Category: Expectations
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Professionalism and pressure
The person who holds the world record for basketball free throws shot over 2,000 consecutive baskets in a row. But if you put them in a stadium and a tight score between the teams, they might not have been able to shoot two. The main difference between playing basketball in a rec league and playing…
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The time will pass anyway
There’s something meaningful that you want to do. The only problem is it’s going to take a long time to do it. Maybe it’s schooling of some sort, or chipping away at a big project. Yes, it’s going to take a time horizon of years, maybe even decades. The time will pass anyway, though. Or…
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Surrender, control, and anxiety
What do you think you’re in control of? What’s not in your control? Where do you decide to draw the line? “You are afraid of surrender because you don’t want to lose control,” Elizabeth Gilbert writes (via Oliver Burkeman). “But you never had control; all you had was anxiety.” When you can clearly accept what’s…
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Convenience, growth, commitment, and sacredness
When a theater shows a movie, it’s not convenient. You need to buy a relatively expensive ticket. You need to arrive on time. You can’t pause it. There will be a day the theater stops showing it. Movie theaters are not growing—they are in decline. Movie theaters make you do something that a streaming service…
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Limitations of causal reasoning
A few days ago, I wrote about causal and effectual reasoning. You’ll be familiar with these two paths—but having words to describe them really helps. “When you think with causal reasoning, you focus on what you want to do—the desired end goal, or the destination—and then work backwards from that,” I wrote. “Business leaders, managers,…