you specify your goal you do that you do
that in some sense as a unique
individual you want to you want to
specify goals that make you say oh if
that could happen as a consequence of my
efforts it would clearly be worthwhile
because the question always is why do
something because doing nothing is easy
you just sit there and you don’t do
anything that’s real easy the question
is why would you ever do anything and
the answer that has to be because you’ve
determined by some means that it’s
worthwhile and then the next question
might be well where should you look for
worthwhile things and one would be well
you could consult your own temperament
and the other would be well you kind of
look at how look at what it is that
people accrue that’s valuable across the
lifespan look look what so you do a
structural analysis of the sub
components of human existence and I
already did that you need a family you
need friends like you don’t need to have
all these things but you better have
most of them family friends career
educational goals plans for you know
time outside of work attention to your
mental and physical health etc you know
those are that’s what life is about and
if you don’t have any of those things
well then all you’ve got left is misery
and suffering so that’s that’s a bad
that’s a bad deal
for you so so once you but once you set
up that that goal structure let’s say
and that’s really in many in many ways
that’s what you should be doing at
universities is that’s exactly what you
should be doing is trying to figure out
who it is that you’re trying to be right
and you aim at that and then use
everything you learned as a means of
building that person that you want to be
and and I really mean want to be I don’t
mean should be even those things those
things are going to overlap and it’s
important to distinguish between those
because that’s partly and this is back
down to the micro routine analysis so I
started saying well you’re gonna try to
make yourself more industrious okay
number one specify your damn goals
because how are you gonna hit something
if you don’t know what it is that isn’t
going to happen and often people won’t
specify their goals too because they
don’t like to specify conditions for
failure so if you keep yourself all
vague and foggy which is real easy
because that’s just a matter of not
doing as well
then you don’t know when you fail and
people might say well I really don’t
want to know when I fail because that’s
painful
so I’ll keep myself blind about when I
fail that’s fine except you’ll fail all
the time then you just won’t know it
until you’ve failed so badly that you’re
done and that can easily happen by the
time you’re 40 so so I would recommend
that you don’t let that happen
so that’s willful blindness right you
could have known but you chose not to
okay so once you get your goal structure
set up you think okay if I can have this
life looks like that might be worth
living despite the fact that it’s going
to be you know anxiety provoking and
threatening and there’s gonna be some
suffering and loss involved in all of
that obviously the goal is to to have a
vision for your life such that all
things considered that justifies your
effort okay so then what do you do well
then then you turn down to the micro
routines it’s like okay well this is
what I’m aiming for how does that
instantiate itself day to day week to
week month to month and that’s where
something like a schedule can be
unbelievably useful Google Calendar
it’s like naked Am schedule and stick to
it okay so what’s the rule with the
schedule it’s not a bloody prison that’s
the first thing that people do wrong is
well I don’t like to have follow a
schedule it’s like well what kind of
schedule are you setting up well I
should I have to do this then I have to
do this then I have to do this you know
and then I just go play video games
because who wants to do all these things
that I have to do it’s like wrong set
the damn schedule up so that you have
the day you want that’s the trick it’s
like okay I’ve got tomorrow if I was
gonna set it up so it was the best
possible day I could have practically
speaking what would it look like well
then you schedule that and obviously
there’s a bit of responsibility that’s
gonna go along with that because if you
have any sense one of the things that
you’re gonna insist upon is that at the
end of the day you’re not in worse shape
than you were that then at the beginning
of the day right that’s a stupid day if
you have a bunch of those in a row you
just dig you know you dig yourself a
hole and then you bury yourself in it’s
like sorry that’s just not a good
strategy it’s a bad strategy
so maybe 20% of your day has to be
responsibility and obligation or maybe
it’s more than that depending on how far
behind you are
but even that you can you can ask
yourself okay well I’ve got these
responsibilities I have to schedule the
damn things in what’s the right ratio of
responsibility to reward and you can ask
yourself that just like you’d negotiate
with someone who is working for you it’s
like okay you gotta work tomorrow okay
so I want you to work tomorrow and you
might say okay well what are you gonna
do for me that makes it likely that I’ll
work for you well you could ask yourself
that you know it’s maybe you do an hour
of responsibility and then you play a
video game for 15 minutes I don’t know
whatever turns your crank man but you
know you have to negotiate with yourself
and not tyrannize yourself like you’re
negotiating with someone that you care
for that you would like to be productive
and have a good life and and that’s how
you make the schedule it’s like and then
you look at the day and you think well
if I had that day that’d be good great
you know and you you’re useless and
