🌱 Feedback loops
A shower thought
Chase excellence, and success will follow.
- Ranchoddas Chanchad, 3 Idiots
Like my good friend Edison, I believe in the "time in, skill out" principle.
But I believe it's way easier to improve at something when the feedback loops are tight:
- Software development. Test-driven development makes super-tight feedback loops. Personally, my projects aren't test-driven, but working towards an MVP and then gradually adding new capabilities also works pretty well.
- Climbing. Fell off the wall while trying out a boulder? You can usually pinpoint exactly where you could have flagged or swapped your feet.
- Cooking. This one is pretty straightforward—the barrier to trying a new recipe is pretty low, and you can always taste to decide whether or not you need to add more salt.
All of these skills can take a lifetime to master, but tight feedback loops make progress feel more tangible. In contrast, loose feedback loops are the reason some things feel incredibly difficult:
- Applying to jobs, internships, or basically anything else. Rejections pile up with little explanation. You can go through hundreds of applications without knowing precisely what to improve for the next one.
- Weightlifting. After the "newbie gains" phase, your strength can grow slowly. It might take weeks (or longer) to see meaningful progress.
- Learning languages. Without immersing yourself in another place, it’s hard to get immediate feedback. You can study vocabulary and listen to music for years, yet still struggle to produce natural sentences.
It's worthwhile to tighten those feedback loops wherever possible. Measure your progress in some way. Count the number of jobs you applied to, break up your lifting goals into smaller quanta, or use technology to simulate conversations in that language you want to learn.