Daniel Crenna

Code Soloist #15: Take your eyes off the prize

We’re often told to fixate on the end result, so that we produce the effort required right now to achieve it. “Keep your eyes on the prize” makes tigers of us all. But the problem with this approach is that we don’t recognize that without already possessing a concrete plan, and the necessary motivation, the strategy fails. In fact, “keep your eyes on the prize” is essentially a nonsense phrase, because you can only use it effectively when you don’t actually need the advice it contains.

We don’t see it that way, most of the time. Consider the overweight person who keeps their eyes peeled on the body they don’t have today. Possessing no plan other than fervent hoping, keeping their eyes on the prize only increases the anxiety of having to live in a present moment, with their present stature.

And that’s exactly how we approach the side project that is meant to set us free, however we define freedom. Just think about what it will be like when you launch, when first sales come through, when you resign from your day job. Don’t actually have a plan to achieve it, just spend the time, eventually it will happen if you’re smart, determined, and lucky enough. We mistake “I’m going to work on this every night and weekend” with “I have a plan”.

Instead, I suggest you take your eyes off the prize, and focus on the process. I keep returning to the idea that simplicity isn’t about removal, it’s about automation. A true plan involves setting your days up so that it’s impossible to fail. So that you are the kind of person that will bring your project home, not just the kind of person who will work on it. There’s very little in common between working on something, and actually finishing it. About the easiest thing I can think of is working on something forever. I know because I’ve done it.

If you’re confused at this point about the difference between a true process and plan, and expending effort, you can start with the smallest process: flossing. Flossing is a great example because it’s one of the things in life that you’re told you’re supposed to do, that you don’t see immediate benefits from doing, and in fact you will notice no positive results from doing it at all, if you’re doing it right.

You’re only flossing to avoid some vague but painful possibility at some far future date. The reason most people don’t floss is that most people do not possess the vital skill of developing a process (daily flossing) that guarantees a desirable outcome (not losing your teeth) even when there is no immediate or even mid-term tangible benefit.

The distinction is this: the “prize” of good oral health is so far away from grinding it out each evening in the mirror that it’s not worth focusing on. The only thing that matters is the process, the automatic habit, that you’ve set up to guarantee that you’ll achieve the result.

You win when you can identify the daily processes that, when repeated, will get you the prize, and then work to make those automatic. The rest is details. You can start by flossing.

Code Soloist is for single-person software development companies that are trying to start something big with their bare hands. In it, I try to impart whatever I’ve learned, for better or worse, doing the same thing badly.