People are obsessed about finding the “best” or the “fastest” way of going about things:
- If they want to get ripped, then they’ll want the diet or program that will supposedly get them there the fastest and the easiest.
- If they want to earn a lot of money, they’ll search for “secrets” that will get them rich quickly.
- If they want success in writing, they’ll want to know the tips that will set them above the rest.
It’s fine to want to be efficient. I get it — no one wants to spend literal years working at something before they see tangible results.
But think about it for a moment.
There were people getting fit before all these exercise routines.
There were people making money before all of these coveted guides online.
There were people writing successfully before all of these esoteric writing tips and “secrets” in content strategy.
So I have to ask:
“Are we overcomplicating things?”
I’m not trying to say that the advice doesn’t help. And I’m also not saying that we don’t have access to more knowledge these days that, when leveraged appropriately, can help us go much further than before.
We’ve definitely come a long way over the years.
However; I think with all this information — all these “tips” and “life hacks” — people are obsessing about the finer details before they’ve even started the piece. They’re expecting to compose a symphony before they’ve even learned music theory.
And they’re making the process more complex than it needs to be.
What choice do we have?
I think this all relates to what Barry Schwartz has called the “paradox of choice”.
You would think that having more choices in life would make us happier, right? Like, if you had 50 books on writing to select from over 10, you’d feel spoiled for choice, right?
Well, not quite.
Instead, Schwartz has suggested that having more options makes us more unhappy. This is because we consider the virtues of many of the other options and think about what we could miss out on by choosing one over the other.
Admittedly, the paradox of choice relates to more frivolous wants and desires — think your gadgets, your dating options, etc. However; I think it can be applied to the slew of advice that pertains to self-betterment in any discipline.
Within the sea of suggestions, one drifts ever further from dry land. I see it all the time in the fitness industry, where people follow fad workout routines from people whom are trying to make a buck…and then go on to make minimal progress.
Again, it’s not because of the inherent uselessness of the strategy — it’s more that they’d be better off starting with the fundamentals.
Going back to basics
It certainly isn’t a bad thing that we have all of this information available at our fingertips. Of course, I would much prefer the wealth of knowledge that we have in the modern day compared to way back when.
However; I think in the modern day where everything is so interconnected, there is so much out there that it can cause the process of whatever you set out to do to become more complicated. And I think overcomplicating it casts you astray from the very activity you sought to get better at: be it working out, progressing in your career, or improving your writing abilities.
So, concentrate on the basics first. Stop overthinking the beginning and swarming your mind with complexity, and get to work instead.
And then, once you’ve built the foundations can you can consider the finer details.