When writing this article, I repeatedly considered: "Is it just because my life is too complete that I need to constantly pursue new excitement and repeatedly remind myself to choose the steepest growth curve? If this is the case, will this article still be meaningful to most people?"
I carefully dissected this question. First of all, let me admit that life is indeed pretty good, and all major goals in life have been achieved, at least in the foreseeable future. So is this stimulus justified?
I think there is actually it. Psychology will explain this impulse as "optimal tension" or "self-consistency": when the challenge and ability are just right, people can enter the flow; if it is more, it will be anxious, if it is less, it will be numb. I found that once I let go of my rhythm, my sense of meaning would quickly die out, and it would not be able to produce the answer to "Who am I?"
What about most people? The key is not the word "consummation", but inertia. When life enters a certain track, it is easy for us to mistake "not bad" as the optimal solution, and then slowly flatten our potential energy. Even if you don't feel satisfied at this moment, inertia will take effect in advance, making people accustomed to solving all problems with a flat slope.
What really bothers me is not whether others will buy it, but how quickly that forward momentum dissipates when I really slow down the pace. The sense of security brought by perfection is comfortable, but it also makes choices stay in habits. Over time, you can't even tell whether you are maintaining existing results or repeating old versions.
Consummation is not the problem, laziness is. Once the variables in life become stable, people will habitually turn their attention inward and begin to pursue controllability and certainty. Over time, the growth curve will naturally be smoothed out.
The long-term gap caused by steep slopes
The compounding window is shrinking. The pace of the industry is getting faster and faster. People on flat slopes often have the rules rewritten before they have used up their old experience. Although steep slopes are hard, they can put you on the starting line of new rules in advance.
The opportunity costs are equally brutal. Time is the