horrible so you’ll probably only hit it
with about 70% accuracy but that beats
the hell out of zero right and if you
hit it even with 50% accuracy another
rule is well aim for 51% the next week
or 50 and a half percent for God’s sake
or because you’re gonna hit that
position where things start to loop back
positively and spiral you upward and so
so that’s one way that you can work on
your conscientiousness is a plan of life
you’d like to have and and you do that
partly by referring to social norms
that’s more or less rescuing your father
from the belly of the whale but the way
other way you do that is by having a
little conversation with yourself about
as if you don’t really know who you are
because you know what you like you won’t
do what you’re told you won’t do what
you tell yourself to do you must have
noticed that it’s like you’re a bad
employee and a worse boss and both of
those work you know for you you don’t
know what you want to do and then when
you tell yourself what to do you don’t
do it anyway so you should fire yourself
and find someone else to beat but but
you know my point is is that you have to
understand that you’re not your own
servant so to speak you’re someone that
you have to negotiate with and that’s
and you’re someone that you want to
present the opportunity of having a good
life to and that’s hard for people
because they don’t like themselves very
much so you know they’re always like
cracking the whip and then
procrastinating and cracking the whip
and then procrastinating it’s like God
so boring and such a pathetic way of
spending your time and you know what
that’s like because he probably wastes
like six hours a day and I think we did
an economic calculation about that a
while back right your time is probably
worth 50 bucks an hour something like
that I mean you’re not getting paid that
now but you’re young and so this is
investment time and what you do now is
going to multiply its effects in the
future so so let’s say it’s 50 bucks an
hour which is perfectly reasonable so if
you waste six hours a day and you are
then you’re wasting about two thousand
dollars a week or about $100,000 a year
so like go ahead but that’s what it’s
costing you every hour and you need to
know what your damn time is worth so
let’s say it’s not 50 bucks it’s 30
whatever maybe it’s a hundred it’s
somewhere in that range one of the
things you should be asking yourself is
when you spend an hour was that well
what if I paid someone 50 bucks to have
had that hour and if the answer is no
it’s like well maybe you should do
something else with your time and it
depends on whether or not you think that
your time is worth while but the funny
thing about not assuming that is if you
assume your time isn’t worthwhile what
happens is you don’t just sit around
sort of randomly in a state of
responsibility less bliss what you do is you suffer existentially
that in some sense as a unique
individual you want to you want to
specify goals that make you say oh if
that could happen as a consequence of my
efforts it would clearly be worthwhile
because the question always is why do
something because doing nothing is easy
you just sit there and you don’t do
anything that’s real easy the question
is why would you ever do anything and
the answer that has to be because you’ve
determined by some means that it’s
worthwhile and then the next question
might be well where should you look for
worthwhile things and one would be well
you could consult your own temperament
and the other would be well you kind of
look at how look at what it is that
people accrue that’s valuable across the
lifespan look look what so you do a
structural analysis of the sub
components of human existence and I
already did that you need a family you
need friends like you don’t need to have
all these things but you better have
most of them family friends career
educational goals plans for you know
time outside of work attention to your
mental and physical health etc you know
those are that’s what life is about and
if you don’t have any of those things
well then all you’ve got left is misery
and suffering so that’s that’s a bad
that’s a bad deal
for you so so once you but once you set
up that that goal structure let’s say
and that’s really in many in many ways
that’s what you should be doing at
universities is that’s exactly what you
should be doing is trying to figure out
who it is that you’re trying to be right
and you aim at that and then use
everything you learned as a means of
building that person that you want to be
and and I really mean want to be I don’t
mean should be even those things those
things are going to overlap and it’s
important to distinguish between those
because that’s partly and this is back
down to the micro routine analysis so I
started saying well you’re gonna try to
make yourself more industrious okay
number one specify your damn goals
because how are you gonna hit something
if you don’t know what it is that isn’t
going to happen and often people won’t
specify their goals too because they
don’t like to specify conditions for
failure so if you keep yourself all
vague and foggy which is real easy
because that’s just a matter of not
doing as well
then you don’t know when you fail and
people might say well I really don’t
want to know when I fail because that’s
painful
so I’ll keep myself blind about when I
fail that’s fine except you’ll fail all
the time then you just won’t know it
until you’ve failed so badly that you’re
done and that can easily happen by the
time you’re 40 so so I would recommend
that you don’t let that happen
so that’s willful blindness right you
could have known but you chose not to
okay so once you get your goal structure
set up you think okay if I can have this
life looks like that might be worth
