Category: Wanderings

It’s not just about wanting

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

The desire to want is not enough to make someone do what is needed to get it. This is to say: desire ≠ motivation (to do).

We tend to want a lot more than we can actually get. I feel the solution lies in deeply caring about what you want. If you care enough, you will do enough and make it happen.

You want to learn something, care about learning it. You want to achieve something, care about achieving it. You want to give something, care about giving it.

There are far too many distractions around us. If you don’t care, you won’t do. 

Fixing the bugs in our brain

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

We human beings should be famous for doing irrational things predictably. No, I am not joking.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, wrote a book about it. The take home message from his TED talk is that the only way to stop making some those mistakes is to be able to challenge our intuitions. The inherent difficulty in doing so cannot be overstated but that is exactly why we make those mistakes time and again without realising.

Do what works and not what’s satisfying

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Most of us avoid doing what works, instead we rely on self-made plans which gives us pseudo-satisfaction of working. Looking at patterns of success, Cal Newport of Study Hacks concludes that 

It’s significantly more pleasant to pursue a goal with a plan entirely of our own construction, than to use a plan based on a systematic study of what actually works. The former allows us to pseudo-strive, experiencing the fulfillment of busyness and complex planning while avoiding any of the uncomfortable, deliberate, often harsh difficulties that populate plans of the latter type.

Gladwell’s recommended 10,000 hours will not make people remarkable unless they put in deliberate efforts to become better.