Something appeals to me far more about the wobbly chair story than the dopamine addiction story. In the wobbly chair story, you spent 1 minute improving your life and didn’t have to think about it again. In the other story, it was a constant battle that required diligence for a while. You can only do so many of those kinds of things at once.
It’s good advice still. When things aren’t working, thinking them through and trying things out is a good move. I just wonder if people have any advice that’s more like the wobbly chair story. Quick, cheap, semi-permanent wins that don’t require willpower.
One of these quick, cheap & semi-permanent wins for me was to uninstall the apps I didn’t want to use (e.g. instagram) & make it difficult to access the ones I sort of wanted to use (e.g. youtube).
Examples I can relate to: - Fixing this keyboard issue that would lead to type the wrong accent each time, or any kind of quick software fix. - buying a bigger cupboard / a pan - setting up a whiteboard in your room - unsubscribe from this spammy mailing-list
But while I agree they are satisfying and fun to look into, I don’t think they are the main point of the article, far from it. First, they DO require willpower. While fixing your wobbly chair or unsubscribing from your mailing list does not take you a lot of energy and time, you first need to a) notice this is a problem b) decide to fix it and c) create a plan to actually fix it. These 3 phases require a lot of willpower. As evidence, they are phases of my life (when I am rested, motivated and in a good social environment) where I can fix multiple such problems in a single day. But they are phases where I can’t do once, It’s just too tiring intellectually. Second, such low-hanging fruits are pretty rare. Most problems are hard to fix, and require careful planning and try/error. The reason why they are important though, is that fixing these “easy problems” set the right dynamic to try fix more challenging ones. And last, focusing on the cheap wins in this way underplays the importance of habits. The number one reason why it is hard to fix your chair is that you took the habit of using it anyway. The reason why you won’t buy this cupboard is that you are used to the smaller impracticable one. When I analyze all the examples the author cites with this glance (breaking habits → new dynamic), I see that they are very similar. And very often, a series of “cheap wins” adds up to a full transformation.
Yeah, the wobbly chair story is a better example. Somehow, I feel more satisfied with it. Perhaps because it is a basically complete solution, for so little work?
But you fix the wobbly chairs so you can build up momentum to fix the dopamine addiction. And I’m not sure if I made this clear, but the stuff I tried for fixing my dopamine addiction did each help a bit, and now I know that if I really want to, I can stack them together to reset my dopamine system. Once done, it is a lot easier to continue to pause it.
So in that sense, these are permanent wins which have reduced the total amount of willpower I need to exert to partially fix my dopamine addictions.
I’ve been tackling many “wobbly chair” problems in my life in the last few years due in large part to adopting just such a mindset: by removing annoyances/distractions, removing friction, and developing new abilities via these types of efforts, I’m able to take on bigger problems and goals. It has been very good for me, in that the scope of my hobbies has grown… but it’s also surprisingly easy to feel like I’ve made no progress against the big issues on days where I’m unwell and struggle to concentrate. These “wobbly chair” type problems, once fixed, become invisible achievements, and I still often get trapped thinking I’m helpless against the big problems.
Something appeals to me far more about the wobbly chair story than the dopamine addiction story. In the wobbly chair story, you spent 1 minute improving your life and didn’t have to think about it again. In the other story, it was a constant battle that required diligence for a while. You can only do so many of those kinds of things at once.
It’s good advice still. When things aren’t working, thinking them through and trying things out is a good move. I just wonder if people have any advice that’s more like the wobbly chair story. Quick, cheap, semi-permanent wins that don’t require willpower.
One of these quick, cheap & semi-permanent wins for me was to uninstall the apps I didn’t want to use (e.g. instagram) & make it difficult to access the ones I sort of wanted to use (e.g. youtube).
This post has good examples of quick, cheap, semi-permanent wins!
Examples I can relate to:
- Fixing this keyboard issue that would lead to type the wrong accent each time, or any kind of quick software fix.
- buying a bigger cupboard / a pan
- setting up a whiteboard in your room
- unsubscribe from this spammy mailing-list
But while I agree they are satisfying and fun to look into, I don’t think they are the main point of the article, far from it. First, they DO require willpower. While fixing your wobbly chair or unsubscribing from your mailing list does not take you a lot of energy and time, you first need to a) notice this is a problem b) decide to fix it and c) create a plan to actually fix it. These 3 phases require a lot of willpower. As evidence, they are phases of my life (when I am rested, motivated and in a good social environment) where I can fix multiple such problems in a single day. But they are phases where I can’t do once, It’s just too tiring intellectually.
Second, such low-hanging fruits are pretty rare. Most problems are hard to fix, and require careful planning and try/error. The reason why they are important though, is that fixing these “easy problems” set the right dynamic to try fix more challenging ones.
And last, focusing on the cheap wins in this way underplays the importance of habits. The number one reason why it is hard to fix your chair is that you took the habit of using it anyway. The reason why you won’t buy this cupboard is that you are used to the smaller impracticable one. When I analyze all the examples the author cites with this glance (breaking habits → new dynamic), I see that they are very similar. And very often, a series of “cheap wins” adds up to a full transformation.
Yeah, the wobbly chair story is a better example. Somehow, I feel more satisfied with it. Perhaps because it is a basically complete solution, for so little work?
But you fix the wobbly chairs so you can build up momentum to fix the dopamine addiction. And I’m not sure if I made this clear, but the stuff I tried for fixing my dopamine addiction did each help a bit, and now I know that if I really want to, I can stack them together to reset my dopamine system. Once done, it is a lot easier to continue to pause it.
So in that sense, these are permanent wins which have reduced the total amount of willpower I need to exert to partially fix my dopamine addictions.
I’ve been tackling many “wobbly chair” problems in my life in the last few years due in large part to adopting just such a mindset: by removing annoyances/distractions, removing friction, and developing new abilities via these types of efforts, I’m able to take on bigger problems and goals. It has been very good for me, in that the scope of my hobbies has grown… but it’s also surprisingly easy to feel like I’ve made no progress against the big issues on days where I’m unwell and struggle to concentrate. These “wobbly chair” type problems, once fixed, become invisible achievements, and I still often get trapped thinking I’m helpless against the big problems.