Insight Synthesis

You’re walking down the street, watching TV, or just browsing the web, and you come across something profitable or unique you had an idea for long ago, but never bothered to pursue. The feeling is both good and bad. On one hand, this discovery reassurances you that despite what your peers might tell you, neither you nor your ideas are crazy, inane or unfeasible. But on the other hand, that dude totally stole your idea.

But what does “stole my idea” mean? This assumes that the idea itself belongs to you, and being that it’s your own idea, it does belong to you, but does it mean that nobody else can have the same idea? We’d like to think so. In reality, there’s a good deal of people who have long had the same ideas we have now, and there will be people having these same ideas thinking they’re unique long after we’ve actually implemented the idea and shown it to the world. The idea can belong to each of these people, but the actual implementation cannot.

What matters is not just having the idea, but actually going forth and implementing it. Walk through a supermarket and mall, and there’s plenty of “obvious” things that “anyone could have thought of” – and there’s no doubt plenty of people did, but who actually went ahead and risked working on something unique, and then became popular for it?

People believe that the idea itself is 99% of the work, but is isn’t true. It takes a lot of time, money, effort and some luck to actually implement an idea. And after that it might never take off because it’s ahead of its time or its implementation wasn’t good enough.

Most people will brush their own ideas off as being unrealistic, but most ideas begin like any other: “you know what they should make? something that …” or “man, if only they put a ____ that also does ____” – these usually bring a laugh, but somebody, somewhere will actually find profit or value in these innovations and risk time and money to make them a reality. These people are the ones that deserve the credit.

This  means you need to choose what you work on wisely. Most of our ideas will never see the light of day, and that’s OK. The important thing is being able to spend our time working on ideas that we truly believe will be of value, and especially related to things we are passionate about (if possible). After many failures we will begin to see what we excel at, what we suck at, and our ideas will become more focused and “realistic.” It becomes easier to get our ideas off the ground, but until we’re at that level, we need to throw shit at the wall until something sticks.

Like most people I know, I do my best and most productive work late into the AM. This is generally seen as a bad habit, even by those who do it, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who tries to “fix his schedule” every other day.

One reason I’d like to fix my schedule is because I feel if I wake up early and get my work done, I have “the whole day ahead of me.” This is true, but in reality, I have the rest of the day ahead of me no matter what my schedule is like. If I wake up at 5 AM, 12 PM or 3 PM, I have the same amount of time between when I awoke and when I’m going back to bed. It only feels like waking up late eats most of my day because I subconsciously go through the day still intending to sleep at the early bed time I set for yourself; i.e., 11 – 1AM. If I give up the idea of trying to fix my schedule and accept that I will be awake late, I suddenly feel I unlocked more time.

For people who have jobs or classes to attend in the morning, getting up early isn’t a choice. In that case, there’s no doubt you need to fix your schedule. What matters is getting enough sleep. That aside, there are many benefits to waking up early in the morning:

• Being up late at night can be depressing, especially when there’s nobody around.

• Staying up late is usually the result of worse habits, like bad time management. Perhaps a feeling of “I wasted the entire day, and now I don’t want to sleep before I get something done.”

• In most places, even  New York, being up late in the AM is much more limiting than being up at night. Things you might need to get stuff off your todo list, like banks, libraries and post offices, will be closed.

• People are far less likely to think you’re a drug abuser or a zombie if you wake up early morning.

With those benefits, why not fix your schedule? Accepting that your schedule is bad and taking the above factors into account, there’s really not much harm in staying up late. If you do wake up and sleep early, you might not get anything done if you’re poor at managing your day.

I noticed if I wake up early, I feel lazy just because I know I have so much time ahead to get things done. It’s idiotic and easily fixed if I look at the big picture, but I generally have no obligations in the morning and so no real reason to be up. I work from home with no fixed schedule, and if I take classes they’re almost always after 12 PM.The stress and pressure of feeling guilty for staying up late aren’t worth the benefits of waking up early. Being up in the morning is overrated, especially when you’re getting enough sleep and getting things done.

