Tim Harford is a member of the Editorial Council of the Financial Times newspaper, the author of several bestsellers in economics. His articles are published by the world's leading newspapers and magazines. In his speech, he convinces us of the advantages of working in difficult conditions. He cites the amazing stories of celebrities as an example:
1.What
do you think about working in a little mess?
2.Have
there been such things in your life?
3.Would
you like to try to do something with artificial difficulties?
Comments
Yes, I had moments of frustration at some point in my life and had to come up with some clever solution or approach or even make a serious decision. But these are things that are inevitable in our lives, difficulties are usually temporary and can be a great opportunity for us to finally confront ourselves in order to become better then we were yesterday.
I don't think that I would like to have such difficulties I would rather try to do everything what possible to stay focused and maintain my rhythm of work rather than look for some artificial distractions that would only keep me frustrated.
If we are talking about the frustration and how it affects our productivity then I would say that it has a significant impact on what we are doing or what we are about to do. I had a few situations when there were moments, hours, days of frustration but lately I was so strongly motivated and full of ideas that solutions to the problems was coming one by one to my mind.
No, I wouldn’t like to try to do something with artificial difficulties because I have lots of real ones.
Personally I don`t like to work in mess, but even though it happens sometimes and it really helps me.
Many times I had to work in unfavorable conditions including working in open office or studying in a shared apartment. Although those conditions had not been perfect for creative and intensive work, I had to minimize the negative impact of the environment and get my job done.
I have never considered creating artificial mess around me as a way to improve my creativity and effectiveness, but it seems to be interesting strategy when we are getting stuck on the problem and we have no idea how to move on.
I, as everyone else I believe, also like to overcome problems. The more complex it is the prouder I am. I wouldn't like my manager to create problems intentionally tho.
So that was about the mess in my working space, but I also feel more motivated where lots of things are happening concurrently. For example, working on different projects at the same time, for various clients, different scopes and advanced levels. I have learned that it's a skill rather than a type of character. No matter who you are or what you believe in, at some point you reach the point where you have to delegate the work to others, and there you are surrounded with the little mess all the time. It's beneficial for a people with whom you are working because it gives them space to show off their skills and improve.
- It is fine, you cannot expect from your life that everything will be perfect and exactly as you would like.
2. Have there been such things in your life?
- Yes, of course, I had to use a Pc that I hate and is terrible for development but I managed to finish my task on time and I was pretty happy that I achieved the success without the tools I needed.
3. Would you like to try to do something with artificial difficulties?
No, if you have to do something and you know how to achieve it why should I waste my time to add "artificial difficulties", of course, I can achieve something more as disrupted in a video but I could fail and waste my time.
In my life I always tried to choose the simplest and easiest way.
I don't like working in noise. When I work or study, I need to have peace and quiet.