########################################################################## The Obstacle is the Way ########################################################################## `Apology `_ for a "Self-Help" Book ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I owe an explanation to the *annoyingly logical* part of myself. There’s a lot of material out there that tries to teach us lessons from successful individuals. My main concern with them has always been that most of it seems to be suffering from `survivor's bias `_. Which is why I was quite surprised to see that this book in particular actually works for me. So upon some post-processing and rationalisation, I got the reason down to two. The first one is statistical rationalisation. This book doesn’t try to focus on a select few successful people and then start glorifying almost every aspect of their lives (looking at you, `Robert Green `_). Rather, this book already seems to know the lessons, and it cherry-picks stories of successful people to drive the point home. Sure, there’s still some broader `selection bias `_, but, I personally find the sample size much larger and diverse to draw some insights from. The second one is a philosophical rationalisation which gives me a free pass to influence myself with anecdotal “tips and tricks” even when I am aware that they might not simply work. Thanks to `Veritasium `_, I’ve come to terms with the fact that the role of luck in success is undeniable. But it *could* be small on average. Therefore, probabilistically, we can still stack the deck in our favour by playing our cards right. I discovered that I can keep myself motivated through the *illusion of being in charge*. In fact, I feel quite comfortable to sway my own thinking without having to be at war with the worldview that I have gathered. How? Because I simply can’t seem to disprove that it is, in any shape or form, unjust to the “true” nature of things. The fact is, we haven't got a clue about how the "true" nature of things are. The way we perceive the universe is a reconstruction inside our brains, endowed with predictive modules (see `Being You: A New Science of Consciousness `_) which helps in the Gene propagation game. Think of the narrow band of signals (visual/auditory) we're able to sample from the “true” universe. Think of how much else we either just outright reject due to our incompetency or extrapolate due to the Sapienship (if you have the stomach for more radical, see `The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes `_). So, why not? Why not game my perceptions to my benefit? Coming back to the book, I think remembering the associated stories would be a better way to remember each of the following key points. However, for a more compressed version, here are the main points from the book that I want to keep in mind. Perception -------------------------------------------------- * *Observation* (objective) and *perception* (subjective) are two different things. Faced with an obstacle, focusing on the objective view helps. * The power of demystifying things by explaining them away with rationality is criminally underrated. * Our mind is capable of doing more than what we have evolved for. Take reading/writing for instance. * We have to calm ourselves when faced with a challenge. Our primal instincts usually overreact as they evolved in much harsher conditions than the one we live in today. "Trust your instinct" might no longer be the right thing to do. Observing, on the other hand, that all your senses are going into overdrive and it's a perfectly natural way to respond based on how our ancestors evolved - might just be the one we need to bring some calmness into the equation. * Beneath every hopeless situation there's *always* something positive to be found - at least a chance to learn, to grow, to seize, to rise up to the challenge. * Obstacles can be partitioned into two disjoint sets - ones which we can act upon and ones we can't do anything about. It's *always* our choice on which we focus. Action -------------------------------------------------- * We can escape `analysis-paralysis `_ by just focusing on getting our *foot-in-the-door*. When starting something new, starting at the bottom isn't all that unnatural. * We can think of ourselves like Silicon Valley start-ups - always WIP with room to grow and course-correct. With this mindset, we can get the MVP of ourselves out, fail fast, break things, learn from feedbacks and iterate. This insight encompasses `Show your work `_ and could be treated as the underlying theme of all growth-mindset books, e.g., `Mindsets `_. * *Trust the process*. It's super important to not get distracted by shiny things! Once the path is chalked out, focusing on just the steps helps. We can even automate this by forming habits (see `Atomic Habits `_). * If we see ourselves as someone who *always* does the job right - the rest of the world might do so as well. * Being a by-the-book perfectionist might lead to gatekeeping. For most things in life, what works in practice always triumphs over what looked best on paper. * There is no shame in taking the less glorious route to success.