I’ve just listened to a Mixergy interview with Jonathan Fields on the subject of dealing with uncertainty. (Note the interviews are only free to watch for a few days, though you may find them later on the podcast feed.) This bit made something click:
So everything that happens, all the mundane stuff in their life around, they created a process, it becomes completely ritualized. They drop certainty anchors left and right. They wake up the same time, they eat exact same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they wear the same clothes, they work out the same time, listen to the same music. And it creates this sense of, “OK. I know there are enough things in my day that I can count on being, I know what they’re going to be, so that I can go to that place in the work, where I don’t know how it’s going to end up”.
And, when I talk to people about this, a lot of them start to realise that they’re doing this unintentionally but it was something that became, it was like a chance to touch stone in their lives. Where they felt like they can come back down and it was always there and it gave them a sense of grounding that they felt allowed them to go to that place. Where in their work they could really create on that higher level.
I’ve never quite understood why people like Steve Jobs wore the same clothes day after day. They’ve said that it is so they don’t have to think about it, but that answer never quite made sense to me. I mean, how much effort does it take to decide what to wear?
Jeans annnnd… this shirt. Done.
But hearing this, it suddenly made more sense. It was probably hearing that certain people eat the same thing every day. I do that. Not for dinner usually because I eat dinner with others, but breakfast and lunch and snacks. As much as I can, I have the same thing every day.
I’m starting to think about the wider context of this. We seem to create balance for ourselves subconsciously.
I’ve noticed that depending on what I’m working on really affects the kind of things I do in my spare time. I watch more TV when I’m stressed, but usually I have to make myself watch anything. If I haven’t done enough socialising, I have to talk to people online. If I’ve done too much, I’ll become much quieter in social situations. That kind of thing.
And I’ve been reading the Kindle sample of Clay Shirky’s book, Cognitive Surplus where he talks about the gin craze of the 18th century amongst the working class trying to deal with the difficult new life of the city. The modern equivalent, he says, has been sit-coms.
It’s an interesting argument and I hope to return to that book. But the Steve Jobs biography is due in a few hours so it will have to wait!
Talking of which, there was an excerpt from that book talking about this subject posted by Gawker. I’m hoping the book will say more about the reasoning, but this at least gives a bit of extra background -> http://gawker.com/5848754