This comment is still real good. Some thoughts I’ve been reflecting on re: 60% rule:
I’ve roughly been living my life at 60% for the past year (after a few years of doing a lot of over-extension and burnout). It has… been generally good.
I do notice that, say, at the last NYC Winter Solstice, I was operating at like 105% capacity. And the result was a more polished, better thing than would have existed if I’d been operating at 60%. Locally, you do get more results if you burn your reserves, esp if you are working on something with a small number of moving parts. This is why it’s so easy to fall into the trap.
But, like, you can’t just burn your reserves all the time. It just doesn’t work.
And if you’re building a thing that is bigger than you and requires a bunch of people coordinating at once, I think it’s especially important to keep yourself _and_ your allies working at 60%. This is what maximizes the awesomeness-under-the-curve.
The main worry I have about my current paradigm, where I think I’m lacking: Most of my 60%-worth of effort I spend these days doesn’t really go into _improvement_ of my overall capacity, or in especially building new skills. A year-ish ago, when I dialed back my output to something sustainable, I think I cut into my self-improvement focus. (Before moving to Berkeley, I HAD focused efforts on raising the capacity of people around me, which had a similar effect, but I don’t think I’ve done that _much_ since moving here)
This comment is still real good. Some thoughts I’ve been reflecting on re: 60% rule:
I’ve roughly been living my life at 60% for the past year (after a few years of doing a lot of over-extension and burnout). It has… been generally good.
I do notice that, say, at the last NYC Winter Solstice, I was operating at like 105% capacity. And the result was a more polished, better thing than would have existed if I’d been operating at 60%. Locally, you do get more results if you burn your reserves, esp if you are working on something with a small number of moving parts. This is why it’s so easy to fall into the trap.
But, like, you can’t just burn your reserves all the time. It just doesn’t work.
And if you’re building a thing that is bigger than you and requires a bunch of people coordinating at once, I think it’s especially important to keep yourself _and_ your allies working at 60%. This is what maximizes the awesomeness-under-the-curve.
The main worry I have about my current paradigm, where I think I’m lacking: Most of my 60%-worth of effort I spend these days doesn’t really go into _improvement_ of my overall capacity, or in especially building new skills. A year-ish ago, when I dialed back my output to something sustainable, I think I cut into my self-improvement focus. (Before moving to Berkeley, I HAD focused efforts on raising the capacity of people around me, which had a similar effect, but I don’t think I’ve done that _much_ since moving here)