Death by a thousand cuts

Key Insight

● In this course don’t expect anything grand, don’t expect “get rich quick,” as in life there is no “silver bullet,” since very likely your effectiveness is experiencing death by a thousand cuts, expect 1000 tiny accelerations and micro-optimizations.

○ A thousand tiny things I do.

○ A thousand tiny things I don’t do.

○ A thousand tiny things I think about.

○ A thousand tiny things I don’t think about.

● Nothing complicated and nothing extreme generally works, so we will introduce all methods gradually. Sudden changes usually lead to failure.

● An example are various diets (and training regimens, or even worse in combination of the two) that are too strict, and become too hard to endure at once, and inner motivation cannot carry us far on its own.

● A much better way to implement a diet would be: Let’s first change breakfast on Monday, then on Wednesday. Then Friday. Now breakfast for all working days. Now add dinner on Monday. And so gradually introduce changes, apply “death by a thousand cuts” in the opposite direction: success with 1000 small wins!

● It’s very important to understand that the percentages in this case do not add up, but multiply, and together give a very powerful cumulative effect.

● It’s necessary to make the hidden process in the brain aware, which will constantly analyze the things we do and how we do them, and if what we do does not lead directly and measurably toward our goal, optimization should occur.