We weren’t allowed to go back to our offices for several weeks, instead I worked from client offices in midtown. Eventually, we had a police escort into our building, so we could retrieve our laptops and personal items. Several weeks later, we were allowed to return to our building, and for the next several months I watched the reclamation of Ground Zero. Endless trips of trucks removing twisted metal and concrete.
For years, 9/11 was on my mind. The evil that caused the event bewildered me. There was a lot of sorrow, melancholy, and confusion. Many of my friends expressed feeling the same way, and I suspect millions of others did too.
In the end, I try to think about these ideas.
The great everyday heroes who made their presence known.
The good lives lost and remembered.
The millions of people around the world who showed their support.
The belief that inevitably wisdom and love triumph over ignorance and hate.
In the end, and in no small way, what eventually began to displace my anger and sadness was the image of my neighbor coaching the little kids on the soccer field, smiling and offering shouts of encouragement. And the image of him standing in the cold air on the top deck of the ferry; the dawn’s first rays lighting the city, and him facing into the wind.
The Multitasking Myth
Dr. Earl Miller is a smart guy, and he can teach you something really important about your brain. What he knows will definitely improve your career and your life, and could even save a life. And, if you’ve got a few seconds, there’s a cool little experiment you can do to demonstrate this to yourself.
But I’m getting ahead of myself; let me introduce you to him.
Earl Miller received his doctoral degree in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University. He has been the Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1995.
Professor Miller has spent decades conducting important research on the brain and has been the recipient of a variety of awards for his illuminating work. In brief, his work has helped show that the human brain does not think about more than one thing at a time.
“Tom, your brain is single task.” I thought he might be spying on me, but then he added, “Everyone’s brain is single task.” I breathed a sigh of relief; thank goodness he’s been spying on everyone’s brain.
Here’s how Dr. Miller knows this about the brain. He and his colleagues have studied how the brain actually works by having people think about different problems, while those same people were having their brains imaged.
Dr. Miller explained that the way the brain actually works is that it switches quickly from focusing on one task to another. He explains, “You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously, but switching between them very rapidly.”11 And there’s real inefficiency in having to remember where you were each time you approach either task.
He gives an example of what many of us do all too often—writing an email while talking on the phone at the same time. You might think you’re actively engaged with both tasks, but the reality is that you’re only focused and working on one at a time. “You cannot focus on one while doing the other.”
“People can’t multitask very well,” Dr. Miller said. And interestingly, his research shows that people who think they’re good at multitasking are actually the worst. “The brain is very good at deluding itself.”
It’s certainly easy to fall into the trap of trying to do two (or more) things at once. With a nearly constant stream of emails, ringing phones, meetings, hallway conversations, people dropping by with urgent questions; not to mention social media and news access—it’s no wonder we end up trying to multitask.
But the research shows that multitasking always results in the tasks taking longer to complete than if they were completed one at a time. In addition to taking longer, multitasking often results in mistakes, which cause new problems and even greater delays. Said another way, “Multitasking means screwing up several things at once.”
Sometimes the mistakes are minor, such as inadvertently including the wrong person in an email. Other times, the mistakes can be huge. I don’t know if multitasking contributed to NASA using the metric system to build a satellite while its partner Lockheed Martin used the English system. But the oversight caused the $125-million satellite to be lost in space.12 Undoubtedly, these were smart people working hard on innumerable complex issues.
I asked Dr. Miller what we could do to improve our thinking, and he gave these suggestions.
Plan to focus. In other words, set aside a time of the day when you will be heads-down thinking.
Remove distractions. Consider turning off the mobile phone, closing down the internet, or putting a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door.
Take a break. When you’re tired and your thinking is no longer productive, be sure to give your brain a rest or shift focus.
I promised Dr. Miller to include a mention of something important, and that is the danger of using a phone while driving. He stressed a few times to me during the conversation that research shows people miss about 50 percent of things while simultaneously driving and talking on the phone. And that is even true with a hands-free phone set. It’s simply a matter of how the human brain works. Language requires brainpower, and engaging in conversation requires focus. The admonishment from Dr. Miller (who knows how we think) is, “Do not talk on the phone while driving.”
Interestingly, having a conversation with another person in the car is not as dangerous, because that other passenger is in sync with traffic and weather demands. The individual can actually act as another set of eyes—while a person on the phone is oblivious to such matters.
So, what about that cool little experiment I mentioned to show that your brain can only “think” about one thing at a time? (Note: Of course, you can learn to do more than one thing at a time, like walking and juggling, but Dr. Miller’s work is concerned with critical thinking.)
While sitting, lift your right leg a few inches off the floor and move your foot in a clockwise circular motion. While continuing to move your foot in a clockwise circle, put your right hand in the air and trace the number six.
