Category: Everything else

I watched “Rush” a few days ago – the movie that details the rivalry of Niki Lauda and James Hunt. It is a movie that explores the contrast between two top racers – a passionate dare-devil Britisher called James Hunt and a clinical German called Niki Lauda. They raced at a time when F1 was far from safe – a death or two every year was commonplace – and brought incredible skill to a challenging and often punishing sport. Rush is about an epic rivalry that pushed both of them to do better.

The crux of the story is in their differing approach to racing. James Hunt (painted as the more talented racer) approaches racing with passion, love, and possesses the sort of dare-devil instinct that allows him to put his life on the line. His life involves multiple highs and lows with alcohol, women, and substance abuse – he’s the flawed superstar. Lauda, on the other hand, works the percentages. For him, racing is a profession and he’s out there to win. He refuses to race in conditions where he sees more than a 20% chance of death. He also understands every aspect of the car and often helps the technicians with the engineering. It makes for a great contrast and a very interesting story and, as the movie goes on, they develop a grudging respect for each other’s talents.

James Hunt eventually does win the world championship he always dreamed of. However, things go downhill very quickly after that. He loses focus (despite Lauda’s attempts to push him) and he dies aged 44. His story reminds me of that of Manchester United and Northern Ireland legend George Best. Best was the best player of the world at 22 but no amount of talent could save him from himself.

It is a telling reminder that talent is only one part of the equation of excellence and happiness. There’s a lot more to life than that and the boring traits of discipline and consistency rarely get the credit they deserve.

Lauda sums it all up brilliantly after a conversation with Hunt just after Hunt’s world title.

“Of course he didn’t listen to me. For James, one world title was enough. He had proved what he needed to prove. To himself and anyone who doubted him. And two years later, he retired. When I saw him next in London, seven years later, me as a champion again, him as broadcaster, he was barefoot on a bicycle with a flat tire, still living each day like his last. When I heard he died age 45 of a heart attack, I wasn’t surprised. I was just sad. People always think of us as rivals but he was among the very few I liked and even fewer that I respected. He remains the only person I envied.”

There are 2 ways I know of understanding what drives us – our schedule and our track record.

The schedule is a short term measure while the track record is the long term measure. The track record functions as the real test while the schedule forms a check. A bit of soul searching might reveal what we’d like to think we’re driven by but the schedule and track record are the real answers.

If we haven’t done anything around serving the community ever, it is definitely not something we care about all that much. Words don’t get work done and only work done counts. And, if we haven’t spent much time with our family this week, it’s safe to say that’s not what drives us. The schedule reflects our priorities.

This doesn’t mean the answer to the “what drives us” question is set in stone. A detailed look might reveal things we don’t really want to talk about – free time, Facebook, television, etc.

We can begin to change it by fixing our schedule this week and the next. Over time, it’ll show on our track record.

Even the best performers receive 1 star reviews and boos when they try something out that doesn’t work. “She should stick to what she’s good at.” But, it doesn’t stop them. The best performers consistently reinvent themselves because change is essential. If every song follows the style of the first hit, it’ll mark certain death.

While there probably is art and science to making change without alienating those who follow you, this post is about the other useful skill – building immunity. A 1-star review on Amazon, a boo when you are performing, or an insult to your face never stops hurting. But, over time, top artists learn to be immune enough so it hurts a little bit but not too much.

How? By doing what’s painful.

When you start out playing the guitar, there’s no way to avoid the pain caused by cuts in your fingers. Over time, however, those cuts lead to hardened skin which in turn mean less pain. The pain doesn’t ever entirely go away. We just become immune to its intensity. The pain is important because it shows we still feel and creating art requires us to be in touch with those feelings. The immunity, however, reminds us that there are things more important than that pain.

So, if you’re worried about being criticized, go do something (it doesn’t matter what) – the criticism will follow. if you’re worried about failing, go do something (again, it doesn’t matter what) – the failure will follow as well. Action -> initial encouragement -> pain -> failure -> more pain -> immunity -> creating stuff we are proud of.

Time to take the first step.

A friend recently shared a story of a friend she’d known well while growing up – she had a near fatal car accident with multiple head injuries. It seemed like a lost cause but she luckily recovered and has been on a very long road of recovery since. Such recovery can go on for years and, while she has resumed a normal life, it’ll still be a very long time before she can get back to being her former self.

