Micro Class - 50 lbs for an A

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on £50 equals A. It's inspired by black box thinking. In the last micro class, we talked about what black box thinking is approaching life like the aviation industry, using failure as data. Well, one of the biggest obstacles to embracing failure as data is perfectionism. Not telling anything new there, but let's look at a fascinating study or experience by a ceramics teacher. So imagine you go into art class and you're going to make pottery, right? And the teacher says, hello, class, I am going to split you into two groups. One group, I'm going to grade you on the quantity of your work, and the other group, I'm going to grade you on the quality of your work. So start thinking about who do you think is going to perform better? Those who are challenged to create a high level of quantity or those who are challenged to create a high level of quality? Well, here's what happened. He said, look for the quantity people going to bring in a scale at the end of the semester or year or whatever. And if you give me 50 pounds of pottery, I'm going to give you an A. You give me £40, well, you're going to get a B. You give me 30 pounds, I'm going to give you a C, etc. Right? The quality people. He said, look, bring in one perfect piece. That's all I want you to focus on. Just bring me the perfect piece of pottery that you can create the best you can do. At the end of the year, this group created all of the good work. This group, not so much. Now, obviously we want to produce quality work, but ironically, it was arrived at by focusing on quantity. Why is that? Because with a black box mindset, when you're just out hustling, you're not getting lost in the idea that you need to create something perfect and that you can create something perfect from your bedroom or from the office or from an ivory tower. Conceptually, you've got to get to work. You've got to create £50 worth of pottery if you want to create anything good, right? Ideas about creating something perfect are not going to get you there. You got to engage with life and churn, be in the game, getting a little bit better, optimizing again and again and again. We're going to talk about that more in the next micro class on marginal gains. But think about that. We which group do you fall into? How do you coach yourself and those around you to always try to do something perfect or just to show up and get a little bit better day in and day out. It's all about the reps. Quality reps over time leads to great results. In my interview with Grant Cardone, he joked about this. He said, look, you just do enough of anything, you're going to get better. He said, my wife, you know, she kind of always wants to do things perfectly and at the time that she does one video, I've done 10 or something like that. He said, right. Quantity. Have fun with that. Judge yourself on whether you're showing up consistently, diligently, patiently, persistently, and not on whether you're doing it perfectly, particularly if you struggle with perfectionism. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more. Have another awesome day. Here's to £50 equals an A. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson me two basic things one our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And 2 our optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done, 101 Relationships, 101 Habits 101, et cetera. You'll also get access to what we call Micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.