This post has influenced my evaluations of what I am doing in practice by forcing me to consider lowering the bar for expected success for high return activities. Despite “knowing” about how to shut up and multiply, and needing to expect a high failure rate if taking reasonable levels of risk, I didn’t consciously place enough weight on these. This helped move me more in that direction, which has led to both an increased number of failures to get what I hoped, and a number of mostly unexpected successes when applying for / requesting / attempting things.
It is worth noting that I still need to work on the reaction I have to failing at these low cost, high-risk activities. I sometimes have a significant emotional reaction to failing, which is especially problematic because the emotional reaction to failing at a long-shot can influence my mood for multiple days or weeks afterwards.
This post has influenced my evaluations of what I am doing in practice by forcing me to consider lowering the bar for expected success for high return activities. Despite “knowing” about how to shut up and multiply, and needing to expect a high failure rate if taking reasonable levels of risk, I didn’t consciously place enough weight on these. This helped move me more in that direction, which has led to both an increased number of failures to get what I hoped, and a number of mostly unexpected successes when applying for / requesting / attempting things.
It is worth noting that I still need to work on the reaction I have to failing at these low cost, high-risk activities. I sometimes have a significant emotional reaction to failing, which is especially problematic because the emotional reaction to failing at a long-shot can influence my mood for multiple days or weeks afterwards.