Progress is hard… Really hard. From the little I remember of my psychology degree, we found that the conditioning that hooks people (or animals) most, trains them best, is when a reward is not constantly given when a desired outcome is achieved, but where the timing and size of the reward is varied. This way, we keep going harder and longer in pursuit of the next reward. When what we seek as a next step in life is not a defined benefit at a defined time (such as running a marathon, getting that next promotion) but rather a concept, the reward can be some of the greatest feelings ever, but they come somewhat randomly. Of course none of it is truly random, but the feeling of progress comes from that one meeting or conversation in a week, where all of a sudden a whole new path seems possible, where we feel that we really are taking a step forward. Just as there can be these moments, there are many days where we make progress, where lots of ‘foundational’ work happens, but there is no tangible reward feeling. We work and progress and take steps towards our goal, we build models, run regressions, send emails, read stacks of papers, but at the end of the day, when we turn off the lights, there is not such a strong feeling of achievement, no warm fuzzy feeling in us that tells us ‘this was good’. Those are the days we have to become comfortable with - to trust in the process, and with that trust, to continue being engrossed by the idea we pursue.
Published on May 16, 2024