Re-evaluate if you really need to fix your sleeping schedule, and then if you do: Fix it. Wake up at the same time everyday, no matter when you sleep. Don’t take naps and your body will naturally adjust to make sure you get the right amount of sleep. You’ll begin to feel tired later in the day, and more energized in the morning, provided you give your body enough time to get used to the change. Just be aware that you will likely not be able to get anything done the first 2-3 days. I tend to feel like indifferent, tired and dysphoric while waiting for my body to adjust. That’s OK. Just realize this is normal and will go away, otherwise this withdrawal syndrome will keep you tied to your bad schedule.

There’s no question that buying in bulk means you’re paying (much) less per individual unit, but in the long run does it save you money? The obvious answer is yes – how can it not? Instead of buying 1 train card for $4 everyday for 30 days (total $120), you would save $40 if you buy an $80 30 day unlimited card. In fact, you would likely save more because on some days (maybe weekends) you might use the train multiple times.

With metrocards, or anything you purchase on a regular basis that you can sit down and calculate a near exact cost of (cable bill, monthly memberships, etc), buying in bulk is a no-brainer. However, things you consume or use up, like gas or food, likely end up costing more when bought in bulk.

This happens if you don’t have a system for how you plan on using what you bought over an extended period. Instead of buying one Twinkie a day, you might think you’re saving $20 buying a big monthly supply (monthly supply being 31 Twinkies, for example). Without any form of control or restriction placed on the Twinkies, it’s likely you will now just end up eating more than one Twinkie per day. You might finish the Twinkies in a week instead of a month, and then probably either get sick of them and quit buying them for a week or two, and then resuming the cycle, or resuming it right away. Food isn’t the only thing we can abuse…

With a full tank in the car, I’m much more likely to speed or drive aggressively. With multiple bags of cat food in storage, I would probably take out scoops without caring much about losing any bits of food. I.e., some bits fell on the floor, or I put too much and need to throw out the old bits.

This also happens with money. If you have $100 in your bank account, you’re much less likely to charge small purchases, and become very vigilant about what you’re buying. With $3,500 in your bank account, this self monitoring is inhibited because suddenly, the loss is insignificant relative to how much you have in the bank. This is illogical. Saving $1 is saving $1,whether you have $2 in the bank or $2,000.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy in bulk. Buying in bulk is an excellent way to save money, but also requires that you micromanage your supply.

What you do is your own choice. Nobody can force you to do anything. People can have an influence on you, but so can anything. Filter out things you feel will influence you into doing something for which you won’t accept responsibility.

Things don’t have to suck. Our memories, opinions, beliefs and thoughts lean everything into a category of good or bad. We choose how to feel. This means that things suck because we choose to believe they suck. See above.

There’s no such thing as multitasking. It takes your brain a little bit of time to settle into the groove of whatever you’re doing. This becomes impossible if you’re constantly distracted or willingly trying to finish multiple things at once. Stop it.

Be confident, but to do so you first have to thoroughly understand what confidence means to you.

Understand and internalize that progress is made in little steps.

We can justify anything to ourselves. We pick certain facts and beliefs and use them to formulate a very logical justification for …pretty much anything. Any one of us can go out and murder children, and no matter how bad we feel about it, we will eventually find countless reasons to justify what we did. This is part of human nature.

Despite what your therapist taught you, when you’re with other people, or in a public place, you likely are being judged and looked at. It’s normal. We all do it all the time. Is it really a problem? Does the judging we do the first second we lay eyes on somebody affect or hurt them? There will always be people who hate you or things you do. They have a right to think you’re retarded or ugly. Why do you care?

Life isn’t a race. You’re not playing against anyone else. Don’t compare yourself to others. This belief can impede everything you do and can sometimes feel impossible to change, even after becoming aware of it.

You can do or be pretty much anything. Excuses are easier to come up with than most other accomplishments, and we naturally choose the path of least resistance. We can learn to speak a new language fluently, or master a new skill, or build something remarkable. We can also convince ourselves that we’re incapable and incompetent.

Life sucks. It will always suck until you decide to believe otherwise.

Change. A big part of changing is just the realization, or belief, that you have changed. All the work you do between point A and point B is done to convince you that you’ve changed. By believing that some change has already occurred, you can greatly speed up the process. For example, if you’d like to be more confident, then just believe (or pretend) that you are, and do what you would do if you were more confident. (I’m not talking about any New-Age shit.)

If you want to lead, take charge. This is easier said than done. Most people will never be able to take charge unless they feel they’re superior to those in their group.

