Are you in that "All or Nothing" zone?
Lot of us have this mindset where we believe in the “all or nothing” principle.
People with this unrealistic expectation do not see grey areas in most situations; They either fully love or completely hate things.
For example, an extremely competitive person believes that he should be “number one or nothing at all”. Zero Sum game is a closely related phenomenon which means very similar to polarised thinking.
You can either be 1️⃣ or 0️⃣. That's it. Nothing in between.
As a Maker, you should avoid falling in this trap.
One of the things you can do to combat this is by reframing the situation you are in & identify the intrusive thought.
Don't over do it because then that's the fastest highway to overthinking which will just cause your brain to hang. 🛣
I hope you liked this small insight of some interest. Have you felt this on a personal level? Do share your take.
P.S. I write a small newsletter on Psychology which you may like if this fascinated you :)
Love this, I subscribed to your newsletter!
I like how you simplified a complex topic and made it actionable. I think a lot of IHers likely struggle with this, as in my mind it is related to the whole "Imposter Syndrome" thought pattern.
Really impressed by the consistency of your newsletter - keep up the great content!
"Imposter Syndrome" is something that seeps in every maker's mind, at least once. You cannot always avoid it but can learn how to deal with it.
Thank you for the kind words, Justin. Truly appreciated :)
I have definitely felt this on a personal level. I tend to approach things with an "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right" mindset. It's not always bad, I guess. But one thing is doing everything in your power to do things correctly (i.e. take the best steps possible) and another is expecting the best possible outcome. The former doesn't always lead to the latter...and that's the root of most of my frustrations and disappointments...
I resonate with this a lot. Cheers, hermit brethren.
You're definitely not alone. I have been there as well. But the best part is acknowledging the bias in yourself.
Because you know it now, you can take steps to be not overrun by this mindset. Let's not dwell a lot of the time on perfection.
Yeah, a therapist I had said it helpful seeing it in a color of Black and White and the middle zone as silver, silver has a better connotation as it usually is shiny. Also understanding the emotions, like for example anger to actually finding out that it was disappointment on the people around me, that stems from insecurities. Really fascinating stuff understanding the "All or nothing" Zone
That's good to know, mate. Glad you enjoyed learning about it.
I was, and I switched.
Concrete examples:
I was "I am going to create the next hit game" and now I am "I will create a sustainable and successful business as an indie game developer."
I was "if it's theoretically possible, it's within the scope of my project" and now I am "concrete target release date and my well being directly affect the scope of my project."
I was stressed, making progress in unknown direction, lost and feeling anxious and now I am much better.
These are some solid examples. Good to know you have made the switch for better in your mindset :)
Love this. It accurately captures a lot about how we view one another as well. I feel it explains how triggered we are to another person's politics. In reality, everyone is more complicated. Everyone is gray.
Everyone is gray.This. You got it, mate :)
The more I do indie hacking, the more I realize how much the all-of-nothing mindset is destructive in terms of results. I have many projects where I did nothing special, except staying cost consistent, and they were some of my most successful projects to date.
Isn't that surprising? Sometimes, we build projects with less attention and they pop off!
That teaches us a lot.
Yes, that's often while I develop my projects. It listen to an indie song to overcome this and it just works.
How does listening to an indie song helps you? That's a new one :)
I just forget about the size of the work and jump right into it lol
Saying never to go all-or-nothing is a little contradictory. I think you're forgetting that there are grey areas in this too — there are times where all-or-nothing mentalities are appropriate. There are also some personalities that do well with this type of approach.
Sure, there will always be exceptions. But in this context, I am only discussing the major mentality of judging the game as between 0 and 1.
Self judgement is the key aspect which leads majority of us get into this conclusion. Starting with the things we already knew, trying new, experimenting with the available resources will lead us to step further. Working on this though 😂
Well, it is a challenge sometimes to outrun the self-criticism. Remember to always be gentle on yourself.
Good to know you are aware of it. That's the first step!
I think over time, you'll learn that the world is not discrete and it's just analog.
I was super weird. Back in college, if my code didn't compile on the first run, i'd rewrite the whole thing. I was pretty extreme 1 or 0. I guess people don't really like that. Over the years, I've started to observe people and do what I think it's reasonable. It helps to move things forward. Deep down inside, I am still that 1 or 0 kind of guy, but I don't do it as much these days.
Update: I guess one thing that kicked off and got me thinking is the idea that "There's no perfect solution, there's always a better solution".
That's a nice example. In the beginning, we always strive for perfection for variety of reasons like people-pleasing or just for ourselves. Could be anything.
There's always a better solution which might be good enough than reaching the perfect solution.
All or nothing usually doesn't make sense, but I've seen situations where it does.
For example, a good buddy of mine did a coding bootcamp and said he wouldn't accept a Jr. dev gig and only wanted a mid level gig where they paid him "well". It took him several months, but he did eventually get that really solid gig and it paid off for him literally.
While he could have found a Jr gig and been fine, he wouldn't accept anything less than a 1 and when he did get that 1 the victory was sweet.
We can't all sit there and wait until we can hit the goal we need. We all have practical things in life we need to take care of. But if you've set a goal, it's fine to hold out until you get what you want too.
Good counter-example but it fits in the context, slight differently. How did he differentiate between being capable for a Jr. Dev gig and a Mid-level gig?
The 1 that you are talking about here might not be the end goal, but just a 'checkpoint' in the whole 0 to 1 equation. It could be the 0.5 in the long view :)