a life of its own.

Same goes for blogs: You put in some time setting it up, writing some pillar content to get it going, try to market it, etc. After a while, you are mostly just adding a post here and there. Before you know it, it takes on a life of its own and you have a huge amount of material, and hopefully readers!

Here's an example I have often reflected on: I notice that Google often releases very simple software, or at least software that could easily have many more features than it initially has. But instead of releasing a gazzillion features all at once, they get the simple stuff right and add to it over time, with equally small upgrades. Sometimes the pace is almost frustrating, but the software is always good.

So what fundamental assumption are we questioning here? How about these:

  • Go big or go home.
  • If you are going to do something, go big.
  • Start with a splash.
  • It's all or nothing.
  • You have to have "critical mass".

How about this instead: you can start very simple, and incrementally build on it. Time is on your side, have patience. I would say, wanting everything up front in and of itself is enough to dissuade you from starting anything. Something is better than nothing!

Photo Credit: Shyald

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Anti-Anti-Hacks

No Comments » Written on May 23rd, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity
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There are hacks, and there are anti-hacks. Both have their merit. I think this blog has been a mixture of both almost since the beginning. I like certain things about Getting Things Done ("GTD"), and yet I detest productivity for productivity's sake. After all, it was the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss that actually inspired me to start writing on "lifestyle" in the first place - a book dead set against work for work's sake.

A Theme Evolves

As I have evolved, or perhaps more honestly, stumbled along in writing my posts, I keep coming back in my mind to the double edged sword that the Life Sutra or "rules of life" represent. On the one side, the "rules of life" represent unquestioned assumptions dictated by conventional wisdom. These rules often limit our potential without us even knowing it. At the same time, those brave enough to question these assumptions about how life works often uncover hints towards new rules of life - the positive side of the Life Sutra - that offer new possibilities and perhaps even revolutionary change.

Consider my most popular post to date - an update on a high intensity training program I used at the gym as the basis for a new fitness regimen. When you think about it, the whole concept of high intensity training is a questioning of accepted conventional wisdom which has always dictated that you have to train long and hard to achieve significant muscular growth or maintain peak fitness. High intensity training suggests you can achieve better results through significantly less training! So that series of posts is really all about questioning the existing "rules", and seeing what is possible once you step out of the self imposed barriers they often create. And this was a post about going to the gym! 

The theme repeats itself... what if what we experience is not really "real" outside of our thoughts? What if perfect isn't really the best? What if you didn't go to your office when you needed to be at work? What if you didn't keep true to your dreams?

Being In The Question

Let's consider another example, something I have not really written about directly. Proponents of Getting Things Done will argue persuasively about the productivity gains such a system provides with simple concepts like capture easing the mental bookkeeping often required in our hectic lives. The budding anti-hack movement observes lives built around a productivity system and a myriad of to-do lists - maybe having a system is necessary, but the productivity system should not become an end to itself. Both sides make compelling cases. However, maybe the real question is what exactly are you trying to get done? Should you even be doing this? Those are the questions that I find the most powerful. Yes, it is good to argue the merits of this or make fun of that, but sometimes it is better to question the axiom itself.

So that is what I think the Life Sutra is all about: questioning so-called "rules of life" and seeing where that takes us. Sometimes you don't even have to answer the question to discover new possibilities. In fact, once you start questioning these tacit assumptions, maybe you should avoid coming to any kind of "answer". If you think about it, an answer hints at some kind of finality. Answers inhibit the possibility of new options by stopping the question.

A New Focus

Soon you will see a few changes here at the Life Sutra - things like a new tag line and some consistent themes between posts. I think I have finally articulated a way I want to look at lifestyle design, productivity, personal development, life hacking and anti-hacking - by considering some of the fundamental assumptions upon which popular productivity, lifestyle and hacking techniques are based. At the same time, I want to keep it practical. Yes, perhaps the ultimate solution is to sell everything, meditate (or chant - I think chanting in the monastic movement is underrated with all the hype over meditation - is it just me???) and hope for enlightenment. I tried that once, but I momentarily left the state of Nirvana to get a beverage and upon returning had insufficient funds for the cover charge.

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Only In Your Mind

No Comments » Written on May 21st, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Personal Development
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zenstoneIgnorance sees phenomena - which actually do not exist in and of themselves - as existing independent of thought.
- The Dalai Lama

 

I have always been interested in how the human mind operates. Like a car, if we better understand how it functions, we might be able to make better use of this amazing asset. For example, I started at one point to look into the cognitive processes involved in task switching (which I need to complete!). Buddhism - more of a philosophy than a religion in my own, perhaps naive, opinion - provides an interesting psychological model, because Buddhism is keenly interested in the same question: how does the mind work.

I am not trying to be Mr. Zen

First of all, a disclaimer: I am not an expert on Buddhist thought. I am not a Buddhist. I have simply been reading the Dalai Lama's How to See Yourself and began reflecting on one tenet of Buddhism which roughly stipulates that nothing really exists independent of thought. Since I am not versed in Buddhist psychology, I wanted to share my own reflections on this notion of existence. Here goes!

Wheels

Let's consider the wheel. When we look at a car or a bicycle, or the lawnmower, we see wheels. They exist, and they exist as wheels. Wheels are "real" to us, and if you said wheels only exist in our minds, we might think you are a little crazy. However, let's consider a time when wheels did not exist. As real as wheels are to us, I think we all accept that at wheels were invented, or at least "discovered". We can easily fathom a time when there was, in fact, no wheels. We can imagine a time before someone realized round things might help move other things using less effort.

