
Follow the goal creep - creativityhurts
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3304-follow-the-goal-creep
======
SatvikBeri
What I get out of all these different posts on motivation is that the amount
of motivation matters a lot, the type of motivation matters very little, and
motivation and come from very different places for different people.

Some of the most successful people are highly motivated by their insecurities
(eg Warren Buffett). Some have a very specific vision they want to accomplish.
Some like dhh follow one goal at a time. Some simply grew up with the
expectation that great things were expected of them and see their success more
as a result of their habits than their goals. Some are motivated by revenge.
Some are motivated by proving others wrong. Some are motivated by not wanting
to be ordinary. Some are motivated by wanting to be accepted and loved. Etc.

So really, the best thing you can do is look back at your own life and figure
out what drove you to action. What was the time in your life when you were
most productive & effective? And what was your life like then?

~~~
SoftwareMaven
What I get is a lot of survivor bias. "This is how to do it because this
worked for me". What about all the people still in the middle of the pack in
the gentlemen's race? Do _none_ of them desire a top-ten finish?

I look at motivation as the hind-sight rationalization for how people got
lucky. For all we know, 30 other people were trying what DHH was, but we never
heard from them because they didn't get lucky.

I do think you can stack the cards in your favor (DHH is a really smart guy,
that is certainly one planted card), but no amount of internal anything can
guarantee success.

So I try to stack some cards: work regularly on my project, make a concerted
effort to find value to add, interact with people in a positive way so I don't
burn bridges, etc. Maybe it's not an "I can remake the world to be what I
want" entrepreneurial attitude, but I think it is more realistic for a
bootstrapped project.

~~~
graeme
I didn't read DHH as saying that this method guarantees success. That's an
extreme claim. I think he was saying that it helps you make the attempt.

If he had initially framed his racing goal as winning Le Mans, he might have
said "You know what, this Rails thing is going pretty well, why don't I just
stick to that."

And if he had initially framed his goals for Rails as "creating a popular new
framework", he might have said "you know what, XBOX is pretty fun", and never
tried.

I've no doubt that DHH has failed at some goals using this method. The
important thing is that it has helped him try enough times to rack up
successes as well.

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joeyespo
This is actually a pretty powerful mental hack while you're running or
training. To get some extra mileage.

When you're getting tired, look ahead and pick an approaching landmark. Think
"ok, I'll just run to there and I can stop." When you reach the goal, mentally
celebrate then ask yourself, "can I make it to another?"

It's less daunting to run to the next lightpost than imagine a distant goal.
My personal take away from this article is not that you _shouldn't_ reach for
the stars, but rather let the little goals take priority and save the bigger
goal thoughts for when you aren't running.

~~~
pcurve
It works for push-ups too. Instead of counting to 50, you count 1 through 10
and repeat. And if it gets really tough, just count to 5, and repeat. Even
though you might be on 46th rep, but I found it easier to push myself harder
if I'm counting 2,3,4,5 instead of 47,48,49,50. And if energy permits, I'll
add another 5.

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dave1619
A very thoughtful article by DHH. I think there seems to be two "goals" at
work.

1\. Short-term, achievable goal. Acts like a milestone and gives you momentum,
feedback, encouragement.

2\. Long-term ambitious goal. This is something that acts like a lighthouse in
the distance.

To me, it's interesting how these two types of goals interact and how one
manages them.

For example, some companies seem to be formed by the small achievable "goal"
method. They start small with little ambitions. They get traction and initial
success, and then grow from there. This is similar to DHH's racing journey.

However, there are other examples of people starting out with more audacious
goals, like Elon Musk with Tesla or even SpaceX. The long-term audacious goals
seem to drive development and the short-term milestones. Without the long-term
audacious goal I don't think that there would be enough momentum/energy/vision
to push through the short term goals.

I'm not sure how these two goals work together, and would love to hear your
thoughts on this.

Can you just have the short term achievable "goals" and then grow from there?
Or do you need the long-term audacious goal to guide your short term
milestones?

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d--b
'You can think of goal creep as the test-driven development of a real-life
pursuit.'. No!!! Think about it!!! Test-driven development would be to start
writing your winning speech before learning to drive!!! Besides, goal creep is
a way to get good motivation, but it's usually very bad for design!!! If you
wanted to be very good at racing in the first place, you'd have hired the best
instructor out there, and you probably wouldn't have taken all the bad habits
that you have now, and would probably be a much better driver today!!!

~~~
dhh
That's like saying your first test would be "complete project management
system". That's not what you do. My first test for driving was "gentleman mid-
pack", for biz, it was "$4K/month revenue". For Basecamp, the first test was
probably "add a single post".

~~~
d--b
Ok I see your point. But that only works because before becoming the podium
winner, you have to go through the mid-pack stage. Product design is not like
that. Take Square for instance, where is the small first step ? Build a device
that works with iPhones and that allows people to take credit card on the
move? that's the product, it can't be split into smaller chunks!

~~~
dhh
You TDD your goals. Square could certainly have started with modest goals,
like we did with Basecamp, such as "get to $4K/month in revenues". That
probably wouldn't have floated for them, given all the VC they took. But there
are many grays between that and "unseat every POS ever".

~~~
d--b
Well I guess you could say that you could split the goals to things like "make
a prototype", "convince some VCs", raise "$100,000", etc. That makes for
bitable chunks, but the goal has to remain. Otherwise, what's the point of
breaking one's ass for 4000$/month?

------
davidw
I remember a friend in high school who I used to go on mountain bike rides
with. I tried to get him in to racing, and he seemed enthusiastic. However, he
said he didn't want to race until he was fast enough to win. He never
participated in any races as long as I knew him. I didn't win many, but did
pick off a few here and there.

~~~
graeme
Mmm, everyone wants to skip the step where they have to be crappy for a bit.
It's hard to progress beyond what you know with that attitude.

~~~
rhizome
This bit from Ira Glass has coincidentally been making the rounds lately in
various forms:

[http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-
to-...](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-
who-are-beginners-i-wish)

~~~
graeme
Yes, I was thinking of that exact quote. Read this zenpencils version
recently:

[http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-
beginner...](http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-beginners/)

------
cagenut
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncFCdCjBqcE#t=52>

Baby steps out of the office.

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ph0rque
Great post. Very similar to PG's concept that ambitious ideas should be
approached obliquely (<http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html>).

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pinchyfingers
Slightly off-topic, DHH racing: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1GG7-1AW3A>

I've been obsessed with auto racing, so thanks DHH for the illustration.

Getting into an LMP is a distant goal, and who knows if that's where I'll end
up, so the advice about completing much closer goals makes sense from where
I'm standing, and is exactly what I've experienced in other area of life where
I've already accomplished 5+ year goals.

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ryanisinallofus
What a great thought and a what a great way to express it. 37signals proves
time and time again they have mastered the art of expressing so much with so
few words.

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vukmir
Reminds me of this: <http://youtu.be/Humfsis-QLI>

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pootch
37Signals sucks. Their products suck, their marketing is hype, they will be
out of business in 3 years.

~~~
DanBC
Please, rather than just bashing could you provide any critique of why they
suck?

Bearing in mind that everything sucks, and now I'm left with the problem of
finding what sucks less.

~~~
pootch
everything sucks less than 37signals

