“Plunge in and quit.”
I’m borrowing this line from this awesome book. You can apply the plunge-in-and-quit heuristic to any overwhelming problem.
It’s tempting to avoid overwhelming problems or push too hard, wear yourself out trying to solve them.
It’s more effective to plunge into the challenge, explore, experiment and play around.
When you get overwhelmed, frustrated or confused, just quit. You don’t have to solve this right now. You don’t have to drain yourself or beat yourself up.
Go do something else. Or do nothing. Relax and let your subconscious chew on the problem for a while.
Once you’ve recharged:
- Plunge in again with a new approach.
- Get confused.
- Quit again.
- Repeat.
Plunge-in-and-quit builds iteratively and keeps morale up. It’s a better use of time and energy than pushing too hard, wearing yourself out or punching a wall.
Plunge-in-and-quit works for programming, songwriting, recording, studying for exams, practicing speeches - anything that can’t be “solved” in a single sitting.
I’ve known this truth, but never heard it put so simply:
Plunge in and quit!
published .
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