Improving Your Craft

Two simple ideas are enough to provide consistent long-term improvement in your craft. The ideas are simple, and trying to implement them in your daily workflow will lead to exponential returns. These are also some key ideas from James Clear's book Atomic Habits. The first idea is the one percent rule. The second one is to focus on systems, not goals.

One Percent Rule

Einstein has been known to have said "compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it, he who doesn't, pays it." 1 percent compound interest every day over a year leads to 37 times returns. On the opposite, getting 1 percent worse every day will lead to losing almost everything from your initial position.

If you try to get one percent better every day, you'll be 37 times better in a year. Getting 1 percent worse means you will have lost all your skills. Small gains over a long period pay off. It is also easier to sustain small gains every day compared to large gains once in a while.

Firas Zahabi, a well known BJJ instructor, has this excellent example of why doing little every day is far better than spending one day doing as much as you can. He uses the example of doing push-ups. He asks us to consider a person who can do a maximum of 10 pushups. After 10 they need to rest for an entire day. By trying to do the maximum for each workout, the person can only do 3 workouts a week. Leading to about 30 pushups a week.

If the same person does just 5 pushups each workout, they are in a good shape to do pushups the next day. They do 35 pushups a week. 5 pushups a week isn't a huge difference, however over a year, it amounts to doing 260 more pushups.

Focus on consistency over intensity.

For programmers, this may mean reading a few pages of a technical book every day. If you have trouble with consistently reading see if your company has a book club so you can be held accountable. Try to spend a few minutes trying out a new design pattern you saw. Reading open-source code of well-written software (Linux Kernel, Kubernetes). Improving your writing skills by updating outdated or nonexistent documentation. There are many ways to improve in small ways, you just have to find them.

The figure below summarizes the 1 percent rule:

Systems Not Goals

The second idea is to focus on systems, not goals. Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, says "You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems."

Goals give us direction. Systems provide progress.

Striving to read 50 books every year is a good goal. Becoming a person who reads every day is even better. You want the habit to continue even after you have reached your goal. Setting up proper systems will help us achieve that.

A musician's system would be how often they practice, what they practice (scales, arpeggios, chords, or a piece), and how they change based on feedback from mistakes. How many songs they practice in a year doesn't matter anymore, just that they practice every day.

If you have a system you know what to do, and you don't have to spend time making a decision. You do it. You are collecting compound interest every day. The 1 percent rule and focusing on systems are enough to help sustainably improve your craft.