How Caring Less Will Make You More Productive - Monster.com
Posted by XenokRoy 10 years, 6 months ago to Philosophy
As I read this article I thought that I would like a few others opinions on it. For now I will not express mine, but I am curious about this groups thoughts on the article.
I was reading going really, does anyone believe this nonsense. Care about what you do less, do not think about it and you will become better at it.
Makes me want to post it on progressive/liberal/communist site and see what they have to say about the article.
I could not believe it came from someone at forbes. I did not think it to be a do not think, do not care just get done what your told kind a magazine. Perhaps my understanding of them was all wrong.
or just get something out there, and maybe if we get around to it we will fix it later. Seems to work for them as we all use something from microsucks.
In that half assed, good enough for government work sort of way.
Not in the way I want to work, nor would that work ethic have any hope of producing things I want to buy.
Pardon my French, but...
Complete and total horseshit.
My body and brain have never given out from endless preparation or planning; it's always execution that exhausts me.
"If you’re like me, you have plenty of evidence that it is possible to over-prepare, overwork and overthink, yet many of us continue to do so anyway because the notion of doing our best and working hard is so deeply ingrained into who we are."
More horseshit.
There's a word for "over-prepare" and "over-think"... it's called, "procrastination", and on that subject I rank as unchallenged expert.
"Care less about consequences and more about requirements. Sometimes it really is better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. I’d rather be a successful mercenary who was willing to break some rules than a failed idealist who was too afraid to take risk."
Okay, that I can go along with. As a failed idealist too afraid to take risks... well it's probably not the same issue. Fear of success isn't the same as perfectionism, I guess.
"Care less about perfection and more about completion. Instead of thinking about everything that you could or want to do, consider doing only what is good enough—to launch, to produce, to begin. The quicker you get something out there, the more you can accomplish and the faster you can learn. Accept the fact that you’ll make mistakes and embrace those future missteps as the best learning experiences of your life."
AUGH! This is not the way I was taught. "Good enough" is not professional. "Good enough" is what lazy slobs do who care more about collecting their paychecks than earning their pay.
"When you love what you do, you tend to be better at it. And aren’t you less likely to fail—and more confident and able to take creative, calculated risk in the future—when you’re better at what you do?"
And how to reconcile this with the above? When you're doing "good enough" and slipshod work, you're not going to get better. Faster, maybe (and God knows moderns care more about fast than good).
"Care less about what could go right and more about what could go wrong. Obviously, don’t be a pessimist. But do consider the major risks of your enterprises, strategies and actions. And plan for the possibility that those tragedies will strike. In his book, Great By Choice, Jim Collins makes the fantastic point that being productively paranoid allows us to avoid the fatal mistakes, which are nonrecoverable."
And the ultimate expression of this is procrastination. If you do nothing, you make no fatal mistakes. You don't accomplish anything, but you sure as heck won't screw up... Again, I'm an expert on that subject...
"Care less about what is next and more about what is now. I love the concept of zen. And meditation. And mindfulness. I know next to nothing about them, but, to me, those concepts mean to ignore the distractions once on our productively paranoid paths. Or to simply ‘get ‘er done’, as I so often used to hear in the Army."
Because eastern mysticism, such as zen, was key to building the U.S. and making it the most productive powerhouse the world ever knew... pffft
"Caring less doesn’t mean being careless. It means caring more about fewer things; prioritizing what’s important and eliminating what isn’t; recognizing what’s good enough and what’s too much; concentrating your efforts, skills and attention; learning when to think, when to do and when to rest."
Well, that's the clever trick, isn't it? Prioritizing what's important and eliminating what isn't requires that one be able to distinguish what is important and what isn't. Recognizing what's good enough and what's too much, again, requires that one be ABLE to distinguish between "good enough" and "best", and further, being non-OCD and able to accept shoddy... I mean "good enough".
And I've never been able to stop thinking, sorry. I work, I think; if my work doesn't require mental effort, I think about other things. If I rest, I think. I think, therefore I am.