Depth And Brevity

in #business6 years ago


I've been thinking about this concept for a while yet haven't been able to put words to it, I think because it's not currently something that exists. At least I've never seen it mentioned before. I'm going to call it "value stacking."

I'm sure some of you read personal development books, or really any book that teaches you something. You're familiar with how it works. You read the book. The author gives you his various tips and advice for whatever his area of expertise is, and then you move on with your life.

Most of us process this information in bite-sized chunks. We read a book and the author gives us a mantra like, "Pick a career you're passionate about" or "if people aren't helping you achieve your dreams, then you're helping them achieve theirs" or "help others get what they want and they'll help you get what you want."

We read the quote, internalize it, then promptly forget it as we move onto the next one.

I've found in my experience that this is great for a fast hit of dopamine, kind of like "entrepreneur-porn." This isn't an HD video featuring sex between the owner of a dry cleaners and a direct mail company. Entrepreneur porn is content that wanna-be entrepreneurs consume that makes them feel good about not actually doing any work on their business in the name of "research."

Normally I would callously blame these hapless wantrepreneurs for their low motivation, poor discipline or lack of desire. But what I really think is to blame is the piecemeal distribution of this "advice" from the alleged experts who are creating content.

  • "10 Things That Entrepreneurs Need To Do To Be Successful."
  • "See How This 18 Year Old High School Dropout Made $15,502 In One Week!"
  • "Do This ONE THING Every Day To Increase Sales By 632%!"
They're obviously looking for clicks, downloads, book sales - whatever. I get it.

And they get [the clicks]. And they'll continue to get them because packaging the information like this is not actually going to cause anyone to do any measurable amount of work who isn't doing the work already.

We have values here at the CIA


Image result for values meme

So what's the solution? Something I call value stacking.

This isn't really any more complex than it sounds. Instead of creating a list of values and explaining them all one after another, you create a list of 3 or more values which build upon each other WITHOUT diving deeply into them.

Think of it like a skill tree in a role-playing game. You pick one skill as a base, then another that stems from the first, and so on until you arrive at a highly specialized skill specific to however it is you want to play your character.

Not to shill the guy's book even more, but the way I came up with this was reading Tim Ferris's book, Tools Of Titans. The book is a collection of lessons learned from interviewing ~200 world-class experts, all condensed into a single book. It's like the highlight reel of a few years of 2-3 hour conversations with people in the top 0.01% of their respective fields.

I actually figured this out by taking notes on the book. I had the PDF open in one window and Notepad open in another and would copy concepts that I felt were worth remembering. By listing these concepts one after another (WITHOUT extrapolating) and assuming their validity, I stumbled upon this little thing I call value stacking.

More specifically, I came up with the following stack that I found very helpful:

  1. 90% of success is just showing up
  2. Pay yourself first
  3. Don't audition; carve out a niche for yourself
  4. A task will grow/shrink to fill the time allotted for it
This wasn't the first time I'd been exposed to any of these concepts. I've heard all this stuff before. It wasn't like this was new to me and it probably isn't new to you either. It's the idea of listing them one after another and reading/repeating/reminding yourself of them (without delving into a detailed explanation like many content creators are wont to do) that provides the benefit.

It's the "less is more" approach.

Where's the devil?


Image result for details meme

Let's look a little closer at why I chose to stack these concepts. Keep in mind that I will keep these explanations as short as possible. One line is enough.

  1. 90% of success is just showing up - Successful people choose the right goals. Bill Gates is where he is because he invented an operating system and made a deal with the biggest computer manufacturer (at the time).
  2. Pay yourself first - Stolen from investing advice and adapted for productivity: work on your personal projects first before your clients'
  3. Don't audition; carve out a niche for yourself - Arnold Schwarzenegger never auditioned for any of his roles once he established himself. He didn't compete, he dominated a niche that he created.
  4. A task will grow/shrink to fill the time allotted for it - When you choose a goal, set a deadline for its completion that is 5-10% of the time you normally would set. Set a 10 year goal and try to accomplish it in 6 months. (Credit: Tools of Titans, chapter on Peter Thiel)
The more introspective people who have bothered to read this far will likely notice that this has a much different effect on their minds than if I were to spend a few hundred words going into gory detail about each of these concepts and how they're all important individually.

