💡 1/ Improving decision making, leverage or impact of work is much harder than just working 24x7. Most of the advice today is only on working hard and all the time. We are focusing on the wrong things. Here are some thoughts on this matter.
2/ Before the information age, there wasn’t much difference between people as it’s physically limiting how many more things you can make than another person, even if you were more skilled or worked all the time.
3/ But today, outcomes of work can be massively different due to the leverage of tools and the vast past knowledge, e.g., WhatsApp built a 20bn company, serving almost 1 billion people with less than 50 people.
4/ Here are some general tips I have learned over the years that has helped me advance, while not working myself to a faster death.
5/ Becoming an expert is essential to create an impact, and it takes many years of deliberate practice and hard work. Highly recommend reading Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years norvig.com/21-days.html — it applies to any field and not only programming.
6/ To advance your skills faster work on things that are outside of your comfort zone and try to spend as much time as possible in the flow state. I highly recommend this book on flow goodreads.com/book/show/6635…
7/ Physical and mental health are critical for long-term performance. You must do this for 10+ years so slacking on sleep, exercise, health, social life, vacations, etc. is counterproductive and horrible for your well-being and productivity (i.e. think long-term).
8/ In the age of distractions and one-liners, the ability to think deeply and focus are significant competitive advantages. Create an environment where you aren't distracted and where you can practice your ability to focus.
9/ Invest heavily in improving your areas of competence and mental models. Can highly recommend reading a lot and on diverse subjects. For some general mental models check out fs.blog/mental-models/
11/ Please share some tips and feedback on how to create work that's impactful and not only focusing on working hard or all the time 👍
