The Attention Cottage, Steel Man Technique, & More
Today at a Glance
- Question: Step outside the box.
- Quote: Limits in the mind.
- Framework: The Steel Man Technique
- Poem: Make the ordinary come alive.
- Essay: The Attention Cottage.
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Question on rejecting the status quo:
Is it time you start living outside the box?
There's a passage from Nassim Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes that hit me hard:
"They are born, then put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called 'work' in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box; they go to the gym in a box to sit in a box; they talk about thinking 'outside the box'; and when they die they are put in a box. All boxes, Euclidian, geometrically smooth boxes."
Harsh Truth: The world wants you to consent to a life of sameness, a life of stasis. The world wants you to settle.
Living inside the box is your natural state. It's easy and comfortable to:
- Conform with the path given to you
- Believe in your limits
- Accept the default settings of meaning bestowed upon you
- Allow life to rapidly pass you by
It's easy to stay in the box. But your best life is lived outside it.
Maybe it's time you start questioning those boundaries placed around you.
Maybe it's time you start pressing on those walls.
Maybe it's time you start living outside the box.
Quote on rejecting your limits:
"The garden of the world has no limits, except in your mind." - Rumi
The only limits in life are the ones you create for yourself.
Framework for strengthening your arguments:
The Steel Man Technique
The Straw Man Fallacy is a common logical fallacy in which a person distorts their opponent's argument in order to make it easier to refute.
They create a "Straw Man" (i.e. flimsy) version of the other person's argument and then proceed to tear it down.
This is an all-too-common occurrence in political debates.
The Steel Man Technique is the logical antidote to this fallacy:
- Create the strongest form of the opponent's argument
- Understand the merits of the argument in depth
- Engage with the Steel Man version of their argument
This technique is particularly useful in a variety of business situations:
- Making high stakes decisions: When faced with important decisions, it is critical to understand the merits of different pathways. Strategic ignorance (via presenting the Straw Man version for a given choice) is dangerous in business. Evaluate the Steel Man version of each potential direction.
- Navigating competitive tension: When you fail to take your competitors seriously, you fail in your mission as a leader. If you were the CEO of your main competitor, how would you be positioning your case to relevant stakeholders (customers, investors, etc.)? Engage with that version of the competitor, not the weak, flimsy version.
- Addressing key business risks: Every business faces risks, but when you write them off as inconsequential or irrelevant, they become more dangerous. The Steel Man forces you to conduct a pre-mortem of each key business risk to understand how it creates a significant business disruption. In doing so, you are better prepared for managing these risks.
An ostrich will bury its head in the sand to avoid danger. A lot of humans behave the same way when they encounter new information that challenges their existing beliefs or views.
Don't be an ostrich: Face the best version of the opponent and use it to strengthen yourself.
A poem on embracing the ordinary:
I first read this poem from William Martin's wonderful book, The Parent’s Tao Te Ching, shortly after my son was born. It spoke to me then, as it continues to speak to me now.
Don't forget to make the ordinary come alive this weekend.
Interesting essay on creating space for focus:
I love the idea of creating an Attention Cottage: A physical space where you can go to give your full and focused attention to a specific task (ideally a creative one).
There's something romantic about this idea. Creating the space for separation in a world of constant connectivity.
It makes me want to buy a tiny piece of land on a lake or river and put up a wooden shack to write in...don't tempt me.
Who else wants to find their Attention Cottage?
