Working in chaos

Working in chaotic situations calls for a completely different approach to working.

We’re used to working in predictable, stable environments. School, sports, office. There’s a rule book for working there, and it’s about following the rules.

Hard work, reducing distractions, increasing focus, making things more efficient and productive, 10k hours of practice makes perfect, set smart goals and KPIs.

That’s the rule book there. It’s familiar, it assuring. and it works.

In stable environments.

But throw yourself into entrepreneurship, social media, the jungle and any environment where things are more influenced by chance and chaos, and that rule book gets ripped to shreds.

Daniel Vassallo @davassallo talks about it well on Twitter:

Work under uncertainty:

• Hard work → Trial & error
• Focus → Many things at once
• Optimization → 80/20 rule
• Consistency → Intensity
• Avoid distractions → Embrace randomness
• Practice 10,000 hrs → 100 bets
• Goals → Stay in the game
• Efficiency → Slack in the system

Working in chance-based environments like entrepreneurship requires a total 180 flip on how I’m used to working:

• Instead of hunkering down to work hard for months and years, I need to do trial and error, launch small bets, and leverage on random opportunities.
• Instead of going all in and focusing on just one thing, try many things at once and see what works.
• Instead of trying to optimize for success, efficiency, specialization and niche, try the barbell approach, experiment doing things 80/20. Be an accountant 80% of the time, and a rockstar 20% of the time.
• Instead of going for consistency and “showing up every day”, strike while the iron is hot, act on inspiration before it disappears.
• Instead of going full-on on noise-canceling headphones, putting your phone in airplane mode and other productivity hacks to prevent distractions, embrace chance events and leverage on distractions. That might be an opportunity that you’re waiting for.
• Instead of practising 10k hours to perfect your game and avoid failure, try 100 low cost, small bets to aim for small wins that compound to larger wins.
• Instead of efficiency and stacking your day/workflow to the max, introduce some slack and buffer in your schedule or system. That prevents luck blindness because you had time to actually look up and look around.

This is a totally different approach to work and working.

Not rule book but playbook.

I’m going to need to transform my identity from diligent, conscientious student to devil-may-care, ‘lazy’, “let me copy your homework” opportunistic trickster.

Less Thor, more Loki.

Ok this is gonna require more rewiring than I thought.