And I'm not saying they're not. But when you offer them as singular tools like hammers and nails to be used for a specific task, you're really missing the point. They're far more useful if you stack them and read them one after another. The Top 10 Lists are really not so bad, but the authors do a disservice to their audience by barfing out a few hundred words just for the sake of SEO and word count purposes.

You can stack any values that you want based on whatever your goals are. I chose these ones because they ultimately give me the feeling that I can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. And while it's unlikely that I'll write 5 bestselling books in a year, it's certainly within my or anyone's capability to write one. But if I tell myself that I'll write it in 10 years, the horizon is too far in the distance that I'll procrastinate myself into oblivion and ultimately do nothing.

The reason I like this Tools of Titans book so much is that it is chock full of these "values" that you can choose for whatever effect you want. And the amount of explanation in between them is minimal enough that they're still dangling in your mind while you move onto the next one. Or maybe it was the fact that I was taking notes and inadvertently stacking them anyway.

Regardless, the ultimate effect here is that you are able to give yourself what the personal development community calls an "empowering belief," which is a cringey way of saying a belief that allows you to get out of your own way and do what you are compelled to do.

Add to this the "fear of doing something is always worse than actually doing the thing" concept and you're well on your way to getting some shit done.

Food for thought.

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At the risk of seeming like a grammar Nazi, Bill Gates did not, in fact, invent DOS. He bought it from another guy and then marketed the shit out of it, so that every IBM compatible machine (what we now call a PC) ran on his DOS operating system.

He practically gave it away so that the machines would run an operating system on which he owned and on which he could then build the most compatible and best running software to run on the operating system. He didn't make much, if anything off of DOS and windows, but has been gouging the world for decades for the software that runs on it. It was marketing genius.

I don't mention it to be a doosh or to correct your point, I only add it because it seems to reinforce your points on how to achieve success.

Anyway, cheers!

All good bru, thanks for the correction

The curtness of human life. the nature of communicating much in few words; conciseness: Ironically, it is wordy Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet who broadly says that quickness is the spirit of mind.

The Bard knows his shit

The man here looking so brave and also outstanding to shaw

The tweets are probably going to caution White House consultants effectively anxious about the dangers of surrendering excessively ground to the Russian pioneer amid the discussions.

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The two pioneers were joined just by their translators amid their two long periods of eye to eye talks.

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Their summit comes after a wild European visit that saw Mr Trump pointedly censure longstanding partners of the US over exchange.

Please remove your reproductive organs so there is no chance of you passing your inferior genes onto future generations

That's is very interesting. I'm not a fan on philosophy but it brings me a lot of thoughts.

A well-structured article from its bases to read it in a way that reached the reader directly.

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Hi@yallapapi.... Nice blog and topic

How to grow in steemit. I'm new here.
@yallapappi

gracias por compartir tan buena e interesante informacion amigo saludos desde venezuela

THE READING IS VERY USEFUL IN ALL SENSE, WE LEARN, TRAVEL, KNOW AND AGILIZE OUR POTENTIAL AND MENTAL RAPIDITY.

interesting!!
hey.. Hie.. I'm a newbie.
Here is the link to my post. Upvote if you like the content. thanks!

https://steemit.com/psychology/@cherrythinks/a-menstruating-male

Your post is fucking garbage never try writing again it’s not for you

Fantastic work with this one, kudos

This bought me a lot of thoughts

I doubt that

You are free to doubt.

Nice blog how u get this. Idea tell me ,,u r grat guy i m a big fan of you. How much time u take to read a blog tell me degibetly ,,u r a great person keep it up ,,i m very gratful to u if u r upvote and comment on my all blog ,,again u have such a lot of great ideas
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What if instead of me up voting you, you stop being a retarded idiot who leaves shit comments like the rest of your clones and actually try contributing something useful to society

sorry sir

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The terseness of human life. the idea of imparting much in few words; compactness: Incidentally, it is tedious Polonius in Shakespeare's Villa who extensively says that briskness is the soul of brain. @yallapapi

Is this a game?

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bro you are the best writer , however it was too long to read , hence requesting you to shorten this next time

Thanks. I have an idea for you: why don’t you fuck off

Good post, i like it

Congratulations @yallapapi!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade in the following category:

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This reminds me of, and is supported by the concept of 'stacking' as used in Neuro Linguistic Programming. I can definitely vouch for the validity and simplicity of its uses.

A most excellent postal reminder!

Thanks

stackorock.JPG

great work sir