The hardest task is always getting started. There’s rarely a more efficient way than just to stop thinking and start doing. Don’t get stuck in a position where you just sit and think about how to get started, or of any shortcuts. You will end up either never starting, or just getting started the conventional way.

Relax. Things are fine, even when they’re not.

Giving up can be beneficial, or rather: Not knowing when to give up can be detrimental to your health (in the form of stress) and to your productivity. Being overwhelmed with many things to do and no sense of priority (no deadlines) usually means nothing will get done.

We all do it. We write down ideas we have with the intention of getting to them eventually. We register domain names for projects we plan to work on, and we might even begin working on a project as soon as we get the idea for it.

You wake up in the middle of the night and write down some new idea. You note it on your Blackberry, or in the corner of your notebook in class, or you record a voice note, or create a new file for it.

Eventually, we end up with a notebook or a folder containing dozens or even hundreds of ideas and plans. Most of them we have not started, nor even thought about after we recorded them. Some are maybe 5-10% complete, and a few maybe at least 50% done. This is normal, but it can quickly turn into a bad habit.

We become so backed up, that new ideas which may be brilliant quickly get thrown to the end of our project queue, which by now is populated by ideas we’ve had months ago that we still plan on getting to, eventually. This means that most new ideas will remain deferred.

We also feel an accumulating amount of stressed because each plan we have allocates a little space in the back of our mind (the idea stays in our mental RAM). Prioritizing becomes damn near impossible. This is especially a problem when we believe that an idea is “easy” or will take a short amount of time. This is a bad habit.

“Giving up” on some of these ideas and plans doesn’t occur to some people. It didn’t occur to me for a long time. I had intentions to work on all the projects I brainstormed, even when I was renewing the domains I registered for them years ago, that were sitting around inactive.

My brain was full of things I wanted, or felt I needed to get done, but in reality my interest in most of my previous plans had dwindled long ago, and I only held on to them because they remained unique (at least as far as I knew), or because I still thought they had potential, and many of them probably did, and still do. Maybe I felt guilty that I had paid for some resources for a project (such as a domain name, or supplies), and felt a dire need to get at least something done with the resources.

I just let a few hundred dollars worth of domain names expire, and I’m looking for all the books I planned to read years ago, and putting them up for sale. This problem occurs a lot with books. I hate having a queue of books I plan on reading, and then going to the library and coming home with 6 new books that I feel a greater urge to get through because of the return date. And when I go return them, I usually come home with more.

We all have an overwhelming number of projects we’d like to work on. We have a lot of things we’d like to pursue. This is normal, but we don’t have the manpower to get all of these projects even half way done – at least not with any amount of quality that would suffice ever starting on them. It’s time to give up.

Give up. Admit to yourself that you have not gotten to this in a year, and will probably never get to it, and that’s OK. It’s OK if somebody else releases something you intended to a year ago. Keep in mind that not doing anything is the same as intending to do something but never actually doing it.

Also realize that you’re impeding your time, brain power, and other resources from being used to improve things you’ve nearly finished, or on starting a new project that you might have thought up this morning.

Let it go. You might have wasted $10, $20, even $100 registering that domain name, but if it’s just sitting there – and if it has been sitting there for 2 years, what makes you think it won’t remain inactive for another 2 years – then you’re only wasting more money.

It’s similar to how people hold on to a falling stock just to avoid taking a loss, because they fail to see that losing a little is not the same as losing everything. This is also why some people become pack rats, or hold on to certain things they don’t use anymore.

Keep in mind that very few of your brilliant ideas and projects will actually come out as you see them in your head. Most will flop, and the ones you least expect to flourish, will.

No matter what type of project you’re working on, it will require a lot of time, money, a lot of thinking and problem solving, and even way more doing – mostly tedious work. If you think your idea is simple and will only take a few days to release, you’re probably wrong. The actual technical work might take 2 hours, but when you calculate a more realistic, objective, estimate of how long something takes, you almost always come up with a figure way larger than you expected.

For example, changing your car’s oil might take 15 minutes, but this figure might not count all the other necessary steps: Getting the supplies, moving the car to a suitable location, jacking up the car, doing any initial cleaning and preparations, doing the work, cleaning up, and taking into account the fact that in real life, shit happens. I.e., a small nut gets lost, or you realize you’re missing something essential, or you make a mistake.

