We get sold a lot of shit in this crazy, go-go world of ours. Climate change is no biggie. Delicious carob animal snacks with half the calories but all the flavour. "People are looking at your LinkedIn profile, John!" But of all this dubious content, perhaps the most pernicious is the idea that we need to be one percent better every day.
I like reading about Tolstoy. I particularly like the way that he kept his writing for the afternoon, and spent the morning doing a solid shift of whatever physical labour his existence needed that day (chopping wood is the famously quoted example). Solid work can get you into flow state and that's where you can get good ideas (as well as useful artifacts like firewood). Then, as you say, showing up to do the writing.
Showing up might not get you a percentage improvement. Probably won't, as you say: it comes in fits and starts. But it's worth remembering that those who improve, those who "win" all turned up. The prize only goes to someone who entered (and finished) the competition. Probably lots of them.
OMG JB! THIS! "Showing up is the point, and although he didn’t say that failure was a feature, it does sorta come with the deal.” As someone who is 5 months into a new job which is a complete departure from what I've been doing since 1994 this really rings true! One of your best today mate!
I’ve always thought that there’s a lot more learnt from repeated failures than there is from instant successes and it’s the repeatedly turning up to have another go that constitutes the greatest satisfaction if whatever it is ever proves to result in any tiny smidgin of learning, improvement or even a failure that shines a light on the errors that might be fixable! Or even those that mightn’t be fixable 🤪🧐
I remember thinking the same thing in a couple of things I have tried but didn't get
1. My attempt at doing the Graduate Diploma of Education basically. I didn't pass a couple of academic subjects but the nail in the coffin was the teaching practicum. It went so disasterously I wasn't expected to turn up after the lecturer broke the news that I wasn't going to pass. I turned up anyway and got some respect for the fact that I didn't just stay home and grieve.
2. What I will describe as campaigns to get employment and later promoted. I think I could have wallpapered my bedroom wall with the rejection letters but just kept going and developed a way to work out what went well and what did not. End result was I got a reasonably good job and later promoted.
3. I was work in the public sector and was in one work area that was going through restructuring. I was put onto a redeployment list and found myself having to go through the motions of applying for various roles I had no idea of or even any interest in doing. I eventually got to the job I am doing now which has some good prospects.
When I look back at these times I am reminded that the most important thing was turning up.
Improvement is mostly a process of attempt and bare pass/failure, then trying again having learned from what you got wrong last time. And yet our culture is constantly imploring us never to fail or you're "a loser"! The true losers are the ones who don't have a go in the first place, and the ones who refuse to learn from the failures. Otherwise, as JB says so adroitly, life is mostly about showing up.
When I first started going to the gym & seeing a personal trainer several years ago, my sole aim was just to turn up & complete the sessions. I was satisfied by having done it. That routine's now lapsed for more years than I had it, & I should really get back to it: just to tick it off each time.
Does looking up an acronym (TLDR) to find out its meaning count as a win?
(Although I have a feeling I've looked it up before; like, every time I've seen it before).
I find Facebook is now mostly simply a place where I record what I might've seen or thought or done so that when it comes up in Memory in the following years, I realise that I actually occasionally step into having a life and that sometimes I've had a win in the big game.
Guess I’ll have to keep you updated on my own deadlifts journey via this comment section! 😝
Hoping to get into the gym on Sunday for a proper deadlift sesh. Wednesday’s strength class was more functional, and I did yoga Thurs night. I think today is a write off, but I should be up for the challenge class tomorrow morning - hence why Sunday afternoon after work and a nap might be deadlift day.
It’s not yet 3pm here…but, you know…it is Friday. I still turned up, though, Friday or not! . I still turn up and write stuff in my spare time as well, and I still get asked for copies of my satirical government manual, which no publishers were interested in, and still aren’t, but there’s clearly a niche market for it, and it will not really ever go out of date (1500 copies and counting). So it seems that particular project was actually good…which keeps me turning up at my computer, but also, I really enjoy doing it, hence the 3 or 4 other books that came out, but again, did not inspire interest from publishers. I guess I enjoy putting ideas down on paper and maybe one day I’ll hit the jackpot, but if I don’t, there are worse ways to spend my time than chuckling insanely in front of my computer as another ridiculous idea comes to mind.
I did. Grudges, Rumours, and Drama Queens under the name of George Fripley. Still available on Amazon. Was originally called You Can’t Polish a Turd, but I changed the title in about 2012 when the only guy who thought it was any good (an internet publisher whose motivations were a mystery to me (Night Publishing)) called it quits. I tried lots of traditional publishers but none showed any interest.
Seriously, sometimes just getting out of bed and making it in to the desk (whether that's in one's shoebox living room, or some dowdy slavefactory is actually quite a feat. Sometimes that is a 1000% improvement over where one was minutes before.
I might show up and chew on your epic Leviathan again. That's easily as haunting as Carrie. For my occasional despair I spin blood on the tracks and Leonard Cohen's Dance me to the end of love.
Yeah- this is the thing. Keep chipping away at stuff, and in time, you'll be amazed at what happened. There's a thing that I call the "genius trap," where you look at some phenomenal mini-Mozart who can do something you've worked hard at, and failed, and you think "I should just quit now. This kid plays like Heifetz and I've got four decades on him." No, f**k that. You just gotta say "Hold onta my beer and watch this" and go for it. Otherwise, you'll just spend your limited days boo-hooing over what you really wanted. My two cents.
So this arrived just before 3pm. Well-played!
