It’s easy to say “increase tempo!”
But man is it hard to actually do without superlinear increase in energy input.
It’s easy to double your pace if you quadruple the energy. The trick is to do it for just 2x or less.
Conversation
Basic physics is more than a metaphor here. Kinetic energy is 0.5mv^2. I suspect that’s a baseline for everything.
For non-physics-limited things, you can beat quadratic growth in energy needs with velocity, but you need to either exploit other humans, or the built environment.
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Wonder what the literal speed limit of neurons firing is set by. Probably it’s fixed by refractory period of neurons rather than glucose or something.
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I’ve been trying to increase my tempo of work, and I’m discovering it is: 10% refactoring schedules, 20% refactoring content (unbundling/febundling), 30% better habits (sleep, diet, exercise), 40% working on stamina (working at say 10% higher intensity for 10% longer every week)
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Replying to
You can use anxiety as a driving force to create the required energy. With humans anxiety has a nice strong feedback loop. Downside is that you’ll drive everyone else crazy but you’ll easily attain peak productivity.
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Yep. Anxiety makes you very productive but with no slack. Then you burn out.
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Also doesn’t work where significant imagination is needed. Especially on the ends side. You can be anxious-creative on the How (means), but rarely on the What or Why. Clutch creativity at best.
I think you can figure out What too. And thinking about the Why is not really execution.
My favorite thing about the high anxiety mode is how your mind seems unable to see other peoples roadblocks as well as your own. Priotization also seems effortless.