Besides, do you really want to put all the effort into some small project that you think might have a chance of getting anywhere? Especially when you’re competing with some other people in the world who are focusing solely on this exact idea, and have much more passion about it?

Sit down and jot all the things you need to get done, and then examine each one realistically. Prioritize, and realize that you don’t always have to note down or pursue every single idea you get.

A lower income class man might look at a homeless man and wonder why he doesn’t get a job. Why he works his ass off picking up bottles, when he can use that time and energy to make much more money, for relatively less work. Anyone can do it, he thinks.

You look at a lower income class man and wonder why he doesn’t get a real job, instead of spending nearly all his time working 3 crappy jobs to make in a year what you make in a month. Anyone can do it, you think.

A rich man might look at you and wonder why you don’t stop working for somebody else, and instead learn how money works to become rich. Anyone can do it, he thinks.

The homeless, poor, and middle class man all believe they can’t surpass their status, and therefore won’t change what they’re doing because it’s, to them, futile. They look at the classes above them and attribute that to luck, genetics, parents, government conspiracies, Gods. Some might attribute the higher class(es) as being only attainable by unethical or illegal means.

Some might attribute it to hard work and believe the path their following will lead them there, eventually, if they persist. They see life as being setup in tiers; A ladder. They need to start low and work their way up to become relatively rich (enough bottles, a better job, etc).

None of them believe they can reach the status of the rich man (own a Ferrari, a successful business, etc), and so never will, with the exception of luck. This causes the belief that rich==luck is to be reinforced further.

* Note: There’s a book titled How Come That Idiot is Rich and I’m Not? This post is not based on anything in that book. I have not read the book.

We naturally put the blame on others. We blame people for making us angry. We blame somebody for consistently being late. We blame our professors for not teaching well. We blame our cat when she creates a mess. We blame the the government, the rich, and the poor. It’s easy to put the blame on others. All we need to do is believe it, and justifications will form and help us hold our opinion indefinitely.

Eventually we might get tired of just getting screwed and take matters into our own hands. We learn that nobody can ‘make us’ do anything, and we stop getting angry at people. We realize that our friend will always be late, and get over it by just not depending on him. We figure out that our professors are there to help, but we need to pick up the book and actually do some work if we’re not satisfied with that C-. We learn that cats always knock the jug of water over, and we should adapt by just not putting the jug and the cat together.

Every single thing we do is our own choice. We choose to go to work. We choose to pay our bills. We choose to drive safely, or to drive recklessly, or to walk 20 miles to work. We choose our friends, and we choose to get angry or depressed over certain things. It’s easy to put the blame on anything else, but it won’t help solve the underlying problem. It’s part of our ego’s self-defense mechanism. Spending all day complaining and ranting all day is a waste of your time, and the time of the person your yapping to. Nobody cares. Putting yourself in the 3rd person might help make you aware of this bad habit.

Who did you blame today?

Most people suffering with depression or anxiety never think about trying psychiatric drugs. Medications like Zoloft, Prozac, Effexor, etc are something some of the most depressed people I know would never consider trying. Can you fix depression without meds? Of course. Keyword here is can as in it’s a possibility, but there’s nothing more futile than trying to fix depression on your own; Here’s why:

Depression makes you indifferent, unmotivated and mentally blocked. It disables you. When you’re depressed, you don’t feel like doing anything. In this state it’s nearly impossible to fix your sleep schedule, exercise regularly, get out and socialize, and do anything else you might try as a ‘natural alternative’ to hard pharmaceutical chemicals. How many people that refuse to take meds because they can fix depression “on their own” actually get anything done? Nearly all the ones I know have been doing… literally nothing for the past 5 years.

Most people shouldn’t take meds, but there’s a certain number of people who are disabled because of depression. They’ve been depressed for years, probably decades, and have no idea how bad their situation is, or how much potential (and time) they’re wasting. It’s only after you’ve experienced depression, gotten over it, and fell back into it, that you realize how evil and paralyzed depression can be. It pushes your attention inwards, forcing you to just sit and think, not about fixing a problem, but about how many problems you have. About all the should ofs and and how you could of been had you did this instead of that. All the things you missed out. The last thing on your mind in this state is to get up and do.. anything.

Some people can drive themselves out of the hole, but some people can’t. These people need a kick. Sometimes a life changing experience (a death, a major accident, an acid trip etc)  can be a strong enough kick to completely turn things around. But when that’s not possible, consider fixing your brain chemistry the modern way.

