Are You Faking Progress? (Blog)

[gingerbaker]

Originally Posted by Savage

I did about 7 weeks of celibacy, so it was real in that sense. I wouldn't say I approached it like a formal trial though.

I didn't like it. It was also very distracting. It's easier not to be distracted by sexual thoughts when sex is abundant, just as it's easier not to worry about money when cash is abundant.

That's interesting. In a way, I've found it helped me focus on things OTHER than sex. However, that's probably in large part because a *significant* percentage of my thoughts relate to sex. For me it has been more like...well, kind of like how in meditation, you recognize the thought and then allow yourself to release it. When sex is on the table, the "let it go" part doesn't happen for me LOL.

That said, I am DEFINITELY looking forward to July, for all that I can acknowledge what a good decision celibacy was for me at this point in time, it is and always was a purely temporary state to achieve a particular end. And part of me feels I have already gotten all I will get out of it, but, it was a commitment to myself, and I will see it through.

[strawzombie]

Another great article Steve.

Keep following the trail of breadcrumbs as you gradually learn how to achieve the new results you desire. But be careful not to fall back into the seductive trap of learning merely for the sake of learning.

I used to be anti-formal-education and preferred learning stuff on my own, at my own faster/slower pace, usually faster. But one thing I'm finding out now is that I'm still having trouble in the area of "learning for learning's sake". It's easy to get lost learning about a particular topic when you have no real-world project or goal to tie it down to and measure your progress against. I've sometimes gone thru phases where I've sworn off ALL non-results-based learning entirely, only to "fall off the wagon" a couple months later and find myself studying an area that has no real-world application whatsoever, at least any that I can currently see.

Although I like learning for learning's sake, I honestly don't know if this kind of learning falls under the category of entertainment, escape, or experimentation. (Cool, those all started with the letter "e"!) I guess it varies from situation to situation.

One advantage to formal standardized education is that in learning-for-learning's-sake areas, you can at least measure your progress somewhat. I mean, you have to turn in paper's to be graded, take tests, and your results are also compared with the results of the rest of your peers. I used to hate those aspects of learning, and I still prefer learning stuff mostly on my own if I can help it, but I can understand much better now why formal education institutions have all these performance metrics in place and also limits on what teachers can teach under a particular class number. ("Standards!") The performance metrics and teacher limits may not achieve the goal that was originally intended, but maybe it's better than no metrics or limits at all.

I wonder how people who prefer learning on their own can measure their progress? I mean, because the problem is that you don't know enough yet about a particular topic to create any kind of test or standard to measure yourself against. So it's like trying to tickle yourself, or pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

Even more so, I wonder how people can implement some kind of way to measure progress without making the grade itself the primary goal, which I think is pretty common in formal education - where basically the learning itself is just seen as an obstacle to get past as efficiently as possible before moving on to the next topic. I've definitely had that mindset before when I was in school. I didn't care about what I learned, I just focused on how to game the system so I could get the best possible grade through the least amount of effort.

Now that I think about it, I guess that's a bigger problem (err... I mean "growth opportunity"!) to solve than just with learning and measuring progress in learning. Metrics are good, but how can we prevent them from becoming a goal in and of themselves? Where we are tempted to cheat and cut corners.

Money, for instance, is a great metric to see how you are progressing. It's better than getting lots of verbal feedback because people will say one thing yet act totally different when real money is involved. But making money a goal by itself usually does more harm than good. At least in my experience. Same goes for measuring weight, the score when playing competitive games or sports, the number of online friends you have, the number of hits your website gets, number of books you read a month, etc.

One solution to this problem/growth opportunity is to only implement metrics once you have a specific qualitative goals already in place. Because it's easy to be lazy and just to make "getting a higher score" the goal. Now I suppose that kind of goal is better than no goal at all, and there's definitely worse things in the world that can happen. But I think in order to prevent falling into the trap of measuring progress just for the sake of improving progress is to already have lots of qualitative goals in place that can put all that quantitative progress into context.

[ming]

Originally Posted by Savage

Are You Faking Progress?

Absolutely.

Fake it until you make it.

[Monty]

Integrity in certain situations is overrated.

Theres just so much BS around, such as in the world of work, that sometimes you have to play the game to get on. Ive been guilty in the past of being completely honest. The truth is a lot of people do not want to hear honesty and some not even 'constructive crticism'! it presents a threat to them.

if your boss asks you if you enjoy your job, think carefully before being honest!! (spesh if you want to keep it).

I know this probably goes against the caveats of personal development, but i believe it is a realistic way to live.
If you are in a position to make your own rules, well this rule doesnt apply so much, which is why self-employment and eventual financial freedom is so appealing.
But untill then,like someone else said 'fake it till you make it'.