The Truth Curve

Is it possible to be lazy and accomplish what you want to do or do you need to work hard in order to succeed? 

I’ve been thinking about this question ever since I stumbled upon the Productivity Showdown at Slackermanager where Steve Pavlina and Fred Gratzon (author of The Lazy Way to Success) engaged in a three-day debate about whether it’s laziness or hard work that leads to success.  After having eagerly consumed both Fred’s book and Steve’s posts, I still felt empty, having gotten no closer to an answer.  They both seemed right but if that were true, that would be paradoxical.

This paradox naturally intrigued me so I was compelled to resolve it.  In order to resolve it, let’s go back to the very definition of work.  But not to the kind of work that people do at their jobs (though we will get to that soon), but rather Work, as is used in physics.  Simply, Work is the transfer of energy from one system to another.  The simplest formula is W=Fd (where Work is Force multiplied by distance).  Any combination of force and distance can achieve some amount of Work.  You can have a small force going for a long distance or a large force going a short distance to accomplish the same amount of Work.  Work always involves motion of some sort.  For example, if you have to move a boulder, you have several options to accomplish this.  You could push it (using the force of your muscles), you could set it on an incline so that it rolls down by itself (using the force of gravity), you could pull it with a tractor (using technology), or you could use any number of other methods to get the boulder to move some distance.

Most options for getting Work done fall into the following categories:

• Your own labor
• Someone else’s labor
• Technology (e.g. tractor, computer, ox)
• Time, growth, or natural change
• Natural laws or resources (e.g. gravity, a waterfall, sun’s energy)

Now let’s see if we can apply the physics law to the world of work as we think of it.  Suppose you have some work you want to do.  Before you roll up your sleeves and get to work, consider the following: 

Work is a noun before it is a verb.

In other words, a Work is an accomplishment, an end result of force applied over distance.  But what does that mean?  It means that if you view work as an end result and not an activity (at least not yet), you open up the possibility of multiple paths to get to that result.  Let me give an example.

Let’s say that you have to add 1,000 numbers together. How many different ways are there to accomplish this task?  You have options from among the categories I listed above.  You could add the numbers yourself using a pencil and paper, you could use a calculator, you could write a computer program that will do this for you, you could delegate it to someone else to do or find some other solution I didn’t list.  In this example, you have multiple options for adding the numbers and you can choose one or more to complete the task.  But is this true for all tasks?  No, and this is where the interesting paradox comes in.

Some tasks have a single option: Your own labor.  For example, if you want to build muscle, I know of no way to delegate it, to use technology to do it for you (though you can certainly use weights or machines to assist you), to use natural resources, or time.  There is only you and if this is something you wish to accomplish, then you have to do the work.

You can only be lazy when you have options.  I believe this is what Fred Gratzon means in his book when he encourages one to find the lever.  In other words, finding the lever means finding the easy, clever solution that doesn’t require you to do any work.  But this is where Fred Gratzon’s book stops short for he doesn’t delve into tasks that have no options other than one’s own labor.  And there are many such tasks.  In fact, a lot of worthwhile tasks fall into this category. For those tasks, you have no choice but to do them yourself. 

So, what I conclude is not that laziness and work are opposites that are in conflict but rather, that they are labels for two different situations: one in which you have a choice, and one in which you don’t have a choice. Work begins where options end. But, as Fred Gratzon indicates in his book, it need not be work if you follow your bliss.

Now that I look at it that way, it’s no longer a paradox.

Tags: Laziness, Paradox, Work by Julie
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In ancient Greece, the ship of Theseus was a ship named after the legendary king of Athens. This ship sailed for many years but as time went on, it began to break down and was in need of repair. First, one board was removed and replaced with a new board, then another and another. Then, the mast needed repair and it was removed and replaced with a new mast.  After fifty years, this ship contained all new material and none of its original parts remained.  Can this ship be said to be the same ship or is it a different ship?  This is a classic philosophical problem of identity.

While the philosophers debate this problem, I want to use the ship as a metaphor.  The paradox of the ship illuminates a path that each of us can take to make small changes over time that collectively, amount to one large change.  The concept of systematic replacement can be used to make change easy, palatable, and permanent, without completely disrupting our identities.

What in your life needs a big change that you can’t bring yourself to make?  Is it too daunting to lose weight, to start a new career, or to finish school?  Can you instead make the change in small steps, using this method of systematic replacement?  Not every change lends itself to this method, but many changes do.  For example, changing one’s diet lends itself to this method while switching jobs may not.  Exercising may but breaking off a relationship may not.

Weight Loss with Splenda 

After my son was born, I realized that I had lost only ten of the 25 pounds I gained during pregnancy.  Three months went by and my weight wasn’t dropping.  I was always thin and I wasn’t used to having this extra weight around.  I had never dieted in my life but this situation made me impatient and annoyed enough to decide to start a diet.  So I bought the South Beach Diet book and began the recommended course. I tried making the recipes and I stayed away from carbs.  It was all very tedious and difficult and with a three-month old infant, it wasn’t easy.  After about three weeks, I gave up on the diet.  However, there was one thing that stuck with me and that was using Splenda.  One of the recommendations in the book was to use Splenda instead of sugar.  Since I never dieted before, I never had a need to use any alternative sweeteners. I had tried Sweet N’ Low and Equal at some point in my life just for fun but never liked them.  But since I was on this diet, I committed to buying and using Splenda in my tea.  Oddly enough, it was tasty and therefore, was just as easy to use as sugar.  The South Beach Diet is a long-forgotten memory but to this day, I still use Splenda in my tea.  It was a small change that became permanent.  After 12 months, I lost the rest of my weight and a few more pounds, bringing me down below my pre-pregnancy weight.  I can’t attribute my entire weight loss to replacing sugar with Splenda but it did make some difference:

A teaspoon of sugar is 15 calories; I drink two cups of tea per day and use one teaspoon of sugar in each cup. Splenda has 0 calories so I was saving 30 calories per day regardless of the other things I was eating.  So 30 calories per day for 365 days equals 10,950 calories that I did not consume.  Each pound is roughly 3,500 calories so I can attribute about 3 pounds (or one-fifth) of weight loss to replacing sugar with Splenda.

Not much, you say.  Not in itself, no, but imagine this minor change as part of a series of changes. Imagine that the Splenda is just one board in Theseus’s ship.  What if you replace one small thing about yourself and make it a habit until it becomes an integral part of you, until you can no longer remember what it was like to be that old self?  After it becomes an integral part of you, move on to the next small replacement until that too becomes you. 

The Key to Success 

The key to this process is to replace one thing with another instead of dropping it completely (yes, at some point, you might need to drop something completely but that’s outside of this discussion).  For example, if you want to stop eating junk food, replace your 3 pm chocolate chip cookie with a sugar-free version.  Do that for a week or a month or however long until it becomes the new you.  Then, replace your sugar-free cookie with a smaller cookie or perhaps pretzels.  Do that until it sticks.  Then, make the leap and try replacing your pretzels with carrot sticks or celery.  (Yes, at some point, you may need to replace the entire mast at once instead of replacing each board.)

 

The key to change through systematic replacement is having a long time horizon, patience, and the willingness to keep incorporating many small changes until you reach your goal.  What series of replacements can you make that would amount to accomplishing your one big goal? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if in a year or two years or five years, you looked back and realized that you accomplished your goal without even trying too hard?

 

And what of Theseus’s ship?  I believe that if each change is incorporated fully before the next change, the identity of your ship remains the same. 

Tags: Greek, Paradox, Weight-loss by Julie
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