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Comment by brlewis

10 years ago

From the comments, I think readers are generally failing to take an opportunistic attitude toward this article. Dig out useful ideas and ignore what doesn't help.

Yes, there are situations where working too quickly will bite you, so you can't always do it. But the key idea here is that by working quickly you reduce your expectations of how costly a new effort is. Then you'll actually start it. Inertia is a powerful adversary. Any weapon you can put on your belt to fight it is worthwhile. I'm keeping this idea.

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brlewis

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_yosefk  10 years ago

One good takeaway: be slow at things you don't want to do a lot. Be slow in answering the kind of email you don't want to receive again, etc.

  • qznc  10 years ago

    I like to call this "intentional incompetence" :)

    • shkkmo  10 years ago

      I don't think that is accurate without an additional assumption about the reason you don't want to do something.

      If I prioritize quick responses and turn arounds to requests that are important, provide value, and allow me to improve important skills, that is not incompetence.

      If you de-prioritize items, regardless of their importance and value but simply because you don't want to do, that could quite conceivably be called incompetence. However that rests on the assumption that you don't want to be competent.

      I generally want to be competent. When there are things I don't want to do, it is usually because they are part of a bad, inefficient process that I haven't managed to change yet.

      1 reply →

marcosdumay  10 years ago

"Opportunistic attitude" looks too much like "confirmation bias" to me to be comfortable with it.

  • jkaunisv1  10 years ago

    The phrase may put you off but I think the sentiment is sound. Too many dismiss something/somebody in entirety because of one flaw. I think it's better to try to find value in everything; even if it's 99% shit, you can still learn from that 1%.

    • Retra  10 years ago

      Or you could find something that's 95% shit and learn from its 5%. You can't learn everything, so why would you spend your time learning the 1% good things and dealing with 99% shit? There are too many easy ways to find value out there to be spending your time panning for scraps in sludge.

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