Freedom, Focus, and the Folly of Control
A meditation on freedom, productivity, and impact
Here are four essays that shaped my thinking this week, and what I took from each!
Pure Independence
The reason people disagree on the absolutism of Freedom are the limitations on freewill (biological, cultural, societal, etc). Freedom, as viewed on a spectrum, starts with the recognition then the elimination of such limitations. In working towards freedom, we gain an understanding of what makes us desire and depend on certain things.
As we become more aware, our desires become more detached and elusive:
Wealth.
Social recognition.
Impact.
Purpose.
Then what...???
As we peel layers, we invent new ones. We are never free. A comforting end state is to be our own jailor and morph a chain familiar to no one aside from us.
How to Beat Procrastination
Most believe that productive people have strong willpower and are apt for work. Although I agree that people differ in natural willpower, focus, and deep work, procrastinators are far from being doomed! We can design systems that greatly minimize procrastination. Here are some that worked for me:
Meditate.
Tidy up your work environment.
Separate your work environment from leisure/sleep/eating places.
Install distraction blockers in the computer.
Break down a big task into multiple smaller tasks in a list.
Use pomodoros to force kicking off work.
Reward yourself every time you finish a task (checkoff item, take a 5min break, etc)
The longer you work, the easier it becomes to continue working.
The article does a great job explaining how to get things done and most common behavioral pitfalls!
On impact & on what we should do with our lives
I am settling on the belief that extreme results are intractable. In research, for example, the most valuable discoveries are found where very few people are looking. In entrepreneurship, most fail, and few find jewels in unexpected areas. In investing, beating the market requires contrarianism. The only way to get a chance at massive success is genuine interest, Longtermism, and luck. Such human characteristics and firm commitment can't be planned or designed. In summary, we should stop caring about controlling for extreme results and instead just do what we love and hope for the best.
AI 2027
You’d get the same feeling Feynman got after WWII — when he walked around Los Alamos and saw people building houses, fixing cars, going about life — and he realized it all felt strangely pointless. He’d helped unleash unimaginable power, and now the world had changed forever… but life just went on. Hopefully, life will go on.