## [[Habits of highly effective people]] I've been going down the [[Dan Luu]] rabbit hole this weekend. Dan says that he can't explain his problem solving approach, but after reading his blog it seems like measuring stuff and doing deep dives on the data are a large part of what makes him effective. This actually seems pretty aligned with [[Tara Mac Aulay]] experience (described on the [[80k Hours Podcast]] [here](https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/tara-mac-aulay-operations-mindset/?utm_campaign=podcast__classic-tara-macaulay&utm_source=80000+Hours+Podcast&utm_medium=podcast)). Why is this so effective? It certainly matches some of my experiences working with highly effective people. Ideas: - [[Learned helplessness]]: I think many people fall into a sort of learned helplessness where they no longer believe that they can have great or original ideas. I think highly effective people often have the opposite mindset: "Everything is broken and everything can be improved." If instead you think that the status quo is likely efficient, you'll never try to look for inefficiencies. - People are too busy and too focused on their immediate project: "Data collection" often feels like overhead and you want to avoid if you can. People want to deliver value immediately. This is often short sighted, and they underestimate the return to taking careful measurements. - People lack data analysis skills. There is definitely some skill to digging through data and trying to tease out a story or broader understanding. The actual mathematics involved here is usually pretty simple, though. Maybe people overestimate how hard it is to get started (granted, becoming a master is likely something that takes time). - Only people with a rare set of personality traits engage in this sort of investigation. Maybe it has to do with being comfortable with uncertainty. Or maybe it requires some sort of entrepreneurial spirit. Or maybe they rank highly on [[cognitive reflection]]. Maybe this is the same as the 'learned helplessness' point, and these people just lack learned helplessness. - People don't feel like they have permission to engage in this sort of investigation, and for some reason, no one is ever asking for this type of investigation. It's rare that your manager will ask you to "spend a week measuring the performance of X." Usually this is the type of work that you have to _justify_ to your manager. My mind keeps circling back to this idea that a lot of this might just be learned helplessness. [[Eli Lifland]] talks about this concept of a [[matrix moment]], which is when someone realizes that they have the power to shape their reality ([blog post](https://www.foxy-scout.com/matrix-moments/)). I think a lot of people don't realize they have this power, or they're waiting for permission to shape their reality. This may be related to the pressure to conform and [[status quo bias]].