what do i mean?
it is the underlying impetus that makes successful people successful.
when u look at someone who has done something great, it is the causations that made them that. the right causations triggered the right effect and those right effects caused the desired result.
blindly copying the effects doesn’t get you the desired result; because there is no genuine intent there. you’re just copying what successful individuals did without thinking what made them do that in the first place.
here’s a video or George Hotz (indirectly) explaining how causation rules everything (by teaching you how to get a girlfriend): video
the most important thing to realize is that causation is real, effect is fake
obsessing over the things that you see successful people do, and doing those blindly without them being supported by a strong intrinsic intention/reasoning/identity gets you nowhere. read more
those are the outputs(actions) that you see, triggered by a inputs(causations) that get them hat they want. therefore, you should focus on the inputs rather than the outputs.
below is a table showing how insane people have gotten to chasing outputs.
| output (fake) | input(real) |
|---|---|
| consistency | habit |
| risk taking/fearless | strong identity |
| super productive for hours | built a habit, making it feel effortless now |
| disciplined about something | obsessed about it |
getting started in developing a skill or becoming someone who admire isn’t about forcing yourself to do a lot of the work on day 1, or feeling overwhelmed or fearing getting started. it is about starting small on day 1, continuing small on day 2, and so on…until you never know you’re crunching so much work you never even thought on day 1.
examples
- copying elon musk doesn’t make u him
- copying anybody successful (even to a T) in a creative field doesn’t make u him