Discipline

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

-Winston Churchill

We all want to be disciplined. We all want to be better. At least, I hope we do. 

When I look at those who lived lives I admire, there’s a consistent thread. They’re prolific. To be prolific they are consistent, resilient, and highly dependable. If you want something done, give it to the busiest person in the room. To be great, you need the abilities of that busy person.

Isaac Asimov, Richard Feynman, Julius Caesar, and Winston Churchill were all consistently prolific in their day. Some modern day versions of this are Tyler Cowen with his blogs/articles/books, and Brandon Sanderson still early in his career with 40+ books he’s released. Stephen King has released 90+ books, while even George RR Martin who is stigmatized as slow to release books has written at least 24. Isaac Asimov who arguably was the best science fiction writer of his day wrote or edited over 500 books not including his over 90,000 letters and postcards. 

Some humans just do more. The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, stipulates that 20% of a group produces 80% of the output. We see this in nature with animals and even with seeds where 20% of the seeds result in 80% of plants. The far end of the distribution is even more skewed. Power laws are inherent in venture investing where it’s common knowledge that your top performing portfolio company will equal the returns of all your other investments combined. In the US, the top 1% of taxpayers pay ~40% of all federal income tax. The extremes of society are important for both the positive and the negative. The extremes of accomplishments tend to be taken by a select few.

Quantity begets quality, whether it be war (Genghis Khan and his generals running circles around the world), writing, politics (Warren destroying Bloomberg, Ted Kennedy schooling Romney), comedy (Seinfeld talks about not breaking the chain or read Born Standing Up by Steve Martin), music (Mozart, The Beatles), sports, meditation, or any other endeavor. The best in the world spend massive amounts of time on deliberate practice. 

When I was younger, I thought the possibilities were endless. In a sense they were, but as we age, our obligations increase with our work, friends, family, and partners. The little time left gets spent on select hobbies. If you’re like me, the amount of truly free-time you have is filled with a backlog of projects and items on a to-do list. Consistency is the only way to complete them.

I’m not perfect. I’m not optimal. No one is. No one will ever be… well, maybe some future, awesome AGI will. In the meantime, us humans can strive to be optimal and work to be better, but we don’t have to feel bad for not being 100% every single day. A little bit of discipline goes a long way. Set basic goals within reach and accomplish them. Set reminders, make to-do lists, and reward yourself when you accomplish tasks. Mirror those with dragon energy.