Work's Inputs and Outputs
Nobody Yet Episode 2
Nobody Yet
I do a weekly podcast where I ramble these thoughts in real time. You can find these lessons elaborated upon in Episode 2. What I’m optimizing for at this moment (Episode 3) also released yesterday. It’s something I’ve been obsessing for the past year and I had so much fun recording it- if there’s any one episode to listen to it’s numero 3 (promise I won’t say that for all of them).
Having recently started in a new role, I have found myself at the very opposite of where I was a month ago when I was between jobs. The goal to kill time is replaced by the obsession to use time wisely; to not waste it since there are so few hours in any day. So far, the novelty of the work has not faded and its weighing curiosities serve as a welcome companion for my daily 3 quarter mile walk to the closest subway entrance. Conceived in the backdrop of talking white noise of surrounding strangers, this inspiration has lead me to think significantly about my current position in work.
And before there is any groaning (why write about work when not working?), I specify the definition of work to be the general “progress towards some goal,” drawing connections across my prior hobbies, trivial pursuits, and general structured and repetitive process of specific effort.
Without considering facets outside the locus of control (ie: luck), I think of output being a product of input- the amount of effort dedicated towards making progress- and leverage- the productivity of an unit of effort. Consider the analogy of climbing a mountain. Output is the elevation climbed, input is the effort expended, and leverage is the technique, gear, and routes used to climb faster.
One prevalent trap I see in myself is the mis-allocated focus between input and output. Ironically, it is the difficult and the uncomfortable qualities of hard work which seduces my pride and allocation of time. Even though it may not be at all conducive for producing more output, there is this feeling of righteousness and honour in “just grind bro,” as if working 2 additional hours after my eyes have withered under the stabs of computer illumination would somehow make me a warrior synonymous with victorious Roman gladiators bathed in the crimson blood of their desecrated enemies.
A poor specification towards desired output over various time horizons further contributes to an over index on output. While an over arching vision is usually always clear, I find the intermediate indicators of progress and corresponding actionable steps to be much more murky. And so, in the laziness to identify helpful indicators of progress, I shoot myself in the foot and continue to work blindly, believing that excessive and extreme dedication, effort, and sacrifice always prevails.
This over reliance on hard work is also not just a doubling down of toughness but also a subtle avoidance of more pressing macro uncertainty. When solely optimizing for hard work, determining a schedule and committing is relatively straightforward, requiring only upfront activation energy and dedication towards discipline which becomes habit over time. Confronting the question of what to genuinely work on can be more uncomfortable; it is comparatively more difficult to bite the bullet and leave a job where there is more to be desired than it is to continue working and maintaining security in the status quo (Region Beta Paradox). Working hard becomes a dangerous form of procrastination where the avoidance of making uncomfortable decisions is rewarded with progress, which further invokes dopaminergic responses and increases sunk cost in making future key decisions.
The certainty of satisfaction in a days hard work sedates the anxiety of making important decisions.
Further perpetuated by society, there is this badge of honour for being a hard worker. And sometimes rightly so. But, there needs to be a subsequent question: at what am I being a hard worker for? Am I being a hard worker just to be a hard worker or am I being a hard worker to make active progress towards a well defined goal I’m looking to accomplish in the next year? For the former, working for the sake of just working seems to depict a lack of intelligence to parley input to desired output.
There are so many people working so hard and achieving so little
Andy Groves
On the contrary, there cannot be a pure focus on output either. The growth of leverage and the production of output is exponential in nature. It is no mistake that many discoveries and successful enterprises are conceived by those who can leverage their crafted expertise, honed processes, and mature networks to make breakneck progress unimaginable to average bystanders. Timelines of weeks shorten to mere days and hours in the presence of mastery.
In great irony, the vast yields of output for seemingly little relative effort in later stages of exponential growth can only be attained through immense dedication and suffering through long periods of almost no output for substantial painstaking dedication.
No one can be an expert without first being a novice for a very long time.
This is when a focus of output can break spirits and lower morale enough for input and enthusiasm- the only leverages beginners have- to never translate into the later wonders of compounding. No progress may be seen for a very long time and the uncertainty surrounding the charted path may erode consistency. It is in this long period where a focus on input is distinctly advantageous.
In this early stage of compounding, patience and consistency are virtues. A reframe on output to maintain excitement in the pursuit is the reminder of the different contexts of outputs. While culminated hard fought victories bring unrivalled euphoric ecstasy, the development of character is what seeds future conquests. It is without a doubt that net worth, career progression, and status can all be suddenly taken away by forces beyond any rhyme or reason.
Accidents. Recessions. War.
On the other hand, lessons and wisdoms hardly ever leave and are very much interdisciplinary. It is the development of character that brings the gifts of competence, ingenuity, grit, and belief in climbing bigger and scarier mountains or surviving the fall into vast and endless ravines.
This “process is more important than the result” cliché can be used to maintain persistence. Despite there being no visible progress towards extrinsically evaluated output, there is some latent improvement of skill and character to be accumulated and later revealed. Often times, this certainty of character outcome is enough to maintain moral.