If we go back to a time before someone invented wheels, we can imagine someone coming across a perfectly round "wheel" shaped rock. Looking at such a thing, we could probably not help but to see a wheel, or at least see the potential for a wheel. A person from such a time would see no such thing. They would see a rock. Yes, it's roundness might strike them in some way, but they would not see a wheel (or a potential wheel) like we would because the distinction between wheel and non-wheel does not yet exist. Put another way, if you transported someone from such a time to today and showed them a wheel from your car in isolation (i.e. removed from your car so that no notion of obvious function could be observed), they may surely see something interesting (I doubt rubber tires and aluminum rims existed before the wheel was invented), but they would not see a wheel. The wheel that you see does not exist for them. It is not real.

Distinctions

So either you are right, or they are right - does the wheel exist or not? This logical conundrum is rectified if we see that the wheel is a distinction, and that this distinction only exists in the mind. In fact, you could say that the act of invention or discovery is really the human mind creating and communicating a new distinction or organization of the stuff that surrounds us. Taken further, you could imagine that a person that lived before the concept of "roundness" was dreamed up, would not even be struck by the discovery of a perfectly wheel shaped rock because "roundness" is also a distinction. Before someone made this distinction, roundness did not really exist. We can take this even further. You can imagine a person that lived before the concept of "rock" vs. "non-rock" was created, etc. etc.

If at one time wheels, and roundness, and even rocks did not exist, we are lead to the idea that maybe these things truly do only exist in our minds.

Credits: Zen photo by Roberto Zingales.

Consider subscribing to the Life Sutra feed. The Life Sutra can then exist in your feed reader as well as in your mind!

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"Yes, And" Instead Of "No, But"

1 Comment » Written on May 15th, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Inspiration
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This is the third installment of the Life Sutra Motivational Speech Series. Like the second installment, Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, this speech is also from a university commencement ceremony. However, the celebrity speaker is very different than Steve Jobs - this time around, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report dishes out a lot of hilarity, and a little bit of sound advice. He discusses the importance of the "yes, and" principle of improvisational comedy (otherwise known as "not rejecting an offer"), and applies it to the greatest improvisation of all - our lives:

Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back.
- Stephen Colbert

 

Enjoy the speech! I laughed my head off, I hope you will enjoy it too:

 

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links for 2008-05-01

No Comments » Written on May 1st, 2008 by brick
Categories: Articles, Web & Tech
  • YoureAPoorLoser.com
    Finally, a program geared to us dumb guys teaching us how to make millions online! I want to become a money magnet. I want my own abundance video!
    (tags: marketing)

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The Top 5 Posts That Subtly Mock This Blog And A Zen System For The Artful Ridicule Of The Life Sutra

2 comments Written on May 1st, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity, Web & Tech
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jumpingThe honest and sincere ones invite ridicule,
While the false and scheming ones enjoy praise.

- Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

 

Instead of writing something original, I thought I would simply rehash some existing content on the Internet. I just read a hilarious post over at one of my all time favourite blogs The Growing Life and it occurred to me that I could use one of my beloved, top secret techniques (mysteriously named "Ctrl+C") to quickly add content to my own blog!

So without further ado, the top posts containing hacks for writing  productivity articles that in reality subtly deride the Life Sutra (and really any "productivity" blog):

  1. 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It
  2. Go to The Growing Life home page and scroll down until you see the post "70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It"
  3. Google "70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It"
  4. Try this article on Digg.
  5. If it's worth saying once, it is worth saying again: 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It

Another List

Why create my own list, when I can use someone else's? Let's see how the Life Sutra measures up against these Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks (Hint: for what follows, you really have to read Clay's article first if you have not already done so - I know, I probably have not provided enough links):

1. Call Your Article a Guide or System: I am not sure I have actually called my articles "guides" or "systems". I am such a novice! However, something like GMail From The Desktop could easily have been titled "The Simple Zen Hack Guide For Accessing Gmail From The Desktop". I just wasn't thinking.

2. Make a Numbered List: I love numbered lists! For examples, you can click on almost any of my posts. I sensed early on that the "list of tips" format was a winner.

3. Include a Number in the Title: Yes, I also figured that one out on my own. Maybe I'm not such a newbie to the productivity blog genre after all!

4. Make the List Long: No, I have not done this (because I am lazy) which means that my blog was not the sole inspiration for 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It.

5. Write a Really Good Productivity Article: Of course, this is exactly what I am always doing.

6. Make Sure you “Hack-ify” Your Tips: Yeah, I throw the "hack" word around a lot, but not nearly enough. After I hack some coffee and hack a daily creative period, I might be better able to hack a list of article ideas that can be hackified. Hack, hack, hack, hack, hack...Hold on! I'm too sexy for hacks.

7. Don’t Use Transitions: I don't even know what they are, so I definitely don't use them.

8. Use as Many Buzzwords as Possible in the Title: Lesson learned - see number (1).

9. Write About a Buzz Topic like how to wake up early, and how you’ve implemented GTD: I've done both. 

10. Ignore the Principals of Psychology: Out of sheer laziness, my lists are rather short (see 4).

11. Don’t Cite Any Research: I never do.

12. It’s OK to Write about the Same Topic Over and Over Again: Like waking up early and GTD?

13-25. Its OK To Add Fluff To Your List Just To Take Up Space: I don't do enough of this, but point taken.

26. Tell People to Write Down Their Goals: That's a great idea for a post! thanks!!!

27. State the obvious: Fish are not people.

28. Write More Things on Your list: Yes I get it, you really have a thing for long lists.

“While the laughter of joy is in full harmony with our deeper life, the laughter of amusement should be kept apart from it. The danger is too great of thus learning to look at solemn things in a spirit of mockery, and to seek in them opportunities for exercising wit.”

- Lewis Carroll

Credits

Thanks Cat Louise for the jumping photo!

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