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19 Jul 09

Study Hacks » Blog Archive » The Pyramid Method: A Simple Strategy For Becoming Exceptionally Good

  • My answer reflects an observation that plays an increasingly important role in my understanding of the world: if you want to do something interesting and rewarding — be it writing a novel, becoming a professor, or growing a successful business — you have to first become exceptional. As Study Hacks readers know, I think Steve Martin put it best when he noted that the key to breaking into a competitive and desirable field is to “become so good, they can’t ignore you.”

    • I call this general technique the Pyramid Method. I claim that it’s a powerful approach for anyone looking to transform an interest or natural talent into an expertise that cannot be ignored. Regardless of the pursuit in question, if you want to take it someplace serious, follow Chris’s example. This means:



      1. Pick a single relevant venue to join at the entry level and work to increase your standing.
      2. Make sure the venue offers clear metrics on your progress; use these metrics to guide your efforts to get better.
      3. Forget all the other bullshit advice and mini-strategies people offer for getting ahead in your pursuit. If you can’t master this one venue, then you don’t yet deserve the world’s respect.
      4. Put your head down, and get it done.

Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them. | Derek Sivers

  • Tests done since 1933 show that people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen.



    Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed.

  • Four different tests of 63 people found that those who kept their intentions private were more likely to achieve them than those who made them public and were acknowledged by others.



    Once you’ve told people of your intentions, it gives you a “premature sense of completeness.”

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26 Jul 08

Disconnecting Distraction

  • Chesterfield described dirt as matter out of place. Distracting
    is, similarly, desirable at the wrong time. And technology is
    continually being refined to produce more and more desirable things.
    Which means that as we learn to avoid one class of distractions,
    new ones constantly appear, like drug-resistant bacteria.
  • I remember when computers were, for me at least, exclusively for
    work. I might occasionally dial up a server to get mail or ftp
    files, but most of the time I was offline. All I could do was write
    and program. Now I feel as if someone snuck a television onto my
    desk. Terribly addictive things are just a click away. Run into
    an obstacle in what you're working on? Hmm, I wonder what's new
    online. Better check.

    After years of carefully avoiding classic time sinks like TV, games,
    and Usenet, I still managed to fall prey to distraction, because
    I didn't realize that it evolves. Something that used to be safe,
    using the Internet, gradually became more and more dangerous. Some
    days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea and check the news, then check
    email, then check the news again, then answer a few emails, then
    suddenly notice it was almost lunchtime and I hadn't gotten any real
    work done. And this started to happen more and more often.
  • 1 more annotations...
11 Mar 08

Business Technology : Bigger Computer Monitors = More Productivity

  • Researchers at the University of Utah tested how quickly people performed tasks
    like editing a document and copying numbers between spreadsheets while using
    different computer configurations: one with an 18-inch monitor, one with a
    24-inch monitor and with two 20-inch monitors. Their finding: People using the
    24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the 18-inch
    monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those
    with the 18-inch ones. There is an upper limit, however: Productivity dropped
    off again when people used a 26-inch screen. (The order of the tasks and the
    order of computer configurations were assigned randomly.)
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