Why “just do it” is bullshit

Of course not everyone can become an Olympic athlete just by trying. And of course not everyone will be the next Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg no matter how hard they try, either. That's not the point.

The point is that most people don't even bother trying, and if you try, if you even just show up on a regular basis, you can probably reach above the 50th percentile in anything.

I would bet that almost anyone who puts a concerted effort into any endeavor could get to the top 25th percentile in just about anything. Hard work and hustle can bridge a lot of gap that natural ability and luck may create.

But if he is somehow just now coming to some epiphany that hard work can't trump luck and/or natural advantage (either thru ability or status), then my answer is: "Welcome to the real world." You need to temper any goals you have with maturity and realism. I'm a terrible basketball player, but I'm sure if I spent 1hr/day every day playing pickup for 1 year, by the end of a year, I'll be better than at least half of the regulars. But if my expectations are that I'll be able to dunk and beat Michael Jordan, I'd be delusional.

This post from the same blog is one of the most positive and insightful "my startup is shutting down" posts I've read: http://wayoftheduck.com/a-duck-bears-no-grudges

> I’m not going to wait until I have a success story to start telling it.

People act like being "world class" is some big mystery, but not in the 21st century. Extensive research has come to the conclusion that deliberate practice, over a long period of time, with the appropriate guidance of coaches and mentors is necessary and mostly sufficient to produce expertise in a field.

No, I don't think anyone can be Michael Phelps. In fact, it is clear that physical advantages go a long way in sports and athletic events. In almost everything else though, the right approach can produce mastery. The Polgar family is a living example of that w.r.t. chess. And most people are not looking to become world champions - they simply want to be successful in their endeavors. For that to happen, you must apply the same principles. To lose weight, I agree that saying "just diet and work out" is difficult, but most effective programs are either a result of intrinsic motivation or someone implementing a gradual program where you first cut out some sugar, then all soda, then cake, then you start eating one good meal a day, and so on and so forth.

In my view, this post marginalizes human willpower, which I consider one of the strongest forces in the world. Sure you won't be Michael Phelps, but you could say "No matter how hard you try, you will never become a Redwood," and I think the result is the same. Most people don't aspire to be world champion swimmers or extremely tall trees. They want to be successful in their endeavors, and for reasonably well off people in the Western world (which I think describes a large part of this board), there really isn't anything holding you back.

Ericsson et al. published a review of this field (expertise) in The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Expertise-Performance-Handbo...). It's 900 pages but if you can't make it through a serious book then you sure as hell can't succeed in anything that requires real dedication.

"just do it" means specifically, "so what if you won't be an olympic star, won't lose 200 pounds or win a marathon, won't become a millionaire, even if your attempts fail and you totally suck at something, if you truly are interested in it and have a passion for it, don't discourage yourself, just do it anyway." Life is all about showing up and trying.

I played for years with a singer-songwriter who was just awful - tone deaf, fairly dorky, lame songs, guitar strings popping out, pretty bad. We were booed on stage more than once. After a couple of years I couldn't take it anymore and I quit that band. Years later I saw him play and he was totally great, had a fanbase and everything, and had done several tours in europe where he got really polished.

He kept at it for years, learned as much as he could from everyone he interacted with, and eventually learned enough to start playing first acceptably, then actually pretty well, within his niche, and today he makes his living full time as a musician. He was simply incapable of was taking to heart all the negative responses he got. They kind of just bounced off of him, and he persevered. When I saw him perform, one of his songs was called "Everything Sucks", and it was specifically about me and the really negative attitude I always had when we used to play together. Fans in the audience cheered for the song and they knew the words. It was sort of a teaching moment about negativity for me.

Anyway that's what "just do it" means. It means don't let negativity get in the way of what you feel like doing.

Since then, I've noticed that naively optimistic views are relatively common among people who accomplish interesting things. It's almost as if naive optimism is a semi-necessary precursor to remarkable achievement.

"You can do anything" is nonsense. It's a crutch. But many people use this crutch to get to really cool places, and I can't help but respect their accomplishments in the end.

We end up talking about how amazing it is that these people have accomplished what they have but don't bother to consider that there are others who could not possibly have gotten that because they don't have the advantages the other person did.

I'm not super familiar with Phelp's backstory, but I assume he swam a fuckton when he was younger, his parents drove him around the country to events, etc. Many people don't have the time, money and resources to do these things. Telling a poor kid "just do what Michael Phelps did" while ignoring the vast, vast difference between their situations is completely ridiculous and kind of the way our society now works.

Not successful because you couldnt afford to go to school because you had to bring home money to help your parents pay the rent? Hearing "just work as hard as I did" from some white republican kid who got a trust fund is basically the same thing you guys are saying everyone should just overcome.

The author was right. It's much better to invest time and effort into a pursuit where you have an advantage. And it follows logically that if you don't have any natural advantages, then you should stay the heck away from winner-take-all professions.

The saying is much more useful if you consider only the things that are possible given the current circumstances. I may not become as fast as Michael Phelps, but I can definitely become as fast as I can possibly be given my current situation. If you look at it that way, "Just do it" applies and it's a good motto to live by.

Obviously, when people say "anything is possible you just have to work at it" or things like that, they assume the audience is reasonable. They aren't saying a 100 year old in a nursing home is going to be able to play in the NHL competitively by just working hard. What kind of gibberish is this?

That said, some things are your fault. I still bite my nails at 19. Forcing myself to quit is possible, and I have only myself to blame if I don't. It's the same for weight-loss, so that's a horrible example.

