LSC #28: Choose the hard thing 👊 👊
Hi there! Welcome to another week of the #LSC, the 28th edition this time.
As you all should already know, expect to find here some content on productivity, personal growth, health hacks, and even some interesting recommendations, because well, why not?
Nice, right?
So, let's get into it!
Today’s summary:
🙌 On satisfaction and hard work
👊 By default, choose the hard thing
✨ Autofill without mistakes
🎨 The new iPad crushes your creativity
🙌 On satisfaction and hard work
Happiness and satisfaction come from the process of doing the work and the growth that comes with it.
So, I read an article this week that, among other points (including the new iPad ad, more on this later), mentioned a pretty rough but simple fitness challenge: 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and 100 burpees for time. The challenge itself felt arbitrary, but the effort required is significant (I'll let you know once I try it).
My point: Hard challenges come with a great satisfying feeling when you complete them.
Imagine this other situation: With an AI tool, you could click a few buttons and within seconds compose a Grammy Award piece of music (are Grammies still a thing?). Would this bring you fulfillment? I doubt it. It might bring you some bucks, which are always welcome, but even the best outcomes are meaningless if we don't go through the process and struggle to create them.
I'm convinced that a big part of the reason for this is that completing 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and 100 burpees is not something a tool can do for you.
Don’t get me wrong, technology is phenomenal. But it’s just a tool. If it takes away the experience of creating, learning, and growing, then it will leave us feeling meaningless and numbed out. I am not against using technology to create, hold on! Learning how to use a tool to translate something you have in your mind into something tangible is a crazy experience. However, if you can fill up some space, in any format or platform, without putting in any effort, it loses its value.
What I want to say is that (it’s taking long, I know), for us to find happiness and satisfaction, we need to be the ones doing the work. That’s why I find so much peace and satisfaction when pushing myself physically, reading books without distraction, or facing a blank page to write or design. None of these activities come without effort, but the fact they involve it makes me find them so satisfying.
👊 By default, choose the hard thing
And well, there is no better life hack than choosing to do a hard thing every day when you could take the easy way.
This is something I have been doing for a while, and it’s quite a game-changer. Of course, you don’t have to challenge yourself with every single decision but try to push yourself to do something hard as often as possible.
Take the stairs even if the elevator is working, choose the hilly road even if there is a flat route option, finish your showers with cold water, pick the heavier weight, get off a stop earlier on your way back home, fast for a big portion of the day, wake up an hour earlier than usual and invest that time on yourself, start conversations with strangers just for the sake of it, cook a new recipe from scratch…
When we do hard things, we train ourselves to be at peace with friction and build resilience. Hard things compound!
✨ Autofill without mistakes
But since not everything has to be hard and complicated, this week's product is all about making your life (a lot) easier.
I am all about automations and reducing as much as possible the time spent doing tasks that could be automated. Filling in information online is something that brings neither joy nor growth.
Although Google’s native browser autocomplete is quite on point, there’s always something that doesn’t work as it should, right? Or a field that stubbornly stays empty because, well, life isn’t perfect.
That’s why this Google Chrome extension is so handy! You fill in all your data in an encrypted questionnaire and then voilà, you can use it whenever needed. Magic!
🎨 The new iPad crushes your creativity
Speaking of magic, this week's content is the new iPad Pro advertisement.
Long story short, the ad shows an animation of musical instruments and other symbols of creativity being crushed. I don’t want to spoil it, but you can imagine it’s an allegory for a tool that’s capable of doing almost everything at the size of, well, an iPad.
Interestingly, the ad hasn’t been well received and has backfired against Apple. The company, which has always positioned itself as a nonconformist and people-friendly brand, now seems to be pushing tools that try to replace creativity rather than support it. Or at least this is what people seem to be perceiving.
Apple even had to release a press note saying: “Our goal is always to celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry.”
Well, for what it’s worth, I think the ad is incredible, and I don’t believe a tool kills creativity but supports it (if used properly). If people overreact, they can always choose another tablet. Easy peasy!
📊 Data Dive
Let’s take a little look at the LSC performance to start closing this #LSC edition:
290 Subscribers → Last week we were 280
2 Unsubscribed → We lost 2 subscribers last week
58% Open rate → The goal is to keep this, as you know, in the 60-70% range.
As a farewell gift, two things this week. Since we’ve been talking about the iPad advertisement, here’s a Twitter account with the best ads of all time and another Twitter account, this time with a weekly selection of ads grouped by topics.
Before leaving though, there are a few things you can do to help me:
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And now, for good: Keep an eye out for the next LifeScore Chronicles—something exciting is just around the corner. 🚀
Until next week, stay safe and healthy!