Comments on: Persistence

By: Highs and Lows Come and Go, But Will is Relentless | Victus Spiritus

Highs and Lows Come and Go, But Will is Relentless | Victus Spiritus — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:10:56 +0000

[...] in December I mentioned the importance of persistence with respect to anything worth doing. It’s the most important single predictor of future [...]

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:51:21 +0000

That's a great qualification, of course there are times when the path to our "larger goal" takes us through local optimals. I was thinking about just this issue the other day while rereading the post.

But it does cost us time and energy to locally optimize, so expending too much to reach a local pinnacle can sap of us the necesary vital force to push past the local gravity well entirely.

The balance is part of our style, and is correlated but not the only defining aspect of how far we can go.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

By: fparnon

fparnon — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:36:45 +0000

I like the quotation from Calvin Coolidge, and I like your point about local optimals. However, I would connect the dots a bit differently. It's not so much that one needs to reroute around local optimals or avoid them altogether. Achieving local optimals is almost always a necessary part of the journey. Rather, it's that one needs to distinguish local optimals vs. global optimals, and to “press on” if one has achieved only the former. That, of course, is not as easy as it sounds, which is why most people stop pushing after reaching one local optimal or another…..

By: DaveinHackensack

DaveinHackensack — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:06:39 +0000

Mark,

I don't read Gladwell either. I would be honored to be considered one of your “friends and influencers”. I just need to think up a one-liner for my entry. I see you already have an imagination guru. Maybe I can be your cynicism guru?

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:26:00 +0000

I'm guilty of referring to Gladwell without reading him, but I'm aware of the tipping point and am guilty of the happy talk from time to time. Hey Dave I'd like to add you to my friends and influencers page, can you email a one liner (messel at gmail dot com).

I found the Mango Orange (i3theme) and fell head over heels for the versatility it gives the browser. Don't like a box, shrink it! Wanna move things around, that's ok too.

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:26:00 +0000

I found the Mango Orange (i3theme) and fell head over heels for the versatility it gives the browser. Don't like a box, shrink it! Wanna move things around, that's ok too.

By: DaveinHackensack

DaveinHackensack — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:05:37 +0000

There is less to Gladwell than meets the eye: his 10,000 hours for example. He doesn't consider the null hypothesis, that there are those who put in the 10k hours who didn't become successful. He gets paid a lot of money for producing happy talk, but there's not much substance to it when you kick the tires.

I like the new look of your blog though, Mark.