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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
8 Great Anti-Hacks2 to Change Your Life
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Clay Collins of Project Liberation and The Growing Life.
Albert Einstein started that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein, of course, was right. Sometimes our problems require more than life hacks, tips, tweaks, etc. Sometimes our lives don’t need optimization3, they need to be fundamentally reconfigured.
So What are Anti-Hacks?
“There are a thousand hacking4 at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root.” - Henry David Thoreau
Anti-hacks attempt to solve problems by approaching them at a higher level of thinking (the prefix5 “anti,” by the way, can mean “instead of” as in “anti-drug,” or “anti-folk”). For example, while David Allen says that “mind like water” (piece of mind) comes from creating exhaustive to-do lists and getting everything out of your head, an anti-hack1 might involve meditation6, because all the list-making in the world will not bring you to a meditative7, mind-like-water state.
A hack might help you optimize8 your car’s engine so you get better gas mileage9, whereas an anti-hack might involve moving near your place of employment to so you can walk or bike to work.
(By the way, creating a new word for an old idea can be a pretty pretentious10 thing. But I’m asking you to cut me some slack here. I’m not trying to push my own vocabulary, build a movement, or be clever; I just couldn’t think of a better term. Use whatever terms you want – I have no agenda. Still, I think the term “anti-hack” highlights a significant distinction between optimization — hacks, tweaks, tips, etc. — and reconfiguration).
Here are some of my more offensive thoughts, packaged as …
Please keep in mind some of these “anti-hacks” may not be practicable for you. These aren’t “one size fits all” solutions.
1. Embrace Your Inner Dilettante12, be Flaky, and Denounce the Cult13 of Permanence. After college graduation, we’re allowed a couple years of experimental wiggle room. And when those years are oven we’re supposed to semi-permanently stay put. We’re supposed to stop vagabonding through life. We’re supposed to sit down and shut up.
In this day and age, staying put in one’s situation (i.e. one’s career, job, company, city, town, etc.) is how you become an expert, advance in your field, and win the respect of your peers and family. We’re fed the myth that staying put affords us dream jobs. And we want this permanence as well: we want tenure14, we want seniority, we want bedrocks and sure things.
But radical15 and rapid-fire growth often happens when you have freedom to try new things. Rapid-fire growth doesn’t require traveling across the country, starting a new business, or flooding your senses on a daily basis, but it often requires a high level of latitude16. Radical growth often requires the ability to rapidly change directions, change contexts, and change situations. Rapidfire growth often requires a dilettante-esque mobility17. And if you exercise this mobility enough, other may very well perceive you as someone who hasn’t “found himself.”
The problem is that post-higher-education life just isn’t configured to encourage growth; it’s configured to reward stagnation18. We’re rewarded for stagnating19, for unnecessarily sticking with things.
2. Stop Hiding Behind the Comfort of Stepping Stones. So many of us live “stepping stone lives.” We spend the majority of our waking hours working for goals that are merely stepping stones to other goals. For example:
* We do well in high school so we can get into a good college.
* We do well in college so we can get hired by a good company (or get into a good graduate school).
* We do well at our jobs so we can get even better jobs and make more money.
* We join committees to pad our resumes or impress our bosses.
(Question: what would your life be like if you cut out all the stepping stones?)
We are uncomfortable going after what we want in ways that aren’t culturally or institutionally approved. But we would all do well to live courageously20 by directly going after what we want.
(I realize that not everyone has the luxury of avoiding stepping stones. If your dream requires a medical degree, for example, you’ll need to suck it up and stay on those stones).
3. Pursue Self-Development over Productivity. Productivity often poses as self-development, but self-development and productivity can be two very different things. What is best for us as individuals can be bad for our on-the-job productivity.
4. Get to “Mind Like Water” the Original Way (i.e. Mindfulness). There is a myth among many productivity evangelists that productivity – or a productivity system – can lead to the meditative state likened to “mind like water.
“In karate21 there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble22 into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input23; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact.
“[I]f you get seriously far out of that state–and start to feel out of control, stressed out, unfocused, bored, and stuck–do you have the ability to get yourself back into it? That’s where the methodology of [my productivity system] will have the greatest impact on your life, by showing you how to get back to “mind like water,” with all your resources and faculties24 functioning at a maximum level. ” - David Allen
The mind like water myth is the myth is that any productivity system can be the starting point for having “all your resources and faculties functioning at maximum level.” The myth is that a water-tight task-handling methodology, an elaborate folder25 system, a clockwork method for handling your inbox, a label-maker, and a set of routines come first.
The “mind like water myth” is that that productivity — or a productivity system — is the path, and that mind like water is the destination. Bruce lee once said that “all fixed26 set patterns are incapable27 of adaptability28 or pliability” and that “the possession of anything begins in the mind.” I believe Bruce is right: possession of a “mind like water” begins in the mind. It’s not productivity first, mind like water second. It’s the other way around.
So what’s the truest, most direct, and surest path to mind like water? I believe it is mindfulness gained through meditation (or whatever other internal and inward means we take to get there).
Believing that “mind like water” results from a productivity systems that obsessively29 organizes our external reality only perpetuates30 the rat race.
5. Say “No” to the Productivity Industrial Complex and Make Your OWN Way. The Productivity Industrial Complex is a marriage between corporations and an entire industry of productivity companies, gurus, consultants31, and solution-makers who help corporations squeeze every ounce of productivity from their workers. Organizations like The David Allen Company, for example, make the bulk of their income from corporations looking to “maximize their employee output,” and it’s no surprise that they have a Fortune 500-studded client list which includes Lockheed Martin, Deloitte & Touche, and the U.S. Department of Defense32 (see here for more of his clients).
