Just Do The Thing

The marshmallow tower challenge is where teams of 3-4 people have to build a tower out of marshmallows, some tape, and spaghetti sticks. The goal is to build the tallest tower.

Peter Skillman has conducted the challenge with a wide range of groups including university students, CEOs, lawyers, engineers, and kindergarteners. Among all of these groups, one group always had the tallest towers.

It was the kindergarteners.

The adult groups all had a big problem, they would spend time doing everything but solving the problem. The adults would try to seek power, spend time planning on how to approach the problem, or talk about the big tower they will build. This is nothing but a form of procrastination.

Meanwhile, the kindergarteners attacked the problem head-on. They started building and experimenting. If it didn’t work, they tried a different solution. They wasted no time on superficial things and spent a lot of time experimenting.

They did the thing at hand. Then iterated.

That’s the only way to get better. It’s also the only way to produce high-quality work. Everything else is a form of procrastination.

Thomas Edison filed 1093 patents by picking a problem and experimenting. To invent the lightbulb, he went through 6000 filaments and found that a carbonized cotton thread filament was best for a long lasting lightbulb. He didn’t spend time analyzing the physical and chemical properties of these 6000 filaments like a scientist would. He couldn’t have. He’d have been long dead before finding the answer. He went to his lab and started experimenting and eventually found the right one.

Joyce Carol Oates, who has written 58 novels in her career so far, says “I come from a part of the world where people did work rather than just talk about it. And so if you feel that you just can’t write, or you’re too tired, or this, that, and the other, just stop thinking about it and go and work.”

That’s it. It’s that simple. Don’t think about doing [insert activity here], just do [the activity]. Everything else is irrelevant.

A Question I've Been Thinking About This Week

If you couldn't do it anymore, can you say you did your best?

A friend asked this recently and it's been stuck in my mind since. Living long with good health isn't guaranteed. Don't take life for granted. Do your best. Always.

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