Giant's tool-building systems, not setting goals.

The cartoonist Adams was originally an ordinary white-collar worker. Because he has to go to work, he gets up at four o'clock every morning to draw. How to persist? Adams shared three most valuable experiences.

First, build a system for yourself, not set a goal. Adams draws and writes in his spare time while working, which brings little material return, only 5% of his salary. His girlfriend asked him why he did it. Adams couldn't answer. His conclusion now is that what he is doing is not to achieve a specific "goal", but to develop a "system". The so-called' goal' means that you do it in order to do it well. If you succeed, you will be rewarded. If you fail, you will do it for nothing.

Adams' so-called "system" is a constantly changing thing, or a skill, or a relationship, such as the relationship between husband and wife. For this system, you can do all kinds of projects, and you can ask yourself what kind of habits you want to develop. What you want is not the success or failure of something, but the development of this system.

Adams' blog writing is a system. It doesn't matter which article can earn money or how many readers read it. What matters is whether the system can develop continuously. He doesn't have any specific goals in blogging, which is precisely the characteristic of the system. How to develop the system? Adams did two things.

The first is to write regularly, not to fish for three days and dry the net for two days. Second, take blog as a research and development platform, and test various writing skills on it. For example, test which topic is more popular with readers. Test writing with different tones, such as anger, humor, criticism, etc. See which feeling is more popular with readers. After a long time, more blogs have been written, and the writing system has grown. Later, The Wall Street Journal heard about his blog and invited him to open a column. At this time, Adams had a mature writing system, and he knew exactly how to write articles. Adams said that when he wrote a blog, he only knew that there would be various possibilities when the blog grew up, but he had no specific goals at all. He didn't plan in advance when to open a column in The Wall Street Journal. You see, with this system, everything happens naturally.

Adams' second lesson is that inspiration depends more on the body than on the brain. If your writing skills are mature, what you care about most is not "how to write" but "what to write". Adams' column must be backed by many ideas if it wants to keep up with the high frequency. In order to gain new ideas, Adams has a completely fixed process when he gets up every day, and even the breakfast he eats every day is exactly the same. The essence of his routine is to empty his brain first and then fill it with new information. After breakfast, I put all yesterday's problems behind me, freeing my whole brain to receive new information. Then turn on the computer, watch the news, read articles, understand what is happening in the world, and get material and inspiration from the new information every day.

How to accurately judge which information is valuable? We should listen to the body's reaction, because the brain tends to think too much, and the body is a natural reaction. Did you laugh involuntarily when you saw this material? Have strong mood swings? This means that this is a good theme. If your body doesn't react strongly to any information, then there is a high probability that no one cares.

The third lesson is to cultivate some more skilled skills in yourself. If you want to be outstanding, you have two choices.

The first is to practice a certain skill to the top of the world, which is very difficult and few people can do it. The second option, you can choose two skills, each practicing one to the top 25% of the world, which is easier. Combine these two skills to do one thing, and you may go a long way. Adams is not the best at drawing and writing jokes, but both of them can reach the top 25% level in the world. Combining the two skills, too few people can do this.

Adams also has a third skill, especially understanding office politics, which is the theme of Dilbert's cartoons. This is the chemical reaction of three powerful skills on a person. No matter what field you really like, you should practice in the top 25% of this field, and then you'd better add one or two fields. If you don't know what fields to add, Adams suggests you practice your spoken English.

As long as you are willing to practice hard, you will be able to practice well. If you are a top 25% programmer and a top 25% speaker, you are naturally the leader of other programmers.