The thought that crossed my mind then was the importance of such stories to repeatedly question our assumption of unlimited time. We assume unlimited time when we plan our future – “In 20 years, I’d like to do…,”” in 5 years, I think I’d like to do this,” “When I’m 60..” And, yet, one unfortunate moment can change all these plans forever. I don’t believe it is wrong to plan for the future. It’s the right thing to do. Build like you’ll be here forever but also live like you might not be here tomorrow. It’s hard to remember that, however, and that’s why stories of tough accidents and death are important. They ought to remind us that we are, after all, human; and that this road has a definite end.

And, what that tells me is that there is no good in postponing our plans to make this world a better place. Sure, the scale may not seem ideal and the timing may not feel ideal as well. But, we have to get started now. Opportunities work best when they are manufactured. We have it in us to make a positive difference. Our impact may not be as grandiose as we imagined but it rarely is when we get started.

We owe it to ourselves to get started. We don’t have unlimited time..

I think the move from Blogger to WordPress is nearly done. One downside to the move is that the feeds must have stopped working for all of you subscribed via Feedly and other such feed reading services. I realized this belatedly this morning and I see that my Feedburner subscriptions count has dropped rather drastically.

I have updated the feed settings and I’m hoping that would get a few of you back. For everyone reading this via feed/email, I would like to request your help – has your feed/email subscription transition been seamless or did you actively need to re-subscribe? Your answers would help me understand if there is anything else I should do to make this work.

Sorry I didn’t provide enough of a warning. That’s down to my inexperience. I’ve been working through these issues since the weekend when I had my friend help me with the set up and hosting side of the transfer (Thanks for saving 20 hours I’d have spent making this work, EB!). and while I think we have covered most of the bases (e.g. Disqus comments migration which were not easy), I think there might still be a few hanging threads.

While I am thrilled about the move, I’m kicking myself for not having switched feeds earlier. It’s always a bummer when you realize you’ve lost so many readers. I expected a bit of slippage thanks to the move but as this is a permanent move for the greater good, I hope it works out well in the long run. I feel bad that I didn’t didn’t take swift corrective action. I hope most of you will find your way back. I am very grateful for your readership, encouragement, and support.

Cal Newport, whose writing I enjoy and respect, has been going on a tirade against email of late. He’s been making some very good arguments against answering email.

I just thought I’d provide the counterpoint. I think Cal’s advice probably works well for researchers – I can understand that there’s enough going on with having to teach students while pursuing research and email must be a distraction. Also, Cal must receive multiple speaking and interview requests that must be a drain on his time and just distraction in his attempts to be a superstar computer scientist. But, if you are working in the connection economy where working with other human beings is a critical part of building something meaningful, then email is an important part of making and building those connections.

Yes, people overdo it by spending all their time responding to emails. That doesn’t make the essence bad. I’ve met so many wonderful people and had access to some really cool opportunities thanks to email that I would not have otherwise had. I also know many busy and productive folk who are attentive and responsive. If done well, I think the discipline and responsiveness can serve us very well. Additionally, just as many tout phone calls to be a big time saver (and they are in the case of long discussions), emails can be a useful time saver for short interactions, follow up, and status checks.

So, set some boundaries if you will but answer your email. Set aside 30 minutes in the morning to clear your email and respond to anything that can be answered within 2 minutes during the day. At the very least, give this arrangement a shot for 3 months and see how you feel about it. Inbox zero is a wonderful thing.

Self development does not happen by locking ourselves in a room, reading great self help books, and walking out transformed. Of course, you knew that. Apologies for repeating the obvious. So, what is a great process for self development?

My hypothesis would be that it would involve 3 steps –

1. Observing and reading. Keeping an eye out for learning all around us and reading a lot

2. Synthesizing and sharing. Synthesizing what we’re observing/reading and sharing it with others. Setting aside time to teach/train others works best as there’s no better way of internalizing what we learn.

3. Monitoring ourselves to ensure we are indeed getting better. Having trusted friends and family help us with the monitoring is definitely a great help.

When we understand this, it comes as no surprise that data from MyFitnessPal shows that people who shared their food diaries with friends ended up losing twice as much weight or that the peer pressure from a book club or church helps us lead better lives. Developing ourselves requires us to fight the resistance and it is much easier to do so with like-valued friends.

I’ve found time and again that self development happens best when we remove the self focus in the equation. So, if you’re working on a self improvement project, consider taking others along. Not only is there enough learning and happiness out there for all of us, it’s a lot more fun too.