I can’t remember the last time I learned a new skill where the stakes for not being successful were bodily harm. I’m talking, of course, about alligator wrestling learning how to ski. Somehow, despite growing up in a locale with long, cold, and snowy winters, I had never gone skiing in my entire life until a few weeks ago. It was probably mostly a function of it always overlapping with hockey season in my youth and then being a poor teacher and then poorer graduate student for most of my 20’s. Nonetheless, a few weeks ago I found myself looking up at a mountain in New Hampshire with skis on my feet and a full day of either a.) learning how to ski and having fun or b.) failing to learn how to ski and not having all that much fun.
To cut the story short, I did successfully learn the basics such that I was able to go up the chairlift and find my way back down the mountain multiple times without completely beefing it.
The reason I bring it up here, though, is to quickly explore the effect that high stakes has on attention. While I took to heart the advice to keep myself under control at all times, there were a handful of moments where I found myself going over some ungroomed/bumpy snow with slightly too much speed with trees slightly too close for comfort where the quality of my attention was sublime. There was nothing other than me, the snow, and trying to stay on my feet so I wouldn’t have to be taken down the mountain on a stretcher. In a classic example of finding flow, my available skill was ever so barely in balance with the challenge I was being presented.
High stakes put an edge to attention that I find extremely useful and enjoyable. Are physical high stakes the only thing that does this? Is it more skillful to be able to bring that quality of attention to even low stakes activities? Is this why Cal Newport’s advice in Deep Work to set potentially unreasonable deadlines for yourself works? Did I just write a whole article about flow and not realize it until just now?
All I know is that I’m ready to go skiing again.
Good Things
Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction: I can be a very unsympathetic person when it comes to reading because a.) I don’t have kids (which means I have lots of time for reading), b.) I like to read, c.) I’m a relatively fast reader, and d.) I read a lot. At the same time, however, I can still feel the tugs on my attention that try to distract me from diving deep into a book.
Workism Is Making Americans Miserable: I was introduced to a new word in this article — workism. Basically, the idea of worshiping work almost like a religion. The article equates workism with hours worked but I immediately started thinking about what workism would look like if you were obsessed with how you worked rather than how much. More to come on this, I think...
Beliefs: I’m in love with the idea of capturing my beliefs into some kind of living document and revising it over time. This is such a good example of what it could look like.
Why the Siri Face Is All I Need from My Apple Watch: I pine for a future where all my devices are excellent at giving me contextual information and notifications. Basically, I want my devices to know what I’m doing, what I should be doing, and to help me take action in that direction. The Apple Watch is the closest thing to that right now and the Siri face is where the action happens. This article convinced me to give it another go.
Closing Round
Playing: Cribbage With Grandpas (iOS). Yes, it’s a video game where you play cribbage with a grandpa. And yes, you can customize your grandpa.
Eating: I got a pizza stone and I learned how to make homemade dough so I’m turning into even more of a pizza fiend than I was before.
Listening: Cloud Cult (Apple Music/Spotify) seems like one of those bands I should’ve been listening to since college but somehow I only got turned on to them in the last year or so. They’re incredible.
Working: How do you teach a smart person to do the work we do as an internal change agent? I’ve been wrestling with a coaching curriculum centered on organizational change for the past few weeks.
Drinking: I accidentally bought dark roast coffee. I’m drinking it under protest.
Reading: Still working my way through Figuring by Maria Popova. I can’t decide if it’s terrible or great. I also re-read Digital Minimalism last weekend. More to come on that...
Podcasts: I’m in the midst of a digital detox (see Digital Minimalism above) so I’m podcastless at the moment. Prior to kicking off my digital detox, though, I listened to the multi-episode arc of the Apollo 13 mission on the Brady Heywood podcast. It was so, so, good (and talk about a situation requiring the sharpening of attention for all involved...)
That’s it for this week. As always, feel free to reply to this email to say hello. If you’re so inclined forwarding this to someone you think might dig it is the best compliment you can give.