Apply mental force to the problem. Amount and quality of thinking time seriously affects results.
I am often in situations where there would be a good result even if I did many stupid things. Recognize that success in those situation does not predict future success in more difficult situations.
Do the heavy lifting your own self.
Be willing to be right, even in the face of serious skepticism. [My father told me a story when I was a kid: In a parade, everyone was marching in line except one guy who was six feet to the right. His mother yelled, “Look, my son is the only one in the right place.” I thought there was at least a nominal probability that was true. And still do.]
Be willing to be wrong and concede error. [In some quarters, there is much rejoicing when I am wrong about something. Hanging head in shame brings joy to others.]
Unreliable people are unreliable. Do not assume they operate in any way similar to ordinary, decent people. [I sometimes listen to people who I know are unreliable, and I think, “That person saying this adds significantly to its truth probability,” when that assumption is known to be baseless. Much progress there, though.]
The fact that some results are unmeasured and not apparent to others known to you does not mean those results are meaningless. [Preventing future crime is good, even if you don’t know what exact crime you’ve prevented.]
Want trumps all. [Super-high-output people virtually always are tenacious about Getting Stuff Done. Intelligence matters, but GSD is always critical.]
Sure. I ended up killing about a paragraph on this subject in my original post.
The basic default to getting anything done is, “I do it.” There are always delegable tasks, but even in unfamiliar harder situations I’ll consult others then do it myself. A corollary of this is, “Own all of your own results.” If you delegate a task, and that task is done badly, view it as your fault—you didn’t ask the right question, or the person was untrained, or the person was the wrong person to ask.
If you do the hard thing that needs doing, it will be easier to do that thing next time, and you’ll develop expertise. Doing the work yourself does not mean going without advice; people who have been there before can be very helpful (sometimes as object lessons in what not to do.)
Apply mental force to the problem. Amount and quality of thinking time seriously affects results.
I am often in situations where there would be a good result even if I did many stupid things. Recognize that success in those situation does not predict future success in more difficult situations.
Do the heavy lifting your own self.
Be willing to be right, even in the face of serious skepticism. [My father told me a story when I was a kid: In a parade, everyone was marching in line except one guy who was six feet to the right. His mother yelled, “Look, my son is the only one in the right place.” I thought there was at least a nominal probability that was true. And still do.]
Be willing to be wrong and concede error. [In some quarters, there is much rejoicing when I am wrong about something. Hanging head in shame brings joy to others.]
Unreliable people are unreliable. Do not assume they operate in any way similar to ordinary, decent people. [I sometimes listen to people who I know are unreliable, and I think, “That person saying this adds significantly to its truth probability,” when that assumption is known to be baseless. Much progress there, though.]
The fact that some results are unmeasured and not apparent to others known to you does not mean those results are meaningless. [Preventing future crime is good, even if you don’t know what exact crime you’ve prevented.]
Want trumps all. [Super-high-output people virtually always are tenacious about Getting Stuff Done. Intelligence matters, but GSD is always critical.]
Can you elaborate on that one?
Sure. I ended up killing about a paragraph on this subject in my original post.
The basic default to getting anything done is, “I do it.” There are always delegable tasks, but even in unfamiliar harder situations I’ll consult others then do it myself. A corollary of this is, “Own all of your own results.” If you delegate a task, and that task is done badly, view it as your fault—you didn’t ask the right question, or the person was untrained, or the person was the wrong person to ask.
If you do the hard thing that needs doing, it will be easier to do that thing next time, and you’ll develop expertise. Doing the work yourself does not mean going without advice; people who have been there before can be very helpful (sometimes as object lessons in what not to do.)
Hope that’s helpful.
Would it be fair to say you prefer self-sufficiency over delegation whenever it’s reasonable?
Yes.