What guarantees failure?
That's a key question. In the abstract, I can reduce all failures to 3 causes:
- Stopping
- Static repetition
- Infeasibility
Avoid these, and winning is certain. Certain.
Let's see how 🤔
Stopping
If you don't do something, you don't get good at it.
Quitting is the ultimate failure, it's essence 🙌
That's the easiest of the 3 causes. You will never improve in something that you don't practice. Or something that you stop practicing.
For the rest of this discussion I will assume you are consistent and never stop.
In fact, it's still possible to fail even if you never quit 😬
Static repetition
Brace yourself. This is tough. Harsh and absolutely essential 🫵
"I keep going, never give up! I will win!", yes, but be careful.
The key conditions for improvements are adaptation and direction. If either of the two is missing, you fail, regardless of how long and hard you push:
You fail if you repeat behaviors without meaningful adaptation, or you repeat the wrong behaviors.
Adaptation
Improvement requires pushing boundaries. Boundaries are tough.
No adaptation means any of the following:
- Staying in your comfort zone (only doing what you’re already good at)
- Repeating “assumed correct” techniques without feedback
- Training but never raising difficulty
- Repeating mistakes blindly
Any situation where the loop lacks corrective signals or progressive challenge 😶
This prunes a lot of people out of the game. A lot of hard working and consistent people 🫠
If you never adapt, this is what will happen:
- Plateau: reach some baseline ability, then stop improving
- Fossilization: optimized efficiency for repeated pattern, even if wrong
- Frustration/Boredom
- Quitting
In other words, static repetition degrades to quitting.
That's why quitting is the ultimate failure 🙌
Direction
You don't want to improve in the wrong skill.
You are consistent, you are adapting, but you eventually reach the wrong destination 😳
In the most comical terms, it's like learning to play piano when you intended to finish a marathon.
But most times is more subtle. And cunning.
The first issue is not specifying any goal. And indeed this is most people's path. It looks like this:
- Proxy success: "society" goals like status or money
- Real-world stagnation: you get good at "metrics", but fail in real situations
- Burnout or identity lock-in: you hate what you do, but cannot imagine doing something else
Second issue is being vague. Pay close (close!) attention to this.
Example: "I want to learn drawing". You practice every day at random:
- Copy objects
- Do perspective drills
- Watch random tutorials
- Doodle fanart
Years in, you’re decent at lots of scattered things, but weak in anything specific. You feel demoralized because the generic progress never translates into what you thought you wanted.
And you quit.
Infeasibility
Last worth mention: aiming for something "not possible".
Some examples:
- Biological limits
- Physical laws
- Logical contradictions (impossible tasks by definition)
- Time-bound constraints
It's also possible a "failure by environment", for example injuries, calamities, or similar, objectively preventing you from performing the action required for improvements.
Important: Notice I didn't mention things as "laws" or "society".
No artificial/human factor prevents you from reaching your goal.
Things like "I don't have a degree" or "There is no job where I live", these are not acceptable. It's just a justification for quitting.
All these essays aim to discover core and objective principles, removing all the context and getting to the essential point.
It's highly probable I will miss something. If you notice, let me know and I will fix it (that's the point of a discussion) 🙏🏼
See you next 👋