Did you notice what happened? Your foot reversed its motion and moved counterclockwise.
I tried this a few times and each time ended with my rotating my foot in the wrong direction. I’m glad this didn’t involve calculating trajectory paths for satellites.
Lessons to Teach Your Children
They say lightning never strikes the same place twice. But, I’ve been struck twice by lightning. It changed my life, and although I don’t think about it every day, I certainly should. It makes me feel like one of the luckiest people alive.
Well, when I say, “struck by lightning,” I mean a metaphorical bolt. Here’s what happened.
One fall day in California, twenty some years ago, I’d woken up just before dawn. My daughter, who was about three years old at the time, typically would wake up shortly after sunrise, so thinking this was a good opportunity to let my wife sleep in (for a change), I walked down the hallway and sat down on the floor outside my daughter’s bedroom door. I didn’t want to wake her early, so I leaned against the wall and watched her sleeping in the crib.
As the first rays of light were just starting to lighten her room, she slowly began to move. In a few minutes, she’d kicked off the blanket, sat up, and was quietly talking to herself. It was like music to me. I stayed hidden in the hallway, watching and listening to her. I remember being completely filled with awe and love.
She had no idea I was watching her. Eventually she climbed out of her crib and walked to her bedroom window and moved the drape aside. Looking outside at the sunlight starting to light the day, she said out loud, “Oh, wow.”
Zap! That was the first lightning strike. It was the sound of sublime enchantment. I remember feeling like I’d witnessed
something rare. A child’s awe of the day that lay ahead.
Several years later, while living in New Jersey, I’d again woken up just before dawn. My son at this point was about three years old.
And yes, the story is exactly the same. I was sitting outside his bedroom door, waiting for him to wake up so we could start the day and let his mom get some needed rest. Eventually, he woke up, climbed out of his crib, went to his window, and looked outside at the fall day. He said (I swear to you) the exact same words out loud, “Oh, wow.”
Flash! That was the second lightning strike. It was once again the sound of wonder, and once again it felt like I was observing a child’s pure joy for the world outside the window.
At this point, both of my kids are young adults. My son is in college and my daughter graduated a few years ago. Of course, I’ve learned a lot of things by being their dad; beginning with how they greeted the day many years ago. And over the years, I’ve tried to teach them some things too.
Here are 25 concepts, in no particular order, that my wife and I told our kids over the years. I’m not sure how many took root, but if repetition counts … believe me, there’s a good shot.
Put down you smartphone.
The phone isn’t making you smarter. Actually, it’s slowly draining your attention from more important things (even noticing the clouds) through constant pings that have conditioned many of your peers (certainly not you) into a knee-jerk immediacy of constantly checking. Don’t let the technology (or habituated communication) control you.
Learn to say “no.”
This might actually be easier for a kid and harder for an adult (remember when you refused to eat your vegetables). So, maintain your ability to say “no.” You’ll avoid wasting time doing things you don’t want to do. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be open to trying new things—like vegetables. Rather, it’s more about building up an indifference to peer pressure.
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
Thomas Jefferson said that, and to me it means … don’t make things more difficult than they need to be.
Write down your goals.
As corny as it sounds … it helps to actually write your goals down. An article in Forbes talks about a Harvard study in which Harvard graduate students with written goals made twice as much money as their fellow students without written goals. I noticed the word “money” caught your attention. Well, actually it turns out the study is folklore. But c’mon, you don’t need a study to prove to you that writing down your goals (and remembering to look at them) works. Every building ever built had a written plan describing what was needed to succeed. (Exception: that shed in the back of your grandfather’s yard did not have a written plan.)
Do hard things.
You’re capable of doing big things. We all are. And doing big things is fun (and hard).
Make good friends and help them.
Be the kind of friend you’d want someone to be to you. Entrepreneur James Altucher talks about treating people as though you secretly know today is their last day on earth. Treat everyone with kindness and consideration. Make them better because they know you.
Be kind and smile.
Simple things you do can make the day better for you and everyone around you.
The world is a small place. The universe is a big place.
You’re now living in a world where much of the world is connected. And that can have far-reaching implications. Scientists estimate there’s between 200 and 400 billion stars in our galaxy—the Milky Way.13 And it’s a normal-size galaxy. And there’s between 100 and 200 billion galaxies in the universe. That calculates to (hmm, getting my calculator out) a 6 followed by 22 zeros. I don’t even know what that means, but it’s a big place. The good news is that your brain is the most complex thing known in the universe—and yippee … you’ve got one. It’ll help you figure things out, and there’s lots to learn.
Work hard.
