Focusing on results only

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After Tokyo, we should bring the Olympic charade to an end | David Goldblatt | The Guardian:
“Ask the Finns, who abandoned the state-sponsored pursuit of medals and spent the money instead on active transport and accessible facilities. They barely win anything any more, but they have the most active and healthy old people in the world. In Britain we have a sack of gold and an obesity crisis.”

Focusing on results, just for the sake of results, is a wrong way of solving problems.

The best option? Work on the long run.

Don’t find an arbitrary goal, focus on long term.

A book on this subject: Amazon.com: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life eBook : Adams, Scott: Kindle Store.

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Teaching with kindness

Kinder

I read recently a quote in the line of (very approximate quote, and I couldn’t find the original writer of it:

If you have trouble teaching some person something, that’s because you haven’t explained it kind enough.

That’s so true! A lot of times I blame, whenever I have issue explaining something, the technical aspects – I wasn’t good enough, smart enough. But it’s mostly related to kindness, to the happiness of sharing, to the joy of presenting something.

If I say something in a kind voice, if I care, then likely I will get some feedback, people will ask questions, I’ll get a glimpse on why the person didn’t learn that well.

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A quote from Begin Again (2013) I like a lot

Begin Again (2013)

There’s this quote from Begin Again (2013) that I like a lot:

– That’s what I love about music.
– What?
– One of the most banal scenes is suddenly invested with so much meaning, you know? All these banalities, they’re suddenly turned into these… these beautiful, effervescent pearls. From music.
I’ve got to say, as I’ve gotten older, these pearls are just… becoming increasingly more and more rare to me.

Begin Again (2013).

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Pleasant bosses

Ralf Κλενγελ - Veroniká

I’ve known persons that started businesses and had success with them.

At a cost, though – the happiness and peace of mind of their employees.

You can have an employer that is a pleasant person, knows how to be attractive, but when they get in a situation of power, they have no hesitation if showing their power.

I don’t especially admire those kinds of persons.

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How to be confident?

enjosmith - New growth

Dr. Julie Gurner on Twitter:

What is the secret of truly confident people? Let’s pull back the curtain.

Even when you’re fantastic at what you do, you may have moments of insecurity professionally or elsewhere.

[…]

The secret is ridiculously simple: Their focus & where they operate.
– Insecure people focus on what they’re *not* good at & confront it often.
– Confident people focus on what they *are* good at & operate here regularly.
This mentally positions them for everything that comes.

The answer seems to be simple – try to focus on what you do best.

A lot of times we focus on the negative.

When you think of feedback from colleagues, negative thoughts come to mind.

When you consider feedback in the formal education, generally the “you’re lacking this” comes up.

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Comparison

Robertino Radovix - Volti dell' India

Sometimes, I compare myself with great thinkers and writers, and look at the things they’ve read and, most of them, I haven’t.

There’s just a tiny, small, miniscule issue with this thinking – I’m not a professional writer. My main job is not writing.

It’s like comparing a person who jogs half an hour in the evenings with a professional.

And whom do I admire, the “regular” professionals or the top performers? You got it – the top performers. So, coming back to the comparison, it’s like comparing myself with people who win national contests and go to Olympiad to represent the country.
I’ll let myself go this time. ;)

Are those people better? The problem is that there are no terms of comparison. What’s better – water or a spoon? You can’t compare these.

Give me some slack. :)

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The paradox of The paradox of choice

darwin Bell - Sophie's Choice

Barry Schwartz has a famous TED Talk on The paradox of choice.

Basically, he says that having multiple options from which to choose can actually make someone rather unhappy with the choice.

I think that if you go in a store, and you see 100 types of jeans, yes, what he says is true.

But if you go in an online store and there are 100 or perhaps even 1,000 types of pants, but you can easily see the ones that have been sold the most, or have recently been added, or you can read an article about the trends of 2021 and out of the 1,000 jeans there are 5 listed which are great, or you read an article that presents you with the most durable jeans, then, perhaps, you’ll be happier.

“I have the best jeans out of a selection of 1,000 jeans” means more than “I went to a store with 5 types of jeans, I thoroughly examined them all, and picked one”.

Sorting and filtering change the behavior.

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