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January 2 - March 27, 2022
Occam’s Razor was originally expressed as “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”—simply, one should not over-complicate problem-solving by bringing in too many extra hypotheses, variables, or extraneous factors.
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect.”
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence”
it’s easier for a person to do something negative out of neglect or incompetence,
People are oblivious and thoughtless at times, including you, but it usually doesn’t mean what you think it means. Empathy is a mental model in itself.
In any pursuit, only a few things really make the difference, and tinkering with the tiny things is usually a worthless pursuit.
What are the tasks that make the biggest impact, regardless of details or completion? Do those first and foremost—they might adequate for your purposes. Become results-driven and don’t get caught up in what doesn’t matter.
Sturgeon’s Law means that the vast majority of information is low-quality. You could even say that 90% of what we think about on a daily basis isn’t worth the time.
In the end, this mental model preaches selectivity with your time and energy and being perpetually skeptical about what you allow into your life.
People are prone to overthinking and fixating on small details that don’t matter in the grand scheme of a task, and they do so to the detriment of larger issues that have infinitely more importance.
Fixating on the trivial is the equivalent of cleaning the bathroom to avoid work.
Triviality can easily sneak into our lives as a placebo for real productivity.
When you devolve into small tasks that may not need tweaking or do not impact your overall goal, it’s time to take a break and recharge instead of pretending to be productive.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Set aggressive deadlines so that you are actually challenging yourself on a consistent basis, and you’ll avoid this pitfall. A distant deadline also typically means a sustained level of background stress—push yourself to finish early and free your mind. Save your time by giving yourself less time.