“You and your company need to get things done - lots of things[.] You have invested heavily in the human factor … but are you getting all the results from your people that you could? Are they maximizing their output?” - The David Allen Company
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“Productivity” is an Industrial Era economics term that applies to factories, machines, and economies. When applied33 to people it often has a dehumanizing effect and negates34 both individual differences and unique talents. Most best-selling productivity gurus are working in the interests of large corporations and often advocate values and approaches that are not in the best interests of individuals. Increased productivity should result in greater carefree time, more vacations, and more time away from work. Most of the time, however, it does not.
The workforce35 is laboring36 for more hours and for less pay, taking fewer vacations, and generally burning out.
6. Convert Your Money Back Into Time. Since World War II, productivity in the U.S. has doubled. So we should be working 20-hour work weeks, right? Well, we’re not. We’re working more (we’ve exchanged our extra time for more money). In fact, we’re working more than medieval peasants, and the 40-hour work week hasn’t changed since 1940 even though productivity levels have been growing steadily37 since then.
People convert money back into time when they exchange potential income for freedom to spend their time how they wish. They do it when, for example, they decide to live simpler lives and work halftime, instead of full time. They do it when start freelancing and create more humane38 work schedule. They do it when they negotiate creative and unique work situations, start their own companies, etc.
7. Aggressively Remove Things From Your Life that You Don’t Want to Do. It’s common knowledge that productivity naturally emerges from passion: when we love what we’re doing, productivity becomes irrelevant39. The corollary is that being unproductive often results from doing things you’d rather not do. Elaborate productivity systems have all too often become crutches40 for passionate41 living (if you hate your job, you’re probably going to need an elaborate productivity system to keep you focused and on task).
“Efficiency, which is doing things right, is irrelevant until you work on the right things.” -Peter Drucker
The direct route to productivity is being passionate about what you do. This observation, however, is largely an academic point that doesn’t do much to help the problem. Very few people hear that passion will make them productive and then-out of a dedication42 to productivity-immediately proceed to follow their dreams and become more productive. So, instead of talking about how passion will make you more productive, I’d like to re-frame the conversation by saying this: unwanted tasks are the the #1 cause of your productivity problems.
If you only did things you wanted to do, you’d probably be the most productive person in the world.
Q: What’s the solution?
A: To the extent possible, stop doing things you don’t want to do.
OK, so we have to pay taxes, we have to take care of our children (hopefully this is a joy), etc. The problem is that most people are very bad at differentiating43 between these very real non-negotiables and fictional44 non-negotiables.
If you want ultimate productivity you might want to think about aggressively removing everything you don’t want to do from your life. Declutter your headspace. If you really want to live passionately45, you’ll need to consider leaving nearly everything you’re not passionate about. I want to emphasize that it’s not quitting things and being flaky that will make you productive, it’s the aggressive elimination46 of everything that doesn’t make you come alive.
8. Realize that Perspective is often the Best Solution to your Problems. Raoul Vaneigem once wrote that “[e]verything has [already] been said [and] all our knowledge is essentially47 banal48.” And he’s right. If you read the profound thoughts of any great teacher or leader, you’ll likely find no new knowledge. What you will find, however, is heaps of timeless perspective. You’ll find knowledge deeply rooted in perspective and amplified49 by perspective.
Great thinkers and teachers are great because their perspective forces you to take a second glance at the knowledge you already have. And their perspective is so compelling because it couldn’t have come from anywhere except direct experience.
When workaholics give up their minds each workday in devotion to balancing spreadsheets, selling widgets, arguing cases, etc. it’s not knowledge they’re missing out on. It’s perspective. The kind of perspective that requires variety, and discursive50 thinking, and morning runs during sunrise. The kind of perspective that requires new experiences, reflection, and carefree conversations with friends.
We desperately51 lack perspective because we are a society of workaholics, and workaholism is like kryptonite to perspective. (It’s often said that highly intelligent people lack common sense; but I believe they really lack is perspective as a result of handing an unhealthy amount of their brainpower to their bosses).
And the thing about perspective is that you just can’t “hack” it.
There are no perspective hacks. None. You just have to suck it up, live a little, and wallow in the mud of life. You have to get your hands dirty with this beautiful business of living. You have to question, meditate52, and fail often. You simply have to make space for perspective and hope that it will come eventually. You have to spend time in a manner that would seem self-indulgent to most.
In my view, perspective is the king of all anti-hacks
“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman
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hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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hacks
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| 黑客 | |
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optimization
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| n.最佳化，最优化；优选法；优化组合 | |
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hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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prefix
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| n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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optimize
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| v.使优化 [=optimise] | |
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mileage
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| n.里程，英里数；好处，利润 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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stagnating
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| v.停滞，不流动，不发展( stagnate的现在分词 ) | |
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courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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karate
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| n.空手道(日本的一种徒手武术) | |
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pebble
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| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
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input
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| n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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folder
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| n.纸夹，文件夹 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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adaptability
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| n.适应性 | |
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obsessively
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| ad.着迷般地，过分地 | |
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perpetuates
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| n.使永存，使人记住不忘( perpetuate的名词复数 )；使永久化，使持久化，使持续 | |
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consultants
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| 顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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negates
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| v.取消( negate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；否定；否认 | |
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workforce
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| n.劳动大军，劳动力 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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crutches
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| n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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differentiating
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| [计] 微分的 | |
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fictional
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| adj.小说的，虚构的 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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banal
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| adj.陈腐的，平庸的 | |
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amplified
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| 放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述 | |
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discursive
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| adj.离题的，无层次的 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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meditate
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| v.想，考虑，（尤指宗教上的）沉思，冥想 | |
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