Mental Pivot #70: Decomplexification
Dan John’s no-frills fundamentals, a practical lesson in ergodicity, and understanding strategic culture through games.
A decade back, my fitness trainer Tim handed me a tattered paperback after a particularly tough workout.
“What’s this?” I asked, looking at the cover of a big man carrying a heavy object in the snow.
“It’s a book by Dan John. He’s a former Olympic discus athlete and weightlifting guru. Read it. You’ll like it,” he said.
I was skeptical. Reading books by jocks wasn’t really my thing. But I took it home, read it, and was glad I did.
First, I almost always find tremendous satisfaction reading books outside my normal purview. It’s a good habit to cultivate. If you only read non-fiction, try reading some fiction to mix things up (and vice versa). Similarly, if you only read business books, try mixing things up by hitting the history or science section. I guarantee that reading outside your comfort zone will not only expose you to new ideas, it will also offer new perspective on your usual areas of focus.
Second, Dan John is a sincere proponent of no-frills fundamentals and focusing on the basics. I always appreciate a thinker, in any field, that can distill an idea down to a set of digestible core tenets. Building strength doesn’t require much, according to John. He suggests making do with just three principles:
Pick stuff off the ground.
Put stuff overhead.
Carry stuff for time and distance.
And while there are other worthwhile exercises (squats, pull-ups), John argues that once you can “pull double bodyweight off the ground, press bodyweight overhead, and carry bodyweight for 100 yards…all your other goals will be that much easier to smash.”
Anytime I’m overwhelmed by all the crazy fitness regimens, new-fangled gear, and hip new programs, I think back to Dan John’s strength principles. I think about how I can “decomplexify” the problem and focus on the essentials.
Take the practice of note-taking. Given my spotty memory, I find it’s an essential habit. I’ve worked to develop a personal note-taking system with varying degrees of success over the years. I’ve shared some of those tools and approaches in past editions of the newsletter and on my blog. And I’ve certainly contended with my share of software recently: Obsidian, Craft, Roam, and The Archive, to name a few. Like physical fitness, there’s no shortage of note-taking regimens, new-fangled apps, and overly complicated systems to wade through.
Since the start of the year, I’ve taken a page from Dan John and simplified things. I’m back to using an old-fashioned pocket-sized paper notebook and pen (the Field Notes ruled Kraft memo book). I carry one with me as a matter of course. As for the notes, I’ve distilled the process down to a few key steps:
Immediately record the ideas and observations that inspire me.
Revisit them from time to time.
Connect, explore, and build upon those that compel me.
This sort of clarity prevents me from getting bogged down by the demands of a more complicated system. So far, it has resulted in a more consistent record of new ideas and personal observations. Of course, I still use my digital tools, but I haven’t been as obsessive about them.
If the complicated tools work for you, great. But if they don’t, distilling the fundamentals à la Dan John isn’t a bad approach. It might give you the compass you need to keep pushing forward.
Now onto this week's recommendations…
Thinking Tools:
A Big Little Idea Called Ergodicity: Taleb first introduced me to the concept of ergodicity, but this article by Taylor Pearson is a great refresher on the subject (or a fantastic introduction to the uninitiated). It’s also a good reminder about not conflating ensemble probabilities (such as “averages” pertaining to a collection of people) and time probabilities involving a single person over an extended period.
Epistemic Legibility: Don’t let the opaque title throw you off, Elizabeth Von Nostrand’s piece is a thoughtful essay on communicating an argument with clarity, specificity, and precision. An epistemically legible argument is not necessarily correct, but it can be better understood, addressed, and debated by the outside observer. As Von Nostrand argues, this is a desirable but sometimes overlooked trait.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Structure All Writing as a List: A short post that gave me new appreciation for lists as a practical informational and communication tool.
How People Think: I don’t know how Morgan Housel generates these quality pieces so consistently. Once more, he delivers an idea-rich post that illuminates aspects of the human psyche in an entertaining and accessible way. This piece is structured as a list of 17 behaviors, any of which could inspire a stand-alone essay. Examples: “What people present to the world is a tiny fraction of what’s going on inside their head” and “we are swayed by complexity when simplicity is the real mark of intelligence and understanding.”
Understanding Strategic Culture Through Games: “The games we play represent our first, and arguably our most important strategic language. Sports games such as American football, soccer, or basketball, tabletop games such as chess or go, and even video games…provide a common, implicitly learned language of strategy. This language channels strategic thinking while facilitating communication.”
Reading Enrichment:
The Making of Vladimir Putin: This long-form article from the New York Times traces “Putin’s 22-year slide from statesman to tyrant.” Best are the firsthand accounts from his Western contemporaries: Angela Merkel, Condoleezza Rice, and François Hollande.
No News Is Good News: Thomas J. Bevan’s critique of the news might be heavy-handed, but it does prompt important self-reflection on media distraction and the overall utility of the news (or lack thereof). Per Rolf Dobelli: “The average person has devoured 20,000 news items in the past 12 months—60 per day at a conservative estimate. Did a single one help you make a better decision about your life, family, career, well-being, or business?”
Online Shopping in the Middle of the Ocean: What happens when Amazon doesn’t deliver to a remote tropical atoll in the South Pacific? An answer that would please many free-market economists: human enterprise intervenes to fill that gap.
The Shaming Industrial Complex: Becca Rothfield considers two recently published books that offer differing insights into the phenomenon of online public shaming: “Is shame fundamentally a feeling or fundamentally a social phenomenon? Should we treat it as a matter of psychology or of politics?”
Why America Can’t Build Quickly Anymore: An economist takes aim at the current legal and political structures in America that favor the status quo. “Lawmakers built a dispersed power structure filled with veto points that lends itself to analysis paralysis.”
Odds & Ends:
The Museum of Retro Technology catalogs a wide range of unusual, defunct, and failed inventions of the past. Some of my favorites include a pneumatic network of tubes used to shoot bottles of hot food for home delivery in Berlin and early automobiles that used large, rear-mounted propellors to generate propulsion (some were marketed as “wind wagons”).
The Awesome Falsehood List catalogs assumptions programmers believe to be true, but are demonstrably false. Working through these assumptions is helpful for developing more robust solutions. Think of it as a wonderful reference for edge cases and questioning what you know.
Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies is the American news magazine’s 2022 curated list of innovative and newsworthy companies. You’ll find a mix of corporate titans as well as lesser known upstarts. Naturally, technology companies dominate.
Cross-Promotions:
Refind is a content discovery tool that sends curated articles to your email inbox or via mobile app (iOS and Android). Focus your attention on what’s really relevant to you.
The Sample: A newsletter discovery tool. Based on your interests and feedback, The Sample sends a new newsletter recommendation to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.
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