
The nil-nil philosophy. - sahillavingia
http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/11/10/the-nil-nil-philosophy/
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jat850
I liked (and remembered) when you posted the comment. I like the blog post as
well. It's a great mentality to live by but the level of discipline to stick
with that mentality must be a real challenge. And discipline is already a
major lacking factor in my life; insight on how to improve that would be
welcome, from anyone.

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sahillavingia
At the end of the day ask yourself if you're above zero. If not, donate $100.
Easy motivation, and then either way, you will be! :)

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sudonim
The idiom "Don't rest on your laurels" means essentially the same thing.

"to be so satisfied with your own achievements that you make no effort to
improve"

<http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rest+on+laurels>

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Jach
At the same time, the best is the enemy of the good. Relax a little.

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baddox
His example assumes that widening your lead in a rugby game when victory is
already certain is in fact _better_.

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adamc
Yeah, I wondered about that too. Part of the problem with the analogy is that
it isn't clear that _is_ the best strategy. Players get hurt. Usually, if you
are way ahead, you gradually take your best players out of the game to protect
them.

I see where the advice is coming from, I think, but the analogy fails.

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David
At the same time, on an individual level, you'd still expect players to play
hard and be focused, right? I think that's where this applies. While the
players on the field might not be the best players, they're still gonna play
_their_ best. (...I was hoping the extended analogy would translate to life,
too. But I'm not seeing it.)

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corin_
Even then it's far more complex. Using football as the example rather than
rugby, if a team is winning with minutes to go you'll often see them taking
the ball to a corner flag and trying to kill the game, rather than still
"playing as if it's nil-nil". On the other hand, there are times when a team
who has a lead will adapt to defend the lead (changing tactics, taking off
attackers and replacing them with defenders, etc.), will then concede a goal,
and will end up worse off than if they'd kept the offensive strategy that gave
them the lead.

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hitonagashi
I'd say the 'nil-nil' approach is the safe option. You CAN achieve greater
things in the context of a season by conserving energy where appropriate, but
it's a lot easier to get it wrong and end up losing net energy.

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benatkin
It's easier to think it in the morning than it is to feel it. To think it, all
I need is to write myself a note or get an email sent to me each day. (I'm
getting <http://dailyhi.com/> and so far it's helped.) To feel it I often need
to read something enjoyable, or get outside and exercise, or do something
different from the day before.

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Hates_
"Play the point, not the score." - Brad Gilbert

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jiganti
He was our group's coach for a few weeks (I went to the Bollettieri tennis
academy for high school) and it was apparent his philosophy of the game was on
a different level than any of ours. There's a big difference from
understanding the theory and putting it into practice- your emotions are not
so closely connected to your rational mind, so what you set out to do can
easily be interrupted by a natural frustration to losing.

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poundy
It also does not matter if yesterday's score was 0-10 and you are down by 10.
Don't get depressed, try scoring one today!

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JeanPierre
So, from a computer scientists point of view, you could say that the nil-nil
philosophy is the greedy algorithm applied on yourself?

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joelmichael
I prefer the more intuitive method. After some success, take a break. Then
when you feel lazy, do something. Repeat.