Lulz
I like reading about Tolstoy. I particularly like the way that he kept his writing for the afternoon, and spent the morning doing a solid shift of whatever physical labour his existence needed that day (chopping wood is the famously quoted example). Solid work can get you into flow state and that's where you can get good ideas (as well as useful artifacts like firewood). Then, as you say, showing up to do the writing.
Showing up might not get you a percentage improvement. Probably won't, as you say: it comes in fits and starts. But it's worth remembering that those who improve, those who "win" all turned up. The prize only goes to someone who entered (and finished) the competition. Probably lots of them.
OMG JB! THIS! "Showing up is the point, and although he didn’t say that failure was a feature, it does sorta come with the deal.” As someone who is 5 months into a new job which is a complete departure from what I've been doing since 1994 this really rings true! One of your best today mate!
Thanks mate. I’m trying not to rant as much.
I get that...tho a well researched rant from you is always welcome. You always hit the nail right on the head.
I’ve always thought that there’s a lot more learnt from repeated failures than there is from instant successes and it’s the repeatedly turning up to have another go that constitutes the greatest satisfaction if whatever it is ever proves to result in any tiny smidgin of learning, improvement or even a failure that shines a light on the errors that might be fixable! Or even those that mightn’t be fixable 🤪🧐
I remember thinking the same thing in a couple of things I have tried but didn't get
1. My attempt at doing the Graduate Diploma of Education basically. I didn't pass a couple of academic subjects but the nail in the coffin was the teaching practicum. It went so disasterously I wasn't expected to turn up after the lecturer broke the news that I wasn't going to pass. I turned up anyway and got some respect for the fact that I didn't just stay home and grieve.
2. What I will describe as campaigns to get employment and later promoted. I think I could have wallpapered my bedroom wall with the rejection letters but just kept going and developed a way to work out what went well and what did not. End result was I got a reasonably good job and later promoted.
3. I was work in the public sector and was in one work area that was going through restructuring. I was put onto a redeployment list and found myself having to go through the motions of applying for various roles I had no idea of or even any interest in doing. I eventually got to the job I am doing now which has some good prospects.
When I look back at these times I am reminded that the most important thing was turning up.
Jeebus mate. That’s quite the epic journey
Improvement is mostly a process of attempt and bare pass/failure, then trying again having learned from what you got wrong last time. And yet our culture is constantly imploring us never to fail or you're "a loser"! The true losers are the ones who don't have a go in the first place, and the ones who refuse to learn from the failures. Otherwise, as JB says so adroitly, life is mostly about showing up.
'Showing up' at the same place for many years has largely been my strategy for financial stability which could be one metric of success.
I'm reading this just after 3 pm, lol.
When I first started going to the gym & seeing a personal trainer several years ago, my sole aim was just to turn up & complete the sessions. I was satisfied by having done it. That routine's now lapsed for more years than I had it, & I should really get back to it: just to tick it off each time.
Also, less Twitter.
Does looking up an acronym (TLDR) to find out its meaning count as a win?
(Although I have a feeling I've looked it up before; like, every time I've seen it before).
I find Facebook is now mostly simply a place where I record what I might've seen or thought or done so that when it comes up in Memory in the following years, I realise that I actually occasionally step into having a life and that sometimes I've had a win in the big game.
That is an appropriate use for Facebook. I use it as a message channel for a handful of friends who don’t know any better
You should definitely read Anna and War and Peace. I put it off too long, then read both about ten years ago.
Guess I’ll have to keep you updated on my own deadlifts journey via this comment section! 😝
Hoping to get into the gym on Sunday for a proper deadlift sesh. Wednesday’s strength class was more functional, and I did yoga Thurs night. I think today is a write off, but I should be up for the challenge class tomorrow morning - hence why Sunday afternoon after work and a nap might be deadlift day.
It’s not yet 3pm here…but, you know…it is Friday. I still turned up, though, Friday or not! . I still turn up and write stuff in my spare time as well, and I still get asked for copies of my satirical government manual, which no publishers were interested in, and still aren’t, but there’s clearly a niche market for it, and it will not really ever go out of date (1500 copies and counting). So it seems that particular project was actually good…which keeps me turning up at my computer, but also, I really enjoy doing it, hence the 3 or 4 other books that came out, but again, did not inspire interest from publishers. I guess I enjoy putting ideas down on paper and maybe one day I’ll hit the jackpot, but if I don’t, there are worse ways to spend my time than chuckling insanely in front of my computer as another ridiculous idea comes to mind.
Peter, did you publish this manual?
I did. Grudges, Rumours, and Drama Queens under the name of George Fripley. Still available on Amazon. Was originally called You Can’t Polish a Turd, but I changed the title in about 2012 when the only guy who thought it was any good (an internet publisher whose motivations were a mystery to me (Night Publishing)) called it quits. I tried lots of traditional publishers but none showed any interest.
Imma check it out
Seriously, sometimes just getting out of bed and making it in to the desk (whether that's in one's shoebox living room, or some dowdy slavefactory is actually quite a feat. Sometimes that is a 1000% improvement over where one was minutes before.
whether one feels it or not.
I guess I need to get dressed then.
I might show up and chew on your epic Leviathan again. That's easily as haunting as Carrie. For my occasional despair I spin blood on the tracks and Leonard Cohen's Dance me to the end of love.
Yeah- this is the thing. Keep chipping away at stuff, and in time, you'll be amazed at what happened. There's a thing that I call the "genius trap," where you look at some phenomenal mini-Mozart who can do something you've worked hard at, and failed, and you think "I should just quit now. This kid plays like Heifetz and I've got four decades on him." No, f**k that. You just gotta say "Hold onta my beer and watch this" and go for it. Otherwise, you'll just spend your limited days boo-hooing over what you really wanted. My two cents.