Category: Expectations
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Assume sincerity
“It was so great to see you!” your colleague says. Does your colleague say that to everyone to be polite, or did they actually mean it? “I love your shirt!” a waiter tells you. They just served you the bill. Are they flattering you in the hopes of earning a higher tip? You describe a…
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Dead ends and gateways
The reward for good projects are more projects. Some people are willing to pay you for projects that you may not enjoy doing. There are two types of projects: Dead ends are projects that you don’t enjoy, and don’t lead you to an outcome you want. You can figure this out by looking at people…
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Tolerance for difficult emotions
A paper from decades ago studied both elite and non-elite swimmers. The findings suggest that while both types of swimmers experience intense anxiety, elite swimmers interpreted the emotion as a part of the process—their bodies were getting ready to perform well—whereas more non-elite swimmers felt that the anxiety was debilitating. This tendency could probably apply…
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Three quotes that have caught my eye
“The pressure to perform is baked into our larger society. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments.” — Jennifer Breheny Wallace via Karen Rosenkranz “If you’re a social perfectionist, you’ll have unusually high expectations of yourself. Your self-esteem will be dangerously dependent on maintaining…
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Book to behavior
It’s easy to find a good book to read. Actually reading the book is a little more difficult. It’s still doable though. The real impact starts by learning from the book and making changes to how you behave. This is where you truly start seeing results. You take notes. You make plans and ideate next…