living despite the fact that it’s going
to be you know anxiety provoking and
threatening and there’s gonna be some
suffering and loss involved in all of
that obviously the goal is to to have a
vision for your life such that all
things considered that justifies your
effort okay so then what do you do well
then then you turn down to the micro
routines it’s like okay well this is
what I’m aiming for how does that
instantiate itself day to day week to
week month to month and that’s where
something like a schedule can be
unbelievably useful Google Calendar
it’s like naked Am schedule and stick to
it okay so what’s the rule with the
schedule it’s not a bloody prison that’s
the first thing that people do wrong is
well I don’t like to have follow a
schedule it’s like well what kind of
schedule are you setting up well I
should I have to do this then I have to
do this then I have to do this you know
and then I just go play video games
because who wants to do all these things
that I have to do it’s like wrong set
the damn schedule up so that you have
the day you want that’s the trick it’s
like okay I’ve got tomorrow if I was
gonna set it up so it was the best
possible day I could have practically
speaking what would it look like well
then you schedule that and obviously
there’s a bit of responsibility that’s
gonna go along with that because if you
have any sense one of the things that
you’re gonna insist upon is that at the
end of the day you’re not in worse shape
than you were that then at the beginning
of the day right that’s a stupid day if
you have a bunch of those in a row you
just dig you know you dig yourself a
hole and then you bury yourself in it’s
like sorry that’s just not a good
strategy it’s a bad strategy
so maybe 20% of your day has to be
responsibility and obligation or maybe
it’s more than that depending on how far
behind you are
but even that you can you can ask
yourself okay well I’ve got these
responsibilities I have to schedule the
damn things in what’s the right ratio of
responsibility to reward and you can ask
yourself that just like you’d negotiate
with someone who is working for you it’s
like okay you gotta work tomorrow okay
so I want you to work tomorrow and you
might say okay well what are you gonna
do for me that makes it likely that I’ll
work for you well you could ask yourself
that you know it’s maybe you do an hour
of responsibility and then you play a
video game for 15 minutes I don’t know
whatever turns your crank man but you
know you have to negotiate with yourself
and not tyrannize yourself like you’re
negotiating with someone that you care
for that you would like to be productive
and have a good life and and that’s how
you make the schedule it’s like and then
you look at the day and you think well
if I had that day that’d be good great
you know and you you’re useless and
horrible so you’ll probably only hit it
with about 70% accuracy but that beats
the hell out of zero right and if you
hit it even with 50% accuracy another
rule is well aim for 51% the next week
or 50 and a half percent for God’s sake
or because you’re gonna hit that
position where things start to loop back
positively and spiral you upward and so
so that’s one way that you can work on
your conscientiousness is a plan of life
you’d like to have and and you do that
partly by referring to social norms
that’s more or less rescuing your father
from the belly of the whale but the way
other way you do that is by having a
little conversation with yourself about
as if you don’t really know who you are
because you know what you like you won’t
do what you’re told you won’t do what
you tell yourself to do you must have
noticed that it’s like you’re a bad
employee and a worse boss and both of
those work you know for you you don’t
know what you want to do and then when
you tell yourself what to do you don’t
do it anyway so you should fire yourself
and find someone else to beat but but
you know my point is is that you have to
understand that you’re not your own
servant so to speak you’re someone that
you have to negotiate with and that’s
and you’re someone that you want to
present the opportunity of having a good
life to and that’s hard for people
because they don’t like themselves very
much so you know they’re always like
cracking the whip and then
procrastinating and cracking the whip
and then procrastinating it’s like God
so boring and such a pathetic way of
spending your time and you know what
that’s like because he probably wastes
like six hours a day and I think we did
an economic calculation about that a
while back right your time is probably
worth 50 bucks an hour something like
that I mean you’re not getting paid that
now but you’re young and so this is
investment time and what you do now is
going to multiply its effects in the
future so so let’s say it’s 50 bucks an
hour which is perfectly reasonable so if
you waste six hours a day and you are
then you’re wasting about two thousand
dollars a week or about $100,000 a year
so like go ahead but that’s what it’s
costing you every hour and you need to
know what your damn time is worth so
let’s say it’s not 50 bucks it’s 30
whatever maybe it’s a hundred it’s
somewhere in that range one of the
things you should be asking yourself is
when you spend an hour was that well
what if I paid someone 50 bucks to have
had that hour and if the answer is no
it’s like well maybe you should do
something else with your time and it
depends on whether or not you think that
your time is worth while but the funny
thing about not assuming that is if you
assume your time isn’t worthwhile what
happens is you don’t just sit around
sort of randomly in a state of
responsibility less bliss what you do is you suffer existentially
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