Lessons From Losing a Streak \ stacker news ~alter

The streak of writing consecutively on SN has come to an end after a successful 37 days. It’s a bit of a bummer since I had just set my next target to reach 90 days. However, this break in the streak sparked two thoughts that I felt were worth sharing.

The first thought comes from an explanation I heard a while back when I was working on breaking an unhealthy habit. I can’t remember who said it or how it was exactly worded, but the idea was that you don’t start all over again from zero when you lose a streak. You simply pick up from where you left off, and the effort and energy put into your previous streak continue to count as you build back up again. The person also emphasized the power of zooming out and looking at it over a year. As long as the total number of days you work on building (or breaking) a habit each year is more than the previous year, and continues to increase annually, you are heading in the right direction regardless of the consecutive streak. In the case of writing on SN, I’ve already written and posted 37 more days than I did the whole of last year. And I will continue to keep stacking those days of writing. So, if you recently lost a streak and are feeling down, don’t be. Chances are, compared to previous years, you’ve already done more or are well on your way to doing so!

The second point I wanted to bring up is the concept of quality over quantity. I absolutely believe in this concept, especially in the long term. However, I also think there’s a great advantage to focusing on quantity and getting your reps in. Think of it as quantity being preparation for quality. Eventually, we all want to emphasize quality and maintain it in whatever we do, but in the early stages of learning or practicing anything, there is value in quantity as well. In my case, writing consecutively on SN has helped me improve my writing skills, and because of the regular practice, the quality of my writing has gradually improved. As the number of reps increases, the quality begins to develop. And when the beneficial effects of quantity start to slow down, as tends to happen with the natural diminishing returns of focusing only on quantity, one can start focusing more on the quality of each rep. In the long run, I envision myself continuing to write either on SN, on my own blog, or maybe for some company, where the emphasis will be on quality over quantity. But for now, as I still have a lot of areas to improve in my writing ability, I will continue to prioritize getting my reps in and focus on quantity as a path to quality.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 23 May

Great post. Just to add on, I think additional practice only counts when it is intentional. For example, I can get my students to write journals every week, but their writing will never improve unless I sit them down and tell them their areas of improvement. Capitalisation, punctuation, paragraphing, subject-verb agreement, the whole works. Otherwise, the bad writing habits will just persist haha

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCFC OP 24 May

Without a doubt Sensei! This is actually something I've felt lacks in specific parts of Japanese culture, especially in the athletic world. In football and in baseball Japanese teams will focus too much on repetition just for the sake of getting reps and without any sort of purpose or intention. In the case of football, Japan has often been labeled as having the weakness of not being able to score enough goals when it matters, even though they probably practice shooting more than any other country in the world. This clearly indicates that as you mention, there must be emphasis placed not just on quantity and getting in as many reps as you can but a progressive practice of developing quality, and consistently learning from each and every single rep you take.

Always appreciate your input!