obsession flywheel

There’s no greater joy in life than going deep. 

I’m not talking about sex you filthy animal. That’s for another email.

I’m talking about going deep into tasks, projects, & skills. Productive stuff. 

The thing about productive stuff is that you often avoid it.

The stuff you avoid is often what needs doing the most.

This happens to me all the time.

Business example: Right now I need to create an onboarding SOP for a new service in my agency.

Dry stuff. But necessary.

This type of task is prone to procrastination. That’s why it must go in my 7:30am time slot.

It’s now the first task of the day. I have a clear mind and am freshly caffeinated. It’s getting done.

7:30am on my to-do list is like primetime Sunday Night Football on NBC.

It’s my most coveted time block reserved for my least exciting/most important tasks.

Here’s what happens when I start working:

1. It sucks for like 20 minutes

2. Then I get into a flow and it becomes kind of fun

3. It gets exponentially more fun as my teeth sink deeper into the task

This process is part of what I call the obsession flywheel.

Let me explain:

Most things worth doing suck when you start.

It’s like starting a puzzle.

You have zero momentum and must sit in boredom as you place those first pieces.

Then, the image takes shape and the puzzle becomes increasingly easy.

Congratulations. You are participating in a positive feedback loop, or a flywheel.

Flywheels happen when the output of a system feeds back into the input.

This is what happens when a microphone is placed too close to a speaker.

It’s difficult to describe the terrifying power of positive feedback.

A relevant example is AI. Once AI starts improving itself (it already is), you have a flywheel that many say will lead to the singularity.

But this email isn’t about the singularity. That’s also for another email.

This email is about harnessing feedback to become a more powerful person.

Right now, drop all anxieties that you can’t accomplish something great.

This is because all you need to do is start. Then do the same thing tomorrow. Then the next day, and the next.

As soon as you place those first few puzzle pieces, things get easier and more fun.

This is how “hard” things become easy for those who obsess.

They’ve undergone enough feedback cycles to make their inputs very powerful.

Let’s take playing an instrument. It sucks to start because you sound like shit.

Then you get a tiny bit better and it starts to sound like something.

It becomes more enjoyable to play because it sounds good.

Since it’s more fun to play, you want to play more.

The more you play, the better you get, and the more you want to play.

This is the obsession flywheel. It’s hard to start, but once it’s going, it’s difficult to stop.

So, forget about the difficulty of what you want to do. If you’re interested, start.

Wait for your first positive feedback cycle and witness the task get easier.

Before you know it, you may find yourself trapped in a flywheel and loving every minute of it.

Hope you liked this email. Talk next week 🫡 

Graydon

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https://www.entreflaneur.com/p/obsesssion-flywheel

Cool things I found during my weekly internet stroll.

Two AI agents on a phone call realize they’re both AI and switch to a superior audio signal ggwave.

This building is still but looks like it’s rotating.

Craziest AI video I’ve seen yet.

Served up by Spijker & me.

Climbing - Solomun Remix | Caribou

Satisfaction - Videojean X Oliver Loenn, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano Remix | Benny Benassi

Save Me - Goom Gum & Stylo Remix | Anyma, Cassian, Poppy Baskcomb