Destiny Is Another Word for Responsibility

Usually, when we're arguing about two polarized things, something strange happens.It's nature or nurture.It's black or it's white.It's free will or devine intention.

What happens EVERY time is that it's not either or. It's both.

It's not 50/50, it's 100/100. People who say it's 50/50 don't understand that there's something else happening here.It's a convoluted, nuanced interaction between the two sides.This strange cognitive phenomenon is responsible for the trouble we get in when we think about people, careers, socioeconomic status, politics, everything.Take, for instance, genetic predisposition. You're born with it, or you're not.

This is not destiny. It's a responsibility.

We've each been given unique tools to help build something bigger than ourselves. The genes and experiences we have are the gifts of the proper hardware, the things that we have to build with. The software is the act of building.The tool belt we've acquired is not our destiny, since destiny implies that there's nothing you can do to avoid it--which is a fallacy. In this case, what we're talking about is responsibility.We are each responsible for using the tools (our genetic dispositions, our personal narratives, and our social experiences) to help other people.

Technology doesn't just advance. Policies don't just change. People don't just get healthier.

There are a lot of hard working people who have given blood, sweat, tears and many times, their lives, to help other people.

You're moving forward or backward, there's no standing still.

You've been given the weapons. You've been given a set of tools.  You have everything you need.

To be responsible is to be destined.

You are responsible for doing something productive and useful and helpful and generous with the tools you've been given.Now it's time to get to work.

Why You Should Stop Chasing Big Goals

It's not that all big goals are bad. Some seem impossible, but in time, can be achieved.But your goal is to save the world--and that's inherently noble, right?Saving the world is what's known as a "big, hairy, audacious goal." I didn't invent this language, but I think Jim Collins may have.

Here's the thing:

Big, hairy, audacious goals can help us think on the right scale and push ourselves past our comfort zones. But there are good ones as there are bad ones.

Bad big, hairy, audacious goals often come from a place of bravado.

If you think you're like Rambo, going across enemy lines and against all odds, you're going to lose. Stop using magical, romanticized, super-hero thinking and start looking at the facts.Good big, hairy, audacious goals come from a place of doing everything you can to improve the probability of success, even if the only way to change the odds is with decades of disciplined, consistent focus on the important stuff.It's only by looking at this giant goal with a practical lens that you'll be able to break it down into smaller, achievable pieces.Focus on the facts, break them into the smallest possible pieces, and apply disciplined effort.Focus on looking like Rambo and you'll burn out faster than one of those "bar app" startups.

Why Being "Efficient" is a Useless Productivity Strategy

Here's the no B.S. answer many of us have been looking to define:

Efficiency asks "how much output was produced by this amount or this specific type of input?"

Productivity just asks "how much and what kind of output was produced?"

This means:

You can be incredibly efficient and produce something of high (or low) quality.

You can be incredibly inefficient and still produce one thing at a similar level of quality.

What most of us want to know isn't actually either of these. We just want to know if our time and energy created something equal to or greater than our expectations.

Most software projects that use the Waterfall method of development fail. It's something like 80% of the projects come out over budget, past deadline, or with inadequate features.

If the outcome we want isn't what we produce, it doesn't matter how efficient we were.

If we fail, we've got to re-make the product or deal with not having it at all. So either way, it's going to cost at least twice as much! Not exactly ideal outcomes.

Keep this in mind the next time you ask yourself about your productivity:

Efficiency is activity per unit time.

It's like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). If there's an oil spill in Alaska, the America's GDP goes UP! This means we're measuring activity, not productivity!

Productivity is finished work at the level of expected quality or outcome.

Sometimes it might take an entire Sunday of camping with friends, adrenaline injected motorcycle racing or solitary painting in the room above the garage to allow your brain to produce the work that's required for high productivity.

It's easy to fall into the trap of being active and forget to be productive.

Some easy times to forget this:

• Responding to emails.
• Checking your phone for notifications.
• Reading the comments in every Slack channel.

Remember that there are a lot of very smart people who are getting paid to make sure that you don't leave your phone whenever you unlock it.

If you're like me and have to use your brain for a living, this should be terrifying.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Go to your phone's settings right now and turn off notifications for email, Facebook, and any other app that steals your attention. You can check these apps on your time.

Synchronous communication is so 2001.