Tipping point?

Productivity web-guru Merlin Mann recently explained  on 43folders how he's gone out of the business of providing "productivity tips" and into the business of hard -- as in challenging -- advice.   The article is called "Real Advice Hurts," and it couldn't have come at a better time for me.

Today, the web is littered with sites pumping out a high volume of advice on every conceivable topic. And a lot of the pathological patrons of these sites will tell you that a daily surfeit of snack-sized information helps them with what they really need in order to be successful and happy in life — to be better at their job or to be a well-rounded person or to become a more talented programmer.

I don’t doubt for a moment that the right tip at the right time can make all the difference in the world. And I have certainly been both a (reformed) producer as well as an ardent consumer of “tips,” by any definition of the word. But, here’s the problem:

In more instances than we want to admit, tips not only won’t (and can’t) help us to improve; they will actively get in the way of fundamental improvement by obscuring the advice we need with the advice that we enjoy. And, the advice that’s easy to take is so rarely the advice that could really make a difference.

The whole article is worth reading.  Please go read it and come back.

Operating definition of a "tip" or "trick:" A suggestion for a new behavior, a new gadget, or a new mindset, that is relatively easy to try out and that gives results that are immediate, helpful, and -- essentially -- small.   Used in the context of a winning (and therefore probably challenging) strategy, a "tip" might help you solve a sub-problem that's cropped up along the way.  It's not how you win the game; it's one good play.

Here are some examples of very good tips:

• If you want to eat less at meals in order to lose weight, it helps to buy smaller dinner plates.
• If you want to take your temperature at the same time every morning for effective use of the sympto-thermal method, it's a good idea to use a clock with two alarms.  Set the first one for the same early time every morning for your temperature, and the second alarm for whatever (variable) time you want to get up.
• If you want to "get something" out of the sermon or liturgy at church, but you never get to pay attention to them because you're always taking care of small children, try praying that you will hear just ONE word or phrase that you can really chew on and that will teach you something that day.  (Thanks Jen at Conversion Diary) 

 All are great tips.  But they're only going to work in the right context.  Buying smaller dinner plates is only going to help you eat less if you're already committed to trying to eat less, but you tend to eat a large plateful at meals.  A dual alarm clock will only help you get consistent temperatures if you WANT to take your temperature at the same time every day, but a difficulty is that you tend to get out of bed at irregular times.   Taking home from church a single word or phrase to ponder, if that's what you can manage, will be food for your soul; but first you have to care enough to want to pay attention when you get a chance.

Any "tip" can be defeated if you don't really want to do the hard work.  If you don't really want to use your small plates to help you eat less, you'll just pile your food higher (maybe you'll make more pizza, which stacks impressively).  If you don't really believe that taking your temperature at the same time every morning is necessary -- heck, I don't bother with it anymore --  you'll just hit "snooze" on your fancy alarm clock.  If you don't really care about hearing something significant in church, you'll just grab the first phrase that filters through the kid-distraction and then immediately forget it.

Everybody loves tips.  I love tips.  They're fun.  They make big promises.  There is nothing wrong with reading them for entertainment and there is nothing wrong with trying them out.  But they can't solve your problems for you -- you have to do that yourself.  If you want tips to really work for you, I guess you have to figure out the answer to What would really solve this problem?  and be choosy -- don't go chasing tips that don't help get you there.  

If you like, you could try an alternative formulation that Mark likes to use, one of his engineering superpowers.  He says:  Imagine it's [some time] later, and I have solved this problem.  How did I solve it?  

Chances are the answer will not fit in two lines on a magazine cover.

Comments

[Christy P]

I think that taking temp at the same time every day is over-rated. Haven't done the study yet to verify, but I'll bet that the reading has little enough variation to be robust for most women to do it when they have to wake up in the morning anyway -- or when they get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I would often throw the thermometer in my mouth while walking to the bathroom and then let it beep in the bathroom to avoid disturbing husband and co-sleeping nursling.

[bearing]

Well, yeah, I know we've talked about that. All I'm getting at here is that IF you are trying to take it at a consistent time, the dual alarm clock is a nifty "tip."