I do find athletes in technical sports like sailing, rock climbing, extreme-depth diving inspiring because those sports require a combination of physical ability and problem solving. Sailing is particularly inspiring because even the least able sailor is able to leverage some of the most powerful forces on earth to their advantage. But even Dennis Conner can't sail directly into the wind.

Getting back to the original post, I do find it useful as an engineer to attempt impossible things from time to time. Often the impossible is just inside our heads. Sometimes our expectations for our self are too low. But sometimes our egos are too big and we benefit from failing at something impossible too.

There's some truth to Phelps' statement. But if you find yourself on an alien planet, don't take off your space suit and start petting the weird snake-creatures.

It gets more difficult when you reach world-class. That's where genetics come into play, because at that point it's hard to argue that anyone is really outworking anyone else.

To get anything done, we need to (1) have the desire, (2) turn this desire into action, and (3) continue the action and fight through barriers until we achieve what we want. "Just do it" works well as a mantra to turn the desire into action.

However, after this step, there is a whole lot more. How much natural ability do you have? How hard are you working? How much competition is there in the area? Are there political, legal, or other barriers in the way? There are many factors determining how far you will go. But, getting started is better than not getting started at all. This is an important step that is often not taken.

A more accurate way to put is is that "just do it" is necessary, but not sufficient.

I should say that I just wrote a blog post in the "just do it" camp so it may skew my views:

http://alexshye.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/the-most-important-...

Also, don't forget that there are enough people out there that someone with all the natural advantages is going to be working insanely hard. This is why having olympic aspirations is unrealistic; in a realm where a few tenths of a second is the difference between gold and going home empty handed, natural advantages matter.

Don't just work hard, think hard, explore all your options, understand what you are trying to do on a deeper level, then attack it as if your life or death depended on the outcome. Failure cannot be an option.

This does not automatically rule out the possibility that a swimmer with a shorter wingspan could break Phelps' record...because that person may have adapted to that deficiency by improving on a quality that was less important to someone of Phelps' wingspan...in the way that people with a missing limb or sense become stronger in the other ones.

This is all just to say that not-trying can't be predicated on "well, I don't share the same qualities as the current record holder"

1. Phelps is at the top based on the system of measurement we've agreed upon. No need to worship him. 2. Use him to inspire yoursleves in the endeavours YOU want to undertake, and NOT to become Phelps. 3. Stop feeling bad about yourselves for not being Phelps. 4. Use happiness as your yardstick and not what others think about you. 5. Don't force yourself to immitate others, instead spend time on discovering what you love and allow/push yourself to excel in it. 6. If you do, you'll enjoy watching Phelps and move on with your life. 7. Replace Phelps above with Jobs/Jordan/James Bond...

Peace.

K

The problem with this post is it says nothing about what the alternative is. I guess it's implicit: give up. I'd rather believe I can do it, work like hell and then see where I come up short. But if others would rather sit on the couch explaining why they didn't try, that's cool too.

I've known several (relatively) late-blooming competitive swimmers who didn't begin training until their teenage years, and a few other athletes who began later than that (20s, 30s, and beyond), reaching national or international class.

Gail Roper comes to mind. She was largely passed over for swimming in high school, but came to be one of the most dominant masters and open-water swimmers of all time. A few decades back I had the distinct pleasure of being beat by over 4 minutes by her, which I figured was fine given that she had a 40 year head start. http://www.girlscantwhat.com/meet-gail-roper-the-most-domina...

The "you can do anything" mentality is, of course, false on its face. Athletes, entrepreneurs, and artists, when confronted with a microphone shoved into their face, will say whatever damned fool thing pops into their head, sometimes honestly, often not. If you want to know the real secrets to their success, look at what they do, not what they say.

And yes, Phelps is a genetic freak pretty much uniquely suited to swimming.

He's also just another human being. And at the end of a race, his muscles and lungs are burning just like anyone else's would be.

That said, the accomplishment domain most of us are competing in is "doing stuff", surrounded by others trying to do the same thing. If you want to become accomplished at something, then a mix of innate ability, talent, and hard work will push you somewhere toward the envelope. Perhaps well inside, perhaps outside.

A huge part of success, beyond what you can't control (your genes, circumstances, starting at age 7) is to practice efficiency in how you go about reaching your goal. As many hours as a person puts into pursuing a given goal, there are far more hours spent not pursing it. In the tech world, most of us come to realize that beyond a few hours a day, if we're lucky, we're not terribly productive.

Athletes may spend a few hours a day engaged in training, but the real pay-off moments may be a few minutes of Tabata intervals, or a set or two of max-effort lifts. Everything else is preparation, support, preventive measures, recovery, or just plain goofing around. What's impressive is how little of the right effort is required to improve your ability. Perhaps not win you a gold medal, but at least to nudge you in that direction.

In another context I saw yet another question of the form "how much can I expect to progress if I do X?", and saw the usual responses, some backed with links to substantial research, of what typical and outstanding progress might be. One response came close to what I realized was the right answer: "and if you don't hit some goal rate of progress, are you going to quit?".

The answer is: you'll make more progress than if you don't do X.

So: pick a reasonable goal, within the realms of physics and biological attainability. Find out if it really suits you (are you doing this for you, for for someone else). Find effective means of attaining your goal. Apply those methods. Monitor your progress. You may find you are able to go further. You may find the goal is out of reach. You may find the goal doesn't interest you.

But you tried, and you learned something.

What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

[1] http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/19/what-makes-an-...