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There is no do, only try

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I was reading a technology forum the other day when somebody asked a question that kind of went like this: "I am a programmer. I've noticed lately that my attention span is getting shorter and shorter. Could you guys provide me with quick advice on how to make my attention span longer?"

I suppose something in the form of a XKCD comic or a couple of sentences might not be too much?

On one hand, I really feel for the guy, as evidenced by my own struggles with distractions. But on the other hand, something's out of whack.

A blog I read a year or two ago put it kind of like this: "Somewhere there is a 300-pound man in the latest running gear -- expensive shoes, clothes, cardio equipment, etc -- sitting on the couch eating Doritos and reading the latest "Runner's World" magazine article about how to improve your marathon times. This man has not ran for twenty years and will not go running any time soon."

It's the drive-by, magpie, spectator-in-the-sky thing again. Let me pick up this little shiny bit of information -- it gives me joy to collect shinnies -- and imagine for a moment that one day I actually might be doing something where I would need it. This imagining gives me a brief sense of satisfaction without any of the pain that would go into actually doing it.

My response was to quote Yoda: "There is no try, only do." which means either do something or don't, but even begin to fool yourself into thinking that collecting little easy-to-eat bits sparkly of wisdom is actually doing much of anything at all.

I'm working on a server deployment issue right now -- trying to cram F# into a web hosting provider that doesn't want to run anything in beta -- and I was thinking about what a pain that's been over the last couple of days. Why does everything have to be so complicated? So late last night I posted my question over on HubF#. The guys over there are awesome and I had many replies by the time I got up.

None of which were very useful, unfortunately. But it's not their fault.

One guy was doing something completely different, but my words sounded kind of the same to him (perhaps he was just scanning because of a lack of attention skills?) so he posted his link where he solved a different problem. A couple of guys gave a blanket answer that you would have picked up from any Microsoft sales pitch over the last ten years.

Actually I used the post as sort of a negative indicator -- there is no obvious easy answer. So I assume that means it is doable, just frustrating. That's good news! Means I'm a bit ahead of the curve. So today I set about doing it.

Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks ago the same amount of frustration would have probably stymied me -- as you solve problems, you build up "problem muscle" that you can use to solve even more problems. Eventually you're like "okay, this is going to be very painful and frustrating, but I'll work my way through it. I always do. Let's start!"

One of the things I notice when training technology teams is that good team are always making up excuses to succeed whereas poor teams are always making up excuses for why they can't. That's why when I'm coaching the critical thing I look for is how the team solves problems, and the critical thing I provide is a way for the team to increase their "problem muscle"

The fascinating part of this is that it does not depend on success. I very well may work for a few more days and never be able to solve the problem. But still I benefit from the attempt. It's a no-lose situation, but it requires action and not speculation.

Yoda was wrong, but he had a good point. There is no do -- accomplishing a goal is what you focus on but it's not the real reward. The real reward is being able to try -- to execute -- better and better each time you move towards a goal. Want a better attention span? Go make yourself do something that requires it. When you're done -- even if you fail -- you have a better attention span.

Want to learn how to improve your marathon time? Get off the couch and try running to the mailbox.

There is no do, only try.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on November 23, 2009 4:56 PM.

Work at Home Heaven was the previous entry in this blog.

Managing Technology Means Being Wrong a lot is the next entry in this blog.

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