Active Recall!

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“Physical: 100” group suffering (and what you can do for 10 years)

From “Can You Go” by Dan John:

That’s why group training has such a big impact on long-term success: People do things they might not do otherwise, even with the best intentions. And we humans have this odd ability to handle more suffering if we do it as a group.

We finished watching “Physical: 100” a couple days ago so it’s still top of mind for things when I’m trying to connect some creativity lesson to some other thing.

(Similar to generative art making some people question whether they should be learning certain skills if they can just achieve an end result with a text prompt… I’m definitely questioning some time spent practicing making connections between things when a text prompt makes it possible to make a dozen of those connections in a couple seconds. But that’s for another post.)

I’ll add some better version of this post to my post about it eventually, but I wanted to capture this thought. Most of the competitors wouldn’t have lasted as long in any individual challenge if they didn’t have other people around to suffer with.

It’s not the same as distributing the suffering: Sam asks Frodo to share the load. That kind of suffering is finite and can be rationed out.

In this group suffering, the suffering is infinite. The larger the group the more total suffering there is. And with more people, each person can handle more.

The other people in the group don’t even have to be teammates.

In one challenge, the competitors have to hold a fake (but heavy) boulder above their heads for as long as possible. Muscular endurance and all that.

(I’ve thought of simulating this by loading a 135-pound barbell and just standing as long as possible. Then I remember that that’s a dumb idea.)

The last two go for over two hours standing right next to each other. They push each other. They definitely wouldn’t go that long if they were in separate rooms with no idea how long the other person was going.

So sometimes I do question my effort when working out in my home gym. I know I’d push more in a group class. But I’ll work out in the home gym far more frequently.

Is the tradeoff worth it?

We’ll see, I guess.

AND HERE’S HOW IT RELATES TO CREATIVITY…

Just kidding. Sort of.

Okay actually a relation to creativity did come to mind.

I recorded an episode of the podcast with Wally today. (About “Physical: 100”.) It was way way more fun to record that than to record it on my own. It’s probably more fun to listen to as well.

David Senra (of the “Founders” podcast) has a question worth asking yourself when you’re trying to figure out what you want to work on.

  • Can you do this for the next 10 years?

That’s a great question. I have a hunch I could do the podcast alone for the next 10 years.

But I’m sure I’d enjoy it more doing it with Wally.

Good to be back.

Physical:100 lessons (for creators)

(SPOILERS AHEAD.)

Now some creativity lessons from Physical:100 for creators. This is the sort of thing that is going to be basically automated at some point in the future, so there’s probably some meta lesson for myself here.

In any case…

Challenge 0: Strengths can backfire

In the case of the first challenge, or technically challenge zero, it’s strength itself that backfires. Sort of. It’s more just the weight required for that strength. The strongest competitors are also the heaviest. That becomes a major disadvantage when hanging from rafters.

For creativity, it can be useful to be mindful of when your strengths might backfire. In my case, I practiced and became faster at coming up with ideas and connections at a high level.

(aka: whip up an outline for how Physical:100 relates to creativity so that you can justify your guilty pleasure show even though deep down you know it’s actually a way better use of time than the one true alternative: scrolling mindlessly on my phone.)

I’m glad I can do that, but then it leads to a lot of work in progress that is never finished. The bottleneck comes later, all the shiny new ideas become a distraction, and then every few weeks I come to the conclusion that I just can’t finish anything.

Challenge 1: You can choose your environment (and that includes people)

In the first actual challenge, the top 50 competitors get to choose their opponent in a 1-on-1 match. They also get to choose the arena. The open arena favors strength. The playground arena favors speed.

In creative work, you get to choose the environment you’re in. It’s often good to have different environments for different “opponents” or whatever form of resistance comes at different stages of work.

In the beginning stages, it might be good to go somewhere without internet to go distraction free and to avoid diving into research too early. You might have a specific setup when editing work. You might like writing in loud coffee shops (like Malcolm Gladwell).

People become important at different stages as well. Feedback helps you get to great work. But friends and family who have no experience in your craft might not be able to provide the type of feedback that you need.

On the other hand, if you’re just getting started with your creative work, encouragement might actually be all you need to get the ball rolling. In that case friends and family are great. Even better would be to add a few other people at your level to take the journey on together.

Here’s a quote from the great Chael Sonnen (where he’s quoting the great Frank Costello):

There is a memorable line from the movie The Departed, where Frank Costello says, “I don’t want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.” Wonderful line, but for good and bad, we are influenced by where we grew up and even today, your environment continues to influence the person you are.

Challenge 2: Do the basics well (so you set a good foundation)

In the second challenge, the competitors form teams and need to build a bridge and then carry sandbags over the bridge.

They highlight one of the competitors who used to work in stunts and knew the importance of securing things properly for safety. She builds a very secure bridge while the other team constantly has to stop carrying sand to adjust the planks on their bridge.

