P2P No. 19 — On Resistance and Procrastination
On the field of the Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the Dragon.―Steven Pressfield
When dissecting the Unknowns of success, I was going for the blueprint of an idealized guide without acknowledging our proverbial foes lurking around the corner. They can be many, and knowing them is as important as knowing ourselves. The Chinese general Sun Tzu explains why we should do so:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”―Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This ancient practice is also known as premeditatio malorum, i.e., anticipating Murphy’s Law to kick in. Recently, it has been gaining momentum in the industry, called red teaming, where the red team’s task is to exploit loopholes in a service. This way, the company can make amends before shipping.
Steven Pressfield calls our foe Resistance, a Dragon, in his seminal work about the roadblocks in the creative process, The War of Art, and his hands-on guide, Do the Work. I do not need to phrase Steven Pressfield’s suggestion, so I will focus on how to get there.
The multi-head Dragon is like a Swiss Army knife: it has the equipment to stall us under any circumstances. In the following, I will single out the head of procrastination; or give it the deserved respect: Procrastination.
Have you ever thought you could do things tomorrow?
The ad infinitum prospect of future accomplishment in this Zeno-flavoured paradox feels soothing, but our minds could not have played a meaner trick on ourselves. Or to be more precise: we could not have deceived ourselves in a nastier way. Procrastination is a blow way below the waistline. It is the enemy within that cajoles us to let our guard down. The castle is safe, the enemy is nowhere to see around. Of course, since the enemy is within. But counterintelligence was not invented in vain. You can fight, and you must.
First, acknowledging that doing something new, like inventing a new algorithm, or proving a conjecture, is hard. Besides the thrill it provides, it can steal doubt into our souls. We do not know what we are supposed to do. In today’s distracted world, it is hard just to shut the door of our minds and focus solely on one thing.
Life intervenes, always. The problem is the urgent, but not important.
But our allies are rallying their troops, swords are sharpened, armors fitted—and I am reading too much Steven Pressfield, where war is a central theme.
Consistency
In apps such as Duolingo, there is the concept of a streak. It is nothing else than a badge of honor for consistently showing up.
Who would care about that?
Despite a seemingly cheap trick to deceive ourselves, proceeding by small increments can do wonders. And consistency does not mean a lot of time. You will not be an expert in a field in a day, but reading a paper daily will get you there when you hand in your thesis. You can do it first thing in the morning or the last before going to bed. You can put your streak onto your calendar or tape it to your bathroom mirror. It does not matter; what matters is to do the work consistently.
Expectations
We want to master it the first time. A quick reality check shows that we have not. Instead of abandoning the undertaking for good, we should lower our expectations. The first draft will be bland, incorrect, a third-grader-would-have-written-it-better-anyways. But that is normal: at least we have something to improve upon.
When writing about my research, I was for years overwhelmed by my perfectionist attitude of getting everything right for the first time. Realizing the opposite keeps me hopefully humble enough to see the nonsense I have written.
But quality is not everything: it is better to start subpar than to be the inventor like in Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, who deceives himself and everyone else of being before a breakthrough without progress.
Don't be perfect, be the best at getting better.— The Growth Equation
It means discomfort at the start, not only by the burden of starting itself but also the dissatisfaction with our performance.
Mentors
But what do you do when you do not know what you need to do to overcome Resistance?
Then you call the Cavalry. You ask for help. You reach out to mentors, supervisors, people-who-have-done-it-before. It is a privilege to have people you can ask for advice. As a Ph.D. student, you got one for sure: your supervisor. They can tell you which directions to abandon, which to pursue, and how to do it. They might even have had the same struggle.
But remember, the only way to win is to do the work.
Resources
Sun Tzu: The Art of War
Steven Pressfield: