Process as a Proxy for Motivation

This is a really well-written short article, and I agree with it completely.

I just wanted to add as well that, as someone who has read quite a lot of books on self-help and productivity, there is one that makes a lot of similar points: "Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be"

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22544758-triggers

I recommend it to anyone who agrees with this article and feels like a book-length treatment of similar ideas would be helpful to them.

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nlawalker 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Both of these examples demonstrate a process, or a decision made in advance

A decision made in advance is not a process. Unlike all the other real-world examples of committed processes in the article, premade decisions don't require discipline - the actual substitute for motivation - to execute in a meaningful way that ensures actual progress.

	▲	aleksiy123 an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I can make a decision to go to gym tomorrow. My process/playbook for determining if I go to the gym is I go if I didn’t go the day before. This is both a premade decision and a process that requires discipline to execute on. So why isn’t a decision made in advance an example of a simple process?
	▲	LoganDark 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		it takes discipline for me to stick to decisions I made earlier.

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aleksiy123 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is a good one. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if the made decision is suboptimal. It’s better than no decision.

Opinionated linters is an example.

Sometimes you just gotta turn your brain off and move forward.

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hartator 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think I would avocate actually against processes. Processes are nice, handy, and sage, but that assumes you have unlimited time. A baby crying and death approaching really make you rethinking useless 1-1s and meetings.

	▲	rootusrootus 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I feel like the way you're using 'process' and the way TFA is using it are not the same, which makes this comment orthogonal to the point TFA is trying to make.
	▲	wordpad 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Your counter is that death is a better motivator as well as being a desperate parent? Well, main generational challenge is procrastination with too many unlroductive time sinks available.

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hartator 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The ‘optimal’ approach would be to check traffic, analyze the data, and shave off five minutes from my journey.

Why not letting Google Maps decide?

	▲	rootusrootus an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Then you are spending a bit of attention on an ongoing basis following the instructions given by the nav. If you're basically driving the same route every time regardless, you'll completely detach from having to pay any attention to it at all, it becomes muscle memory. AKA highway hypnosis.

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academe 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It hurts my soul to read of "Agile" as a fixed process consisting of arbitrary decisions like two-week sprints and 9:30 stand-ups.

Agile is "responding to change over following a plan". https://agilemanifesto.org

There's surely something to be said for bundling behaviors and triggers, but I do wish the world of software development hadn't missed the whole damn point of agile.

	▲	thadk 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Still reading but I like how Cat Hicks in Psychology of Software Teams (2027) confronts this dilemma on page 9: "Agile Manifesto said, 'Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.' DevOps made the argument that cohesive processes in software development needed to be invested in... Agile, DevOps, Platform Engineering, or DevEx, every engineering organization I've ever met with is struggling with implementing these ideals in the real world."