I recently read the book “The Algebra of Happiness” by Scott Galloway and I really recommend it. It has some great insights about life, love, work and success – as well as the relationships between those.
In reading it, I came across the following segment:
The ratio of time you spend sweating to watching others sweat is a forward-looking indicator of your success.
Show me a guy who watches ESPN every night, spends all day Sunday watching football, and doesn’t work out, and I’ll show you a future of anger and failed relationships. Show me someone who sweats every day and spends as much time playing sports as watching them on TV, and I’ll show you someone who is good at life.
Scott Galloway
Doing vs seeing
To me, it points out something very important: The relationship between creating and consuming. Between doing and seeing.
Often, when we want to accomplish something, we can get a sweat ratio that is too low, because we want to research and become smarter. And learning more is commendable, don’t get me wrong. But learning in order to cover up fear of action is not. At that point, reading has simply become procrastination. It’s called analysis paralysis.
That’s annoying, as reading theory feels very productive. It feels like we are getting closer to our goal of starting a business, getting success or becoming a better person. But we are not. We are simply consuming information.
A useful rule of thumb is: If we don’t put it to action, we are merely doing shelf-development, not self-development. And that’s okay sometimes – but we need to make it a conscious decision.
Just-in-time Learning
Instead of consuming every piece of content we come across, we can use the concept of Just-in-time Learning (JITL). JITL means putting off learning until the point where you need it.
If you are starting a startup and have yet to find product-market fit, it is unproductive to read books about how to manage 20 employees. A book about getting your first customers might be a better fit. When you are closer to managing 20 employees, however, that book might be invaluable.
Ask yourself: Is gaining this knowledge the very best next step I can take to reach my goal? If not, put the book away and get to work.
