Backpacking the John Muir Tail is a reminder that every journey with great length starts with one step. And then another. And then another. Until one day there are no more steps to take. Learning a new language or finishing med school or using AI for the first time can feel like a similar journey. Doing it all at once can feel so overwhelming. But taking it one step at a time, pretty soon you can find a rhythm.
Systems tend to have a bias to where they will point to. Usually it is towards stock prices or efficiency. Rarely, do they point towards better. To make things better, you must go against the grain of what is normal or easy to do.
Hollywood screenwriter, William Goldman, said this. I think about this a lot in the age of uncertainty. But the age of uncertainty didn’t start with AI or COVID. Humans have always been concerned about their future. And have always had to live with uncertainty. This isn’t new. When talks of jobs going away, in the age of uncertainty about jobs (to be more specific) we could also embrace the technology. I’ve found that the people excited by AI haven’t had the magic moment yet. When they make something they couldn’t have possibly done just six months ago. It’s indeed scary if you are running from the tech that is going to fundamentally change the world. It’s still scary when we run towards it too but far less so when you have more clarity what it’s capable of today.
Being at the right place, at the right time, with the right tools, with the right pieces in place is nothing without the right attitude.
- Try deleting social media from your phone. Not your account. Just the app itself. Temporarily deactivate your accounts and sign off. See what happens in just two weeks.
- Next, you need to fill your time with something. Pay $25 per month (or if you are really bold, pay $125) and start coding. Make the page you have always dreamed of. It doesn’t have to be good; it just needs to be yours.
- See what happens when you commit to 8 hours of sleep.
There is always a cost to quitting something. But also, there is a benefit too.
Jhey Tompkins spent a decade showing how to turn code into magic. Over time earning more trust and attention. And now people notice. A lot of people notice. It goes to show: when you feed the community, the community turns around and feeds you.
We can spend a lot of time fighting for the last little bit. Nasty divorces can fight for every inch. We see it in wars too. The question we should be asking is if this is with even fighting for? Does the last 10% matter? What about the last 2%? It turns out we are so much happier when we focus on what we gained not what we maximize.
Some of us start ahead. Others way behind. But gravity pulls us to average. That’s where most of us live. It can be difficult to accept that in most ways we are average. But what’s remarkable is the little slices of us that are exceptional. That makes you you.
This is often an acceptable thing to say when feeling criticized for our actions.
But doing our best isn’t same as someone saying, “I’ve done everything I can.”
Life is hard. And I am not dismissing our efforts. It’s also a place to comfortably hide and to let us off the hook for responsibility. After all, two things can be true at the same time.
There’s always something else to be done. We make choices. And with those choices come trade offs too.
There’s a fine line between the two. We often confuse what it is we are trying to accomplish.
In these emotionally charged conversations it can be easy to think an apology will fix what’s wrong. But when the thing that hurts is rooted deeper, it is often so messy it can’t be fixed. The person is really searching for a way to accept the circumstances they are in.
This is difficult to do because the relationships that this affects the most, one party may not see it.
Reconciliation is the better path. But it isn’t always an option. And that’s where we get stuck.
Not everyone wants the same thing or can even put the words to it.
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