We Are All Tim Ferriss, Brian Cuban, Alex Wagner, and Hillary Clinton

A few weeks ago, I stumbled into a debate between author/entrepreneur Tim Ferriss and author/attorney/Dallas Mavericks fan Brian Cuban.

Entirely unrelated to this, and without any involvement from me, MSNBC host Alex Wagner (among many others) criticized Hillary Clinton for including income inequality in her platform because husband Bill Clinton gets paid six figures for speeches. 

Entirely unrelated incidents, but I realized they are merely different sides of the same coin, a coin most of us (myself included) too often carry around with us. 

Let me explain. 

Ferriss’s blog runs the gamut. This morning he posted about his favorite type of tea. A few weeks ago, he posted a really personal story involving suicide. 

After telling the story, Ferriss presented an argument about why people should not commit suicide. One of Ferriss’s several points is that a person who commits suicide “might” cause more sadness among friends and family than he or she experienced themselves. 

Cuban took issue with the word “might,” arguing that this suggested that it “might not.” 

At a technical level, perhaps Cuban is right. But, to me, Cuban provided a clear example of one of my favorite words: a synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole.

Ferriss’ point, as I read it, is that suicide is BAD. You SHOULD NOT do it. But, by picking out this one word and ignoring the rest, Cuban could point and say: “Look! Look! He wrote an article that said suicide MIGHT be bad.” 

Words are imperfect, and meaning cannot be derived without the context of other words. 

I Tweeted something along those lines and my comment became Ferriss' closing argument, and my Twitter account, and this blog, gained some steam. 

Back to Hillary Clinton and MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.

You can always find something about someone—or about someone’s argument—that can be used as a synecdoche. Sometimes, these synecdoches are apt. 

Other times, they obscure the debate. 

Words are imperfect. And so are we. We are all bundles of hypocrisy. 

Does an environmentalist lose all credibility when they buy bottled water? 

Does Al Gore lose all credibility when he flies across the world on fossil-fueled jets? 

Is he a hypocrite unless he rides a horse? 

In conclusion: conversations and debates regarding suicide, income inequality, or climate change—or any other serious topic—are far better served by people arguing with the whole of someone’s argument. 

Do I think Cuban and Wagner were wrong? 

Yes.

But I also know we are all subject to mental models, including myself. And we just need a reminder sometimes. 

2 Very Simple Life Hacks to Improve Your Morning Productivity

At the end of the day, when I've accomplished most of my day's tasks, the last thing I want to do is plan tomorrow's.

It's time to watch Mad Men or Game of Thrones. 

And, because we are living in the golden age of television, I often feel tempted to stay up later. 

I know, however, that planning tomorrow's most important tasks makes me much more effective because I can wake up and get right to work. And if I get started on an important task right away, the momentum will carry me through the rest of the day. I also know that seven or more hours of sleep makes me a more effective, and all-around better, person.

So what to do?

Simple.

Every day's task list begins with:

1.) Sleep at least seven hours

2.) Do ___________. [Important task.]

So, in effect, my day starts the night before when I make the decision to go (or not to go) to sleep. And I only pressure myself to think of one task for tomorrow. 

So far, working pretty well. 

Tim Ferriss post to follow. 

3 Things I Learned About Myself and Productivity This Past Week

Last weekend I unintentionally became involved in a Twitter debate between Tim Ferriss and a critic of his, which unintentionally led to several more subscribers to this blog. (Welcome!) I will address the debate in my next post.

In my last post, I described 7 of the primary ingredients in my productivity workflow. In this post, I'll tackle 3 things I learned in the past week regarding that workflow.

First, some backstory:

After I finished my dissertation, 80% of my schedule opened up for new tasks in pursuit of new goals. It was a moment I dreamt of for more than a year. But when it happened, I felt paralyzed. I had plenty to do, but for the first time there were so many seemingly important next actions. With my dissertation, it was always clear as day what the next Pareto task was.

In addition to this analysis paralysis, my system felt stale to me. In particular, Omnifocus felt stale to me. This was problematic because, as I described last time, Omnifocus contains mostly everything in my life from the most critical tasks all the way to which Netflix series to binge on next.

I tried, and failed, to identify the root cause of these feelings. Perhaps it was a layover from finishing my dissertation. Because so much of my Omnifocus time was spent on my dissertation, maybe I associated the two too closely? Maybe there was a flaw in my system that my subconscious was trying to tell me about? Or maybe it was just a form of procrastination? I didn’t (and don’t) know.

So what to do? Well, rather than sit there stewing about why I felt like I did, I decided to allow myself some modifications to my workflow. In retrospect, I think it was the right move, and one I will use going forward.

My first lesson:

LESSON ONE, THE FERRIS BUELLER PRINCIPLE: Sometimes you hit a wall and the only way forward is to take a look around and shake things up. However, because procrastination can easily take the form of ‘system-tinkering,’ I must be mindful and honest with myself (to the extent possible.)

I took out my sketch pad (even my stick figures don’t look like stick figures, but I like brainstorming in sketch pads.) I wrote down possible things I could do to shake things up and get me riled up for a productive day, week, month. Some ideas would require too much revamping of a system that was pretty finely tuned. Some might work for a day for two, but were quick fixes and unsustainable.

But there was one idea literally in my hand:

My pencil.

Maybe I could just use it a bit more often during the day? It could not replace Omnifocus, etc. (I long ago concluded I was better with digital than analog productivity tools), but it might make things a bit more enjoyable and reduce friction.

Okay, great, so this genius made me read an article about his decision to use pencils more often.

A fair sentiment. But reserve your judgment.

The pencil idea led me to look at one of the beautiful, empty journals l have lying around. Journaling is one of those habits I know pays dividends, but have always failed to do consistently, which is why I have so many beautiful, empty journals.)

I copied some tasks from Omnifocus into my journal and got to work. When a new task came to mind, I put it in my journal, and if I didn’t get to it, I put it into Omnifocus for another day. Zero friction. Analysis paralysis over. Omnifocus felt fresh.

In fact, after a few days of working with both Omnifocus and the journal, I realized that I was becoming better at project planning and assessing how long a given task would take me. I have no conclusive explanation, but I think the act of writing and typing a task made me better define the task.

Hence my second lesson:

LESSON TWO, THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY PENCIL PRINCIPLE: When you face digital resistance, use analog. And when you face analog resistance, go digital. At the risk of redundancy, it might even be better to use both.

As Ernest Hemingway said regarding the writing process:

After you learn to write your whole object is to convey everything, every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion to the reader. To do this you have to work over what you write. If you write with a pencil you get three different sights at it to see if the reader is getting what you want him to. First when you read it over; then when it is typed you get another chance to improve it, and again in the proof.

I continued to use the journal in addition to my normal tools. This led me to the third lesson I drew about myself and my productivity, which is also analogous to one of Ernest Hemingway’s routines:

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.

Translating this idea from a writing workflow to a productivity workflow:

LESSON THREE, THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY HOOK PRINCIPLE: People often stop doing a continuing task when they want to stop doing it, myself included. But, if instead, we stop doing a task when we want to keep going, we will be more motivated to continue the task later. (Just remember to leave good notes about where you left off—another benefit of using a journal.)

There you have it.

Next post: The Tim Ferriss Twitter debate, followed by something interesting from the world of neuroscience.