46 · Wide Then Narrow

One massive thing I was doing wrong — revealed by Peterson on Rogan's show: how many hours are you actually studying, and how many hours are you sitting down? Those are very different things. Deep Work makes the distinction clear. It's a wide oscillation between complete open-minded divergent exploration and very convergent, one-target, singular-focus attack. Mastering both is the skill. You attack one narrow thing and say no to everything else during that time — literally everything. And in the exploration phase, the opposite: say yes to everything, aggressively killing the "no"s that manifest inside you. Two modes: killing the noes, or killing every speculation. Know which mode the moment calls for.

Remember this day — when the seed of convergent work was planted. Set a timer, find the frog, dive deeply into it, do only that.

When people are in a rush, they run on autopilot with the wrong software installed, and running backtests just amplifies an erroneous underlying system. People do not think when they hurry. They are busy — lots of motion and action — which is very different from getting closer to the goal.

Being where your feet are is very, very important. A simple rule that needs reps: yes, there are a million things on the mind, infinite tabs, twenty problems to solve. But there is one thing that must be done right here, right now. Let the other things stay where they are; get the one thing done — the work in front of you.

Bro, eighteen hours is a fucking lifetime. I was so locked in at COEX — purely focused, in flow — learned a shitload, and only four hours had passed. Deep, deep flow is so profound that it's painful at times to enter the zone, but once you're in, the world fades. Stick to one thing and let the rest of the world dissolve. Flow is powerful.

The term for being so hyper-focused you cannot hear background sounds is inattentional deafness — high cognitive load consumes so much attention that the brain fails to process auditory input even though the ears work fine. When I really lock in, everything around me is blocked out; for me it's closer to selective auditory attention. Anendophasia means having no inner stream of subvocalised thought; endophasia is having the inner monologue. Know your own machinery.

You should listen to your own advice: have Sky News Live on as background noise — you can tolerate that level of background, and it rewires the unconscious voice inside.

Remember: the method for achieving greatness, even in times of greatness, is pure force and volume for four hours of sharp focus, then thirty minutes completely off, then four hours of complete focus — oscillating over and over.

What if the definition of working hard is fluid, evolutional, topological? Not grinding with pure pain, but increasing productivity per unit time. What if focus is just working on the things that matter more? What if you worked fewer hours — only four hours of deep, penetrating focus that pierces the core of the work — and that beat mere toil out of guilt? Some phases are trudging through mud; this is not that phase. Stay light on your feet. Four hours of proper input a day for two to three weeks finishes the entire A-levels. I know that. Get it done.

What if all those successful businesses, those weekend side projects, were built on only four hours a day? Then everything makes sense. Wake up, have the non-stimulating breakfast, then the one thing of the day — the thing that, once done, makes you proud of the day.