Save your time.
I want to write more, and I want to say less. This is part of my aim in 2021 + onward.
So here’s a note. I will try to publish more of these short reads.
This is my focus on focus.
Work as a young man consisted of hard labor. When you don't know the best way to do something, you have to test. You fuck up routinely. This takes time.
Work as a man today consists of hard thought. When you know how to best do something, you have to consider the downstream effects. You fuck up routinely, unless you have a system. This takes more time.
I didn't have time as a young man to think about these things. I didn't have the perspective, either.
Two things changed that.
Hearing different voices. They can come from anywhere - the right room, the right book, the wrong Youtube video, the wrong bar. They just have to be diverse.*
Processing those thoughts in a system. Diverse thoughts make you do the work to understand. How valid is that point? What does this person have to gain? How is this framed? How might someone disagree with this?
Your vision improves exponentially with the more 1 + 2 you see. So how do you see that?
More time.
Time changes your views, if you give yourself the chance. Time gives you the opportunity to see a wider perspective, if you are willing to try.
The aim is time, time of your own choosing.
So save your time.
Make your life easier.** Start simply.
Write down your thoughts in a digital notebook, graph, or database. You need to be able to call on this in the future, so bear in mind scalability in your tools. Hence, [[Roam]].
Use your notes as base blocks to structure a system around. You need to be able to evolve this in the future, because change is the only constant. Hence, [[Roam]].
You don't even have to structure things out of the gate. Just write. Many tools exist with Roam that gather insight in time (i.e. tagging, queries, views). Then, blocks stack. New things appear. [[Emergence]].
Your system should resurface things you need to do. Your system should prompt you to reflect on how they went. Your system should identify gaps to what you want. Your system is an automated opportunity generator.
The time you spent learning to do it right? Your tests helped you automate much of it.
The time you spent thinking deeply? Your system helps you automate much of it.
The result? More time to think. More time to act.
More time, compounded.***
* Obviously you want to trend towards better environments, but 1) you have to start somewhere, and 2) there is much to learn from bad environments.
**Apply this to your work. Apply this to your research. Apply this to any life decision. The aim is the same. More time.
***This = a good life.