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by Roberto Zoia

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James Clear: 1% Better Every Day

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James Clear has published his keynote speech at ConvertKit’s Craft + Commerce Conference (link).

After introducing the concept of “Aggregation of marginal gains”, he explains why we should aim for a 1% improvement in everything that we do. Habits consist in repeating certain actions until they become second nature and effortless to us. In this sense, habits can be considered the compound interest of self-improvement. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

Habits are important because “the actions that you take provide evidence for who you are”. Your identity emerges out of the habits that you have. That’s why, for example, your goal should not be to read a book but to become a reader.

Different authors use different models to explain how we acquire habits. For Clear, there are four stages in habit formation:

Noticing

Many people think they fail because lack of motivation when what they lack is clarity. Making your implementation intentions explicit increases your chances of success. In other words, be explicit about when, where, and how you are going to exercise your habit.

An interesting tactic is what Clear calls the Failure Pre-mortem. Imagine 6 months forward from now and tell yourself the story of how you failed at acquiring the habit. The exercise will help you notice neglected areas in your implementation intentions.

Wanting

It’s hard to stick to a habit by relying only on willpower. We underestimate how much we are influenced by our environment. We can choose to be victims of our environment, or architects of it. It’s hard to stick to a habit in a negative environment, or relying only on willpower. Most of our desires are shaped in a particular way only because we have our environment shapes us in that way.

Doing

Learning how to start is incredibly important. Make it as easy as possible. Optimize for the beginning of the tasking make your habits work as a platform to the finish line.

Get to quality through quantity. Specially at the beginning, focus on repetition.

Liking

We repeat a behavior because we enjoy it. We enjoy the reward of the action. Figure out how to bring the reward to the present.

Work That Lasts

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From Ryan Holiday’s Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts:

People claim to want to do something that matters, yet they measure themselves against things that don’t, and track their progress not in years but in microseconds. They want to make something timeless, but they focus instead on immediate payoffs and instant gratification. (…)

We focus on all the wrong metrics for measuring our success and, in the process, actually diminish our chances for longevity. Making a beloved classic that lasts for a hundred years may seem like a tall order. Fine, put that aside. What if we start by just trying to make something that lasts longer than average? (…)

We’re all selling ideas. Whatever the form, the process is the same. And if we get really good at it and we think about it the right way, our idea can sell forever, an infinite number of times. That’s the dream. To matter, to reach, to last. So let’s go get it.

Book Reading Goal for 2017 (Update)

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One of my goals for 2017 has been to read two non-fiction books and one novel per month. Inspired by Shane Parrish’s suggestion, my plan has been to read 25 pages a day.

As of August 2017, I’ve read 12 non-fiction books and 17 novels. With some exceptions, I’ve managed to read 25 pages most days. I only wrote three book reviews (I’m not happy with this), and a summary for Kevin Kelly’s outstanding book The Inevitable, which you can download here for free or buy on Amazon.

Finally, a comment from Ryan Holiday from his recent AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit on the importance of reading:

To me, reading is both intrinsically pleasurable–it’s beautiful like music–but it also has a big ROI. I think most cases about reading use the former argument and not the latter. Not everyone loves the smell of books you know? Not everyone fancies are beautiful turn of phrase. So why try to change their mind along those lines?
(…) There is a quote from Bismarck: “Any fool can learn by experience. I prefer to learn by the experience of others.” Well, for 5,000 years we’ve been recording knowledge in the form of books and poems. That’s a lot of smart (and dumb) people talk about their experiences. Why wouldn’t you want to avail yourself of that? Why wouldn’t you want to save yourself a lot of painful trial and error? One book–that cost $15–could make you millions of dollars. Or help you meet the love of your life. Or give you an idea that changes the world. Or solve your anxiety or your resentment towards your parents.
But that can only happen if you pick one up and fucking read it.

Non-fiction (12 books)

The Inevitable. Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape our Future, by Kevin Kelly (Review)
The Unofficial Author’s Guide To Selling Your Book On Amazon: The Top 5 Cheat Sheet for Self Publishing Authors, by Richard McCartney
Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb
The Habit Guide. Zen Habit’s Effective Habit Methods + Solutions, by Leo Babauta
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck
The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg (Review)
Grit. The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
Deep Work, by Cal Newport (Review)
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, by Peter Thiel
Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown
Give or Take, by Adam Grant
Hack Upwork: How to Make Real Money as a Freelancer, by Danny Flood

Novels. Fantasy, Science Fiction, etc. (17 books)

