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Nirvana fallacy
That’s the name of a documented tendency to negatively compare actual, real, solutions and situations with unrealized, idealized, ones. A person can use this fallacy to compare an imaginary, perfect, plan with a realistic alternative. It’s a fallacy because the imaginary plan is imaginary, and will inevitably be plagued by the constraints of reality. The…
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It’s not supposed to go according to plan
Planning is always a good idea. The adage goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” There’s another saying, attributed to Peter Thiel, “A bad plan is better than no plan.” Things get weird when our plans create a byproduct: expectations. It’s like we forget that our plans are just guesses; it can…
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Playoff mode
In amateur and professional sports, the year is typically structured into a series of games known as a regular season. Not to be confused with a season in nature, a sports season can last the majority of the year. For example, in the NBA, each team plays 82 games from October to April in a…
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Pronoia
Pronoia is the opposite of paranoia. In ambiguous situations, you’re probably better off biasing your thoughts in favor of positive outcomes. When you believe that the world is conspiring in your favor, you start behaving in ways that contribute to a positive outcome. Your attitude is more positive and expansive; you’re open-minded, mindful, and relaxed.…
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The action imperative
A bias for action can be a powerful way to drive change. It can also be an excuse to stay busy; to cave into impatience, and to avoid the difficult work of gathering information, learning, and thinking. In The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins calls this the action imperative, describing it as, “You feel as…
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It is what it is
For the first time in many years, I started watching the NBA playoffs. I just found out about Cam’ron’s show, It Is What It Is. The latest episode is here: Everything I know about Cam I pretty much know through the big Dipset songs and Eddie Huang’s references (like Cam’s parody rhymebook). There’s a lot…
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Holding back the good stuff
If you’re an artist, you will need to balance between delivering good work that matches your vision, and delivering the work at the level you’re capable of delivering. For example, sometimes there’s just not enough time, energy, and resources to do good work. Other times, timing isn’t right—the world isn’t ready to receive a certain…
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“Problems” create meaning
I recently revisited this blog post I wrote almost a year ago. Here’s the passage that inspired the headline, from Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks (p. 180–181): Behind our urge to race through every obstacle or challenge, in an effort to get it “dealt with,” there’s usually the unspoken fantasy that you might one day…
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The best
Optimus means “the best” in Greek. It’s the root word of common ones in our culture, like, “optimize,” and, “optimism.” Optimize: The “-ize” in “optimize” means “to make,” so the whole word means “to make the best.” Optimism: The “-ism” in “optimism” means “taking side with,” or “imitation of,” so the whole word means “to…
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You see the world as you are
There’s a quote attributed to Anaïs Nin and Stephen Covey, “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” While the quote’s origin is unclear, its resonance is clear. In The Art of Possibility (pp. 10-11), Roz and Ben Zander quote three neuroscientists who share a similar perspective: The British neuropsychologist Richard…