How Taxing Work Becomes Fun
"Wait, am I... cracked? No way. But I just did this thing that I've seen cracked people do and I wasn't able to that before. Holy shit I'm actually getting cracked."
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Manny recently wrote a reflection on his experience filling in his mathematical foundations on Math Academy. There was one bit in particular that I found funny yet incredibly insightful:
x.com/mannycpp/status/1908052775919038770 I hear this sort of thing from adult learners all the time.
Initially they’re missing a crap-ton of foundational knowledge. It’s a rude awakening.
Then they just focus on taking one bite at a time. Eventually it gets to be kind of fun.
And at some point they look up and realize they’ve transformed. Not completely, but enough to know that it’s really happening.
“Wait, am I… cracked? No way. But I just did this thing that I’ve seen cracked people do and I wasn’t able to that before. Holy shit I’m actually getting cracked.”
Kind of like you show up to the gym weak and fat, not really looking forward to working out, but you just suck it up and do the workout and stick to the plan and eventually you get accustomed to it and it becomes kind of fun putting serious weight on the bar.
Not fun in the sense of “lifting this heavy-ass weight feels so pleasurable” but in the sense of “it makes me feel legit and each time I put another plate on I feel really good about myself.”
And then you notice your clothes fit differently, people make comments about how strong you look, and you’re like “What? No, I’m fat and weak. But I guess I can lift some big weights now? Okay, fine, I’m no bodybuilder but yeah I guess I did put on some muscle. Holy shit, I’m actually getting ripped.”
And then you realize that you’re within striking distance of not just “getting” cracked, not just “getting” ripped, but you can actually close the loop in full if you stick with it and ramp up the intensity.
And this is when it really feels like a video game. You’re climbing this skill hierarchy, you’re more advanced than most people, it’s more than just a habit, it’s starting to seep into your identity, you want to climb higher and see how far you can get.
And people start asking you for advice, they start looking up to you, you feel like your hard work is getting recognition, you’re having a positive impact not just on your own growth but also on other people’s growth, and it turns into this really positive feedback loop that continues compounding throughout the rest of life.
You get caught in this virtuous cycle, it leads to more and more positive chance events you never would have anticipated, everything compounds and somehow everything is really fun despite being really taxing. Somehow the taxing becomes fun.
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