Mantra
Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. - General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. - Angela Duckworth
Speech is silver, silence is golden. - Thomas Carlyle
We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training. - Archilochus
Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them. - John von Neumann
An Old Hacker’s Tips
I stole this from here.
The “Do It Anyway” Principle
… but sooner or later you will end up on some task or project that is difficult to accomplish and/or generally unpleasant, all due to factors outside of your control.
.. would be the people that somehow got their tasks done anyway, even though there were ridiculous contstraints imposed by our environment issues that made it a lot harder.
The brutal truth though is, … We are all constantly measured in the eyes of our employers by what we actually deliver, and those who can find a way to succeed even in the face of adversity will always have an advantage over those who cannot, or do not want to.
The “Two-and-Done” Rule
It has to do with how to handle disagreements that come up at work.... have a pretty strong desire to always have the right answer to things, … I would tenaciously argue my point, without letting go.
… I would let them know just why they were wrong, and why we needed to do it my way … because something that I knew was better was being ignored.
But this take-no-prisoners approach to debate **did not** do me any good… it would negatively impact my ability to affect change. If I did this too often, people would begin to see me as argumentative, difficult to work with, not a team player, ....
.... I’m still a big fan of being right all the time, … What’s changed over the years though is first, an enhanced understanding that I in fact **am not right all the time**. But also that even when I am right, it isn’t always a guarantee that others will **follow my advice**, and if they do not, that it’s sill OK.
… I will state my case the first time, and if whoever is arguing to the contrary does not agree after hearing my position, I’ll let it go. But the next time the opportunity comes up, I will argue my point again. Maybe allowing for a gap of time for people to consider my original point, or maybe allowing me time to refine and rephrase my ideas to be more convincing.
… I will state my case the first time, and if whoever is arguing to the contrary does not agree after hearing my position, I’ll let it go. But the next time the opportunity comes up, I will argue my point again. Maybe allowing for a gap of time for people to consider my original point, or maybe allowing me time to refine and rephrase my ideas to be more convincing.If I fail to … the second time though, **I am done.** .... “OK, let’s go your way then. I still don’t completely agree with everything proposed here, but I think I’ve made my case, and we ened to **move on**.”
Yielding in an argument like this has some weird, powerful effects. One is it kind of releases you from responsibility if things should go wrong. And if a truly bad decision has been made, it is actually pretty likely that things wil start going wrong. If you fail to convince people after two tries, you really do have to get behind the decision, and not try to sabotage or undermine it.
Last Update: 2023-03-21 12:05:32 PM… it bumps up your personal brand, as someone who should maybe be listened to more often.