Your Only Goal Is to Get More Done by Doing Less
Or, the difference between linear work and asymmetric work
👋 Hey there! My name is Abhishek. Welcome to a new edition of The Sunday Wisdom! This is the best way to learn new things with the least amount of effort.
It’s a collection of weekly explorations and inquiries into many curiosities, such as business, human nature, society, and life’s big questions. My primary goal is to give you some new perspective to think about things.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about creative work recently. I believe creativity not only solves problems, but also opens up tonnes of opportunities for us — not to mention it’s so much fun. I’ve been working on a framework to approach creative work. Today’s essay is a follow-up to the ideas I shared last week.
On to this week’s essay! It’s about ~1600 words.
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Q: How to choose what to work on?
What I like the most about Arnold Schwarzenegger is not only his relentless passion but also his strategic mind. This is a guy who came from abject poverty and went on to become not only a bodybuilding champion but also the highest paid actor in Hollywood, and then a successful politician.
Many don’t know that Arnold was already a millionaire before his acting career took off — even before he had swung his sword as Conan: The Barbarian — his first major movie. To give you some context, Sylvester Stallone was broke before Rocky.
In his autobiography Schwarzenegger writes that in the early days of his movie career he noticed a lot of his fellow struggling actors were financially vulnerable. They didn’t have a lot of money and hence they were forced to take whatever role they were offered. They didn’t have the luxury to choose or to wait for the right role.
Unlike them, Arnold didn’t rely on his movie career to make a living. He had invested the little he made from bodybuilding into real estate which made him good money. Since he wasn’t in any hurry, he could let go of roles that weren’t going to help him in his career. He had the option to wait.
The common advice when trying something big is to jump right in, to give it everything, and to burn the ships. This looks good in movies, but is foolish in practice. If you don’t take care of the downside (what happens when you fail) you are in for a great deal of pain.
Today, let’s continue talking about work. Last week we talked about the new meaning of hard work — how it’s no longer just about putting your head down and grinding it out.
Hard work is about finding creative ways to get things done.
As much as working hard, it’s equally important to work on the right things, not just anything. A big part of this credo is doing asymmetric work.
To illustrate this better, let me first explain what is NOT asymmetric work. Say you have a job that pays you well. You know for a fact that if you work hard you’ll be in the good graces of your manager who might be kind enough to increase your salary by 20% a year from now. Since you are already getting paid well, even a 20% hike would drastically increase your take-home money. So you grind on, finding creative ways to get more done in less time.
A year from now, you do get a promotion and a good hike. Your role has changed and your responsibility has increased. But you are ambitious, and hence you begin the cycle all over again.
You are smart and you find creative ways to get shit done, but you aren’t doing asymmetric work. It’s linear work, and linear work doesn’t have exponential returns.
When I say “exponential returns” I don’t just mean money. Money is no doubt important, but I also mean name, fame, meaning, and most importantly fun — all equally important returns.
Human beings are wired to try to prosper — thanks to serotonin. They are also wired to have fun — thanks to dopamine. Even if you remove money from the equation, it’s still a tonne of fun to try new ways of making the best out of your circumstances. It’s not just about the outcome but also the sense of accomplishment that comes along. Hard work can be fulfilling.
Asymmetric work is the kind of work that, in the best case, will have tremendous upside, and in the worst case, will create optionality.
Unlike asymmetric work, symmetric work caps both the downside and the upside. For example, there’s almost no risk (and no fun) in a secure government job. But at the same time, there’s not much gain as well. If you manage not to get fired, you would get promoted when your time comes. There’s not much motivation to put creative effort as it doesn’t yield additional benefits.
Now, asymmetric work isn’t taking a risky job or leaving your job all together to follow your passion. That’s dumb! It doesn’t take care of the downside. If you live like a pauper, how would you pay your bills, or worse, what would you do in case of an emergency?
Asymmetric work is doing what Arnold did — taking care of your downside and buying the luxury of time.
Do enough work to make a decent living, not more than that. Invest the rest of the time, energy, effort in pursing something more — something that, if it pays off, would give you tremendous benefit (money, name, fame, fulfilment), and if it fails, would still give you certain benefits (network, creative skill, fun).