In creative work, it’s important to understand the basics of your craft and to make sure you know how to do the basics well.

The Physical:100 competitors didn’t exactly have time to understand which parts are the basics since it was a brand new game. In hindsight, securing the planks was really important. During the game, it seemed worth it to sacrifice some security to simply build the bridge as fast as possible.

Luckily, in your work you’ll likely be able to learn from experts, books, interviews, and peers to know what basics you need to nail down.

In “Creative Confidence” by Tom Kelley and David Kelley, they describe someone asking Yo-Yo Ma if he even needs to practice anymore, now that he’s a master:

The question hung in the air for a moment before Yo-Yo Ma delivered the bad news to Erik. Long after ascending to the top of his field, Yo-Yo Ma continues to practice as much as six hours a day.

I’ll do the rest in a future post

but I figured out what my own lesson is as far whether it’s worth it to write this post even if it’ll be automated away in some near future — There’s still beauty in humans doing things. Maybe me writing this post isn’t exactly going to be one of those things in the future. But the best example is Chess. It’s already been decades of humans being unable to beat the best AI. Still, it’s entertaining to play against others humans. And it’s entertaining to watch the best humans against one another.

There’s a difference between watching the Madden simulation of the Super Bowl and the actual Super Bowl.

(At least for now.)

Musashi: chances are, you’re not the best in the world

  • You can’t tell who’s rich in Silicon Valley: They might be wearing a hoodie. Some might be wearing suits. Paul Graham talks about what cities whisper. New York says you should be rich. Silicon Valley says you should be powerful.
  • You don’t have to travel anymore to make your riches: If you press the keys on your laptop in the right order over time, you can make millions on the internet. Or at least make a living.
  • But it still might be worth traveling to another city: Environment design is powerful for shaping your own behavior. The biggest part of your environment? Probably the people you’re around. Yes the whole “you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”.
  • What you look like has some effect on how you feel: And it certainly affects how other people perceive you. What you wear is not necessarily who you are. But it’s a part of it. If you’re completely unaffected by your own appearance, more power to you—it’s probably a good mindset to have. For the rest of us, look good feel good. (I’d guess Steve Jobs felt like his turtleneck looked pretty good.)

“You must start from first principles. Every ecosystem has a default culture. (In Silicon Valley, our baked-in cultural elements range from casual dress to employee owners to long hours.) Don’t just blindly adopt it. You may be adopting an organizing principle you don’t understand. For example, Intel created a casual-dress standard to promote meritocracy.” — Ben Horowitz, What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

Rick Rubin: 3 creativity lessons

Continue until it’s possible

Rick Rubin: “That’s the way I like to work. I go in with kind of a blind belief that something good will happen. Until it’s proven impossible I will continue banging my head against the wall.”

Rubin is optimistic that good things will happen if he keeps working on a project. His book, for example, wasn’t easy but it was an unraveling of his process over 6-7 years.

He started to take notes after sessions with artists. When he got home he would:

  • Describe the problem the band ran into
  • Describe the solution they came up with

Over many different sessions, he was able to codify the process.

In a year, he can work with a handful of artists. A book provides leverage—people around the world will be able to apply some of his methods to their own projects.

You might not get a grammy in the end, but it might help you stop banging your head against the wall.

Iteration

Rick Rubin: “I would never assume … because you put more time in something it’s getting better.”

It’s accepted that revisions improve work.

Tim Ferriss popularized the idea of “two crappy pages” as a daily writing goal. You can’t revise something that doesn’t exist yet.

But there’s diminishing returns on revision.

And sometimes the first go is actually the best.

Still, it’s essential to go through multiple iterations if you want to end up with the best product. Even if it’s just to validate that the first attempt was best—you need multiple iterations to compare the first iteration to.

This reminds me a little bit of the Crazy 8s sketching exercise. Yes, the 6th, 7th, and 8th sketch are harder to get to and that’s when you’re really stretching and getting creative.

But sometimes they’re not as good as the first thing you jot down.

From “Sprint” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

Sometimes Crazy 8s leads to a revelation. You might come away with several new ways of looking at your ideas. Other times, it feels less productive. Sometimes that first idea really is the best idea.

Sometimes obvious is best.

Everyone is a creator

In the book, Rick Rubin says creativity isn’t limited to a select few. From “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”

“Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.

Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis.

To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.”

We get real creative real fast when we think of reasons to skip a workout or to hit snooze on the alarm instead of getting up to do the work.

The Source vs. The Resistance

Steven Pressfield has The Resistance. Rick Rubin has The Source.

The Source is out there. A wisdom surrounding us, an inexhaustible offering that is always available.

We either sense it, remember it, or tune in to it. Not only through our experiences. It may also be dreams, intuitions, subliminal fragments, or other ways still unknown by which the outside finds its way inside.

The Source itself isn’t enough to fight the resistance. He compares the Source to clouds. It’s a shapeshifter.

You can absorb The Source and then it’s up to you to harness it and make your art.