No matter what you do in life, going the extra mile (and likely then some) is the key to creating opportunities and moving you along the journey.
Work smart.
This is the key to considering you’re creating the right opportunities for your unique journey.
Learn every day.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, there’s about 37.2 trillion cells in your body, and your body is constantly replacing old cells with new ones at the rate of millions per second.14 You get smarter and grow every year. When someone graduates from high school, they’re a different person from when they started. Then, when they graduate from college, they’re a different person from when they started college. And for those who don’t go to college, they’ll still grow and be a different person from all they learn in the working world. Even though learning is a natural thing for kids to do, believe it or not, it’s easy for adults to stop learning. Don’t stop learning. Learn so much that you become a better person every several years.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
There’s over seven billion people in the world, but there’s only one you.
Call home.
Don’t believe in dogma.
You’ll hear a lot of things that probably don’t make sense to you. That’s your brain doing its thing. Proceed with a rational mind (even question things on this list).
Be blind toward race or color.
This is so obvious from scientific and philosophical considerations that I don’t even know what to write.
Don’t be afraid to be embarrassed.
Peer pressure can be hard to disregard. Everyone wants to be cool. Nobody wants to look bad. The best way to never be embarrassed is to never try anything that has a chance of failing. But that’s an express train to the little town of mediocrity (kids, I know when you’re rolling your eyes). If you study the greats, you’ll see they all were focused on their dreams and had a healthy disregard for always wanting to look cool.
Believe in science (and don’t forget love).
This isn’t to say science is always right, but it works dang well.
Follow the golden rule.
Your grandmas were right … “Treat other people like you want to be treated.”
Don’t concern yourself with following the herd.
Work at being better every day.
Exercise.
We were made to move, and you should do so daily. Want proof? How many times have you heard lyrics playing through the house, “Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.” Thank you, Bruce Springsteen.
Eat healthy.
Just one of the many, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Create more than you consume.
It’s easy to consume too much content. It’s not all bad (but most of it is). But remember to spend more time creating content than consuming. Creation is the act by which you learn and grow.
Participate more than cheer.
It’s better to be out running in the rain by yourself, than cheering for a distant sports team playing on the television.
Remember to say, “Oh, wow.”
Let yourself be awed by the day. Yes, I stole that lesson from my kids (love and adore you both, Dad).
Special note to the reader: Should you meet my kids, do not listen to their tales of how their dad doesn’t do many of the above. Grown children are prone to great exaggeration.
What Running (Far) Has Taught Me About Work and Life
It was pitch dark, cold, and nearing 10 p.m. I came out of the woods after running 75 miles nonstop on the trail since starting earlier in the day. My body ached, but the worst part were the blisters on the soles of my feet. They were so deep that they were impossible to drain with a needle (believe me, I tried). Every step squished and hurt. Like. Hell.
I had 25 miles more to go.
My wife and kids were there, holding flashlights to see what was going on. I hobbled into a lawn chair. I changed my socks and shoes. I felt broken and beaten and pulled a towel over my head to kind of hide like an ostrich (t
ruth is, along with my body being thrashed, my mind was fatigued, and for the first time since I was thirteen … I was starting to cry). My kids stood around me silently, wondering what I was going to do. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and that simple touch felt like being hard-wired to a source of energy and light.
We are bipedal creatures made to move. It helps us think and it helps us live. Whether walking around the block or running 100 miles, every person has his or her own reason for getting out the door and moving. The reasons include the fact that it’s good for you. Often, it’s the challenge of going beyond previous limits, pushing through a physical and mental challenge.
Running 100 miles isn’t good for you. But neither is working awful hours week after week. But sometimes, going beyond what’s normal gives us new perspectives and insights. It teaches us things we didn’t know.
There’s a lot about running (and sports in general) that’s analogous to work and life. Pushing through seemingly intractable problems, balancing your resources, and learning how to keep yourself motivated.
Here are 17 lessons that running has taught me about work and life.
Break the work into stages.
When you’re lining up at the starting line, it’s too intimidating to think about running 100 miles, or a marathon, or whatever your new barrier is. Work and life are the same way. If you’re starting a new venture, developing a new product, or building a giant hovercraft—and you focus on all that’s ahead, your reptilian brain will have you scurrying away in fear.
While it’s important to know the intended outcome (“We will launch the product in 100 days” or “I will finish this 100 miler”), at the same time, it’s critical to break the effort into stages. If it’s a product the team is working on, first there’s a breadboard, or wireframes. Then there’s a prototype or a minimum viable product (MVP) that can be used to begin improving and iterating. Whatever the big goal, it’s mandatory to break it into achievable pieces, and move from successfully completing one and then the next. Basically, connecting the series of milestones that are necessary to succeed.
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