Pick something where there are two ways to win, and no way to lose.
Personally, I try capping the time spent on work work to 50%. This means, if you work twelve hours a day, make sure not to spend more than 6hrs on work that pays the bills. Spend the rest of your time doing creative work that may give exponential returns.
Is it possible to make a decent living with only 6hrs of work? It is hard, but it isn’t impossible, especially if you already have a couple of years of experience under your belt. If you find creative ways to manage your time, set up good processes, get more done with less work, it doesn’t sound crazy.
Of course, not all jobs and industries have this luxury. It’s easier if you are a manager because there’s little legwork. But it’s tricky if you are designer or a developer — because your work is literally tied to your time. On the bright side, the rise of remote work, async culture, four-day work weeks have opened up a multitude of opportunities — even for beginners. Keep looking!
What’s wrong with putting effort in your day job? Nothing! But if your goal is fun, independence, and money, day job may not give you all of it, and it’s futile to put additional effort when you can make do with less.
If you really love your day job and have no other interest on the side, at least make sure to get equity — so that your hard work pays off in the long run and you prosper as and when the company prospers, not just when your manager thinks it’s time for your to prosper.
In any case, capping your daily hours gives you a shot at destiny at best and optionality at worst.
I’ve been talking so much about optionality, what do I really mean by it? Let me illustrate with an example. I’ve been writing regularly for a while now. I love to write — it’s a passion of mine. In the best case scenario, I should be able to make a living out of it. This unfortunately isn’t the case — yet.
But it’s not like all this work has been for nothing. I’ve created a body of knowledge all these years, which has good brand value. This has helped me make good friends from all over the world, something that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Interestingly, I also got a job — that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise — because of my writing. Not everybody can write consistently for so many years. When I drop an email saying that I’ve written over 200 essays, it surely catches attention. It’s a personal moat, and it’s not easily replicable.
I’m not saying all this to brag, but to make a point. I eat my own dogfood.
Okay, how should you use the 6hrs of free time? What kind of work should you do? Without being too prescriptive, I’ll only say this: invest in creative hobbies.
Learn as many skills as you can, then mix and match them. For example, if you learn illustration and coding, you can make video games, or if it’s too much, you can teach how to make video games.
You don’t have to be the best of the best. You can be average, but in multiple skills. For example, if you are into fitness, nutrition, and psychology, it’s easy to become a fitness therapist — after completing a few certification courses. What is it? You tell me! You just created this role. The options are infinite.
Don’t worry about failure, focus on the fun. Find joy in the process. Where there is optionality, there’s no failure. Everything hobby is valuable.
Having said all of that, this advice isn’t for everybody. This advice is only for people who want a framework to put effort in the right place.
You don’t have to do asymmetric work. You don’t have to spend 12hrs a day working. You can take the time off to chill instead if you want to.
But if you are with me so far, and what to take away one simple idea from this essay: don’t spend time and effort in the wrong places — they are already in short supply.
No matter who you are, your career goal should be to get more done by doing less. As time passes, for every unit of effort put the ROI should increase.
Timeless Insight
There is a difference between the value you create and the value you capture. If you only create value you won’t be able to make a living. If you only capture value you’ll lose trust.
For example, if you are very diligent at your work, but nobody recognises your contribution, or somebody else is taking all the credit, you aren’t capturing much of the value you create. On the other hand, if you are stealing credit without doing the work, it would come back to bite you soon.
You should ideally get back more than you give. If you are a philanthropist, you give away money to help the poor, and you gain back in social capital, name, and recognition. If you are a good deal maker, what you give you get back in margin and profit.
What I’m Reading
History has shown that we shouldn’t rely on governments to protect us financially. On the contrary, we should expect most governments to abuse their privileged positions as the creators and users of money and credit for the same reasons that you might commit those abuses if you were in their shoes.
— Ray Dalio, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Tiny Thought
Being a responsible adult is the most underrated form of self-care.
Before You Go…
Thanks so much for reading! Send me ideas, questions, your favourite Netflix series. You can write to abhishek@coffeeandjunk.com, reply to this email, or use the comments.
Until next Sunday,
Abhishek 👋