Nexus, by Ramez Naam
Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch
Fire Thief Reborn, by Seth Mullins
Ruins (Pathfinder Book 2), by Orson Scott Card
Visitors (Pathfinder Book 3), by Orson Scott Card
Snapshot, by Brandon Sanderson
Change Agent, by Daniel Suárez
Changes (The Dresden Files, Book 12), by Jim Butcher
Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, Book 13), by Jim Butcher
Skin Game (The Dresden Files, Book 15), by Jim Butcher
Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera Book 1), by Jim Butcher
Academ’s Fury (Codex Alera Book 2), by Jim Butcher
Cursor’s Fury (Codex Alera Book 3), by Jim Butcher
Captain’s Fury (Codex Alera Book 4), by Jim Butcher
Princeps’ Fury (Codex Alera Book 5), by Jim Butcher
First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera Book 6), by Jim Butcher
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., by Neal Stephenson

Photo credits: Pavan Trikutam

What You Don’t Know Will Help You at Problem-Solving

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What’s your approach to problem solving? There are several frameworks available which you could use to give a better structure to your problem-solving process, but that’s not what I’m referring to.

Some weeks ago, speaking with a colleague about a specific problem, her approach to solving the problem we had at hand surprised me. Unconsciously, she limited herself to solutions she could implement all by herself. Which were, of course, limited.

Some people limit their solutions to what they think they can achieve with what they already know. The solutions you can come to with this fixed mindset are most of the time unsatisfactory. You don’t realize that you can grow. You don’t consider asking for help, or hiring the appropriate person or consultant for the job.

Other people start with the end in mind. What needs to be done to solve this problem? What’s the best solution? How can we tap into whatever knowledge is necessary? They don’t see the lack of a particular skill as limiting, because they know they can either learn new skills or hire someone more capable to do the relevant parts of the job.

In her excellent book Mindset, Carol Dweck calls these two different mindsets fixed mindset and growth mindset.

What’s your approach to problem solving?

Photo by [Sanwal Deen](Photo by Sanwal Deen on Unsplash) on Unsplash

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport

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Deep Work, by Cal Newport

Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, who specializes in the theory of distributed algorithms. According to Newport, the unprecedent growth and impact of technology are creating a massive restructuring of our economy. Deep Work is a book about thriving in this new economy, where jobs that can be automated will be replaced by software or outsourced. “In this new economy three groups will have a particular advantage: those who can work well and creatively with intelligent machines, those who are the best at what they do, and those with access to capital.”

How does one join one of these groups? Leaving those with access to capital aside, Newport argues that there are two core abilities that are crucial for thriving in the New Economy: the ability to quickly master hard things; and, the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed. These two abilities, explains Newport, depend on your abillity to perform deep work. “If you haven’t mastered this foundational skill, you’ll struggle to learn hard things or produce at an elite level.”

The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.

Newport defines Deep Work as professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. In contrast, Shallow Work consists of noncognitevely demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.

The book is divided in two parts. The first part explains what deep work is about, why it’s important, and how it will set people appart in the New Economy. The second part of the book contains several strategies for trainning your brain and transforming your working habits. The goal is “to place deep work at the core of your professional life.” The underlying strategies are valuable, but you’ll probably have to adapt the rules the author proposes to suit your needs.

The Power of Habit. Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg

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The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter for The New York Times. In The Power of Habit, the author proposes a framework for understanding the importance of habits and how habits work. Throughout the book, Duhigg uses stories —real stories— to exemplify his points, and he does a great job telling them. The stories are based, in part, on Duhigg’s interviews and journalistic research.

Perhaps the most important concept in the book is the Habit Loop, the loop that governs any habit. It is composed by three elements: cue, routine, and reward.

  • The cue is what triggers1 the habit. It tells our brains to go into automatic mode and which habit to use.
  • The routine is the action itself, which can be pyshical, mental, or emotional.
  • The reward helps our brain figure out if the loop is worth remembering for the future.

Over time, this loop —cue, routine, reward— becomes more and more automatic. The cue and reward become interwined until a powerful sense of anticiaption and craving emerges. Eventually (…), a habit is born.

In presence of the cue, says Duhigg, the habit emerges. Our brain stops making decisions, and the pattern folds automattically.

[Habits] can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. (…) They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize —they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.

It is by learning to observe cues and rewards that we can change our habits or cultivate new ones.

Part One of the book is the best part of this book. Based on numerous researchs, the author explains how new habits are formed, and how old ones can be replaced for new behaviours.

Part Two of the book —habits of successful organizations— and Part Three —the habits of societies— are interesting, but in my opinion, the author relies too much in stories to sustain his points. Some of these stories are used to make unjustified generalizations in some cases, and oversimplifications in others.

  1. Other authors, like Marshall Goldsmith, refer to the cue as trigger. ↩