One reason people are against psychiatric medication is because they don’t believe the chemical imbalance theory. And that’s OK; It’s shaky and there are numerous other (some more plausible) theories centering around brain chemistry and external/psychological issues. But so what? That doesn’t mean medication doesn’t work. Food, exercise, alcohol, Cannabis, ’shrooms, a hit to the head, and plenty of other things can alter your state of mind chemically. There’s nothing wrong with that. Psychiatric drugs work pretty damn well even if you’re not depressed. The goal is to get you out of the loop you’re in and back on track. Drugs don’t need to be taken permanently, but in most cases, doing so isn’t even harmful. It’s normal to feel like eating natural foods is safe, while taking synthetic drugs isn’t, but there’s no logic behind this. It’s just something people believe instinctively and never bothered questioning.

Another reason people might be against meds is the cost. Pills are expensive. The cost of 1 year’s supply of some medications might be more expensive than taking an organic chemistry course and buying the equipment and precursors to synthesize the drugs yourself. Even some generic meds go for hundreds a month. Doctor visits are also pricey. Truth it: whether you’re unemployed, freelancing, 15 or 25 or 55 years old, you need insurance if you’re living in the United States. And nearly every plan (Medicaid too) covers antidepressants and anxiolytics.

Hell, Walmart has $4 generics. Point is, the cost isn’t an excuse. Most of us don’t mind paying $200-300 a month for gas, we do it because it’s a necessity, or it’s just convenient. When you’re depressed, you’ll end up failing all your $700 courses anyway, you won’t be able to work, and you’ll be spending money constantly on other health related problems stemming from the depression. Pay on credit. If you can’t make a few hundred dollars a month (those that have to), don’t you think you certainly need help in one form or another? See it as a necessity. There’s help if you seek it but unfortunately, it’s unlikely you’ll seek anything if you’re depressed. You need to make the first move. Take intiative. Do instead of think.

Another common excuse for not trying drugs is the negative stigma attached with having a mental illness diagnosis on your permanent health records. It’s a valid excuse (if you’re a paranoid schizophrenic), but ultimately it doesn’t make any sense. Nobody is going to see your records, and if they do, who cares? Who cares if you don’t get hired at some shitty firm just because the employer thinks you’re weak because you’re depressed? You’d be surprised how many people you find healthy, active and happy have a slew of mental disorders on their papers. It’s fine. It’s probably stylish. Either that or spend 10 years brooding around in your room living your entire life in your head and hoping things will get better on their own eventually – basically what depression is like.

I remember reading mental illness is usually diagnosed after 4-8 years. Way too much time to waste; To spend sitting around doing nothing. Get medicated. It rocks. And for those that still refuse to, make a note of how you’re situation is now, and then go over that note 5 years from now, and then take meds. I have a friend who’s depressed. He’s talented, but nearly all his potential is going to waste. He has been literally taking the same courses every semester for the past few years (fails them), and is always on a pattern of being social, then blocking everybody out, closing off communication for a few weeks/months, and going back into a major depression. It’s only getting worse, as all his friend’s graduate, and he beats himself up over wasting half a decade – he has no memories of the past 5 years because he’s been doing nothing.

There’s nothing worse than sitting around reading all the negative side effects of antidepressants. There’s a lot. Nobody doubts this, but you’re naturally looking for reasons you could use to justify not trying them. There’s nothing scarier than reading the negative effects of any drug you’re thinking about taking, even if you’ve been taking it for years with no problem. Sad thing is, depression itself is worse than 99% of the side effects you might (but probably won’t) experience. Just because you read a forum post with 200 comments saying “didn’t work for me!,” “made me a zombie” etc, doesn’t mean you will have the same experience. The people the drugs worked for are unlikely to be sitting around reading about the drugs anyway. And the people with bad experiences most likely didn’t give the drugs a chance. Took them for a week, had a headache and quit.

Many people who are depressed might have fantasies of running away, starting over, going to live in places like Tibet, “nature,” etc. This is common and many people suffering from mental illness have this. It’s considered a symptom. Give it a try – it won’t work. You’ll feel depressed where ever you go because your brain chemistry is broken. The brain is a physical thing. It’s very complicated, and there’s no guarantee it’s perfect. Your arms aren’t the same size, your face isn’t perfectly symmetrical, and your brain isn’t 100% perfect – and certainly not performing at its peak. This isn’t that big of a deal, and it’s best if you fix it and move on instead of dwelling on what you can’t change.

Not everybody who’s depressed needs medication. In fact, most don’t. This argument is for those who are unable to get out of the hole they’re getting themselves into. Finding justifications for their problems by blaming society and the government. Your life is in your hands and it’s up to you get up and fix it. If you feel medication isn’t right for you, then don’t bother trying it, but try something. Don’t just sit there thinking problems get fixed on their own. I’m all for the “I’ll just ignore it and eventually it’ll fix itself” solution, and that works for many things, but not for mental illness. It’s easy to hope your brain can magically fix itself, but half a decade of depression should be a big clear signal that it can’t. No matter how much the man with no arms believes he can become a pro boxer, it won’t happen.

The evil thing about depression is that it poisons your logic. We can justify anything to ourselves. Getting over depression first requires getting over the idea that you’re mentally capable of fixing yourself. Admit to yourself that your brain is temporarily out of order, and currently unable to form logic that fits the framework of a (mentally) healthy person. Outsource all your thinking and opinion forming to somebody who’s trained enough for the job. Don’t become a helpless zombie. Just accept the fact that you need help.

Specific goals are important. They provide a direction, and more importantly, a finish line. Here’s what happens when you set goals, but don’t get specific enough.

On the whiteboard went a list of sites I planned on releasing for the month. The only thing I wrote was “Next Sites Up” with a check off list of 5 sites. Obviously no thought was given to the goal, although the sites were small and I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with each one.

I began working on each site, but a week later noticed that I was only focusing on the 1-2 sites that I enjoyed working on. Which is fine, except I had no idea if the sites were done or not. What was the goal, again?

What does “releasing a site” mean, anyway? Should the sites have a specific amount of content? Should the code or content by refactored or revised? What ended up happening was, 4 sites were barely started (2 of which weren’t touched), and 1 had too many drafts and content for me to work on before losing interest. The month goes by and I look at the whiteboard again and feel discouraged that zero sites have gone up, more so because I did put in the time required to “release” all the sites on time, whatever that means.

To get over this, I created sub-tasks for each goal. I began by using the first 2-3 days of every month to plan out the goals for the month, and using Trac, created only 3-5 tasks for each site. The very essentials that I _hated_ doing, were the first things I needed to get off the todo list. I only put down the absolute minimum amount of work needed to get the sites up and running, knowing that once they were, adding things here and there was no longer a turn off since a foundation was in place.

A goal should have a general timeframe, and a set of actionable tasks, both of which should be realistic. This applies to any goals you set. When it comes time to actually put in the effort and finish a task, if it requires any sort of thinking, and there are other things you could be doing that are either 1) more enjoyable (like the sites I enjoy worked on) or 2) require no thinking (mundane, mindless tasks, like dishes), then you’re going to avoid doing what you have to do. It’s easy to rationalize not doing something important when you can tell yourself that you’re something productive anyway.

Remember that productive for you, doesn’t mean “producing results,” but “producing results that matter.”

Here’s something we’ve all experienced. You wake up late, and miracourasly get dressed and out the door in minutes. But had you been awake 2 hours earlier, would you have gotten ready as quickly? For most of us, it would have taken us 2 hours to get ready.

If you have a lot of time to complete a task, you’ll make plans, organize yourself, and get “ready” to work. In the end, you spend 80% of that time just organizing papers and thinking, but not actually working on anything. In the end, all your work would total only about 5-10% of the allocated time the task was assigned.

I know that if I’m coding something, and have a big gap of time, I either won’t start doing anything until I absolutely have to, or, I’ll begin by taking my sweet time coming up with neat flow charts, and coding every possible scenario that “could” happen into my program. Whereas if I was pressed for time, I would only code the bare essentials. What’s the task? OK. (12 hours later) This program completes that task.

I noticed that I personally take a lot of time because I wanna ensure high quality in whatever I’m doing. What I’ve been failing to realize was that a finished product of the lowest quality is 100% better than having an incomplete product of higher caliber. Indeed, I usually end up having NO product.

I’ve thought about this for a long time but didn’t know until about a year ago that it’s known (and therefore deems me sane): Parkinson’s Law