Everything you ever read about getting better is true. And it’s all useless.
Read MoreIt’s all true, and it’s all useless.
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ideas are easy, doing is hard. luckily, excellence isn't mandatory
The idea of getting in shape is easy: burn more calories than you consume.
Just about everyone knows this, but far fewer people can sustain the exercise and curb the food intake necessary to make it happen.
Likewise, the idea of innovation is simple, many companies can set aside a committee or a department whose job it is to come up with fresh ideas.
But how many are willing to learn new paradigms, dismantle obsolete systems, and retool enough to follow through on the findings?
If meeting goals is so hard for all of us, why do we insist on being so hard on our failures?
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Photo by 五玄土 ORIENTO on Unsplash
The Key to Greatness
From the martial heroes of Jiang Hu to the epic demigods who strode amongst the mortals of Ancient Greece.
From the outlaws of the Wild West, to the knights and nobles of King Arthur’s court.
From the enforcers of La Cosa Nostra to the Bloods and Crips, Triads and Yakuza, society idolizes the larger-than-life exploits of men and whom who live and die by a code.
Whether there truly is honor among thieves is beside the point.
What we long to see are people overcome impossible odds by doing the thing that lets them win when it matters most.
On some level we hope we could do the same, but how would we know?
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If You Can Ride a Bike, You Can Be Creative
In his book on irrational problem solving, Alchemy, Rory Sutherland mentions in passing the oddity of bicycles.
Scientists can’t agree on how exactly a bike functions, they came into their current form factor through trial and error, and they are objects that, as Rory put it, “work but don’t make sense.”
As much as the bicycle’s form and function defy reason, what’s even more curious is the fact that someone as uncoordinated as me can ride one—requiring as it does a level of balance and coordination that I lack in most other areas of life. I have no jump shot to speak of, made Jiu Jitsu my fighting style because I lack the balance for striking, and can’t do a handstand unless it’s in a hallway where the walls are really close together. But somehow, like the equally logic-defying act known as ‘being creative’, I can ride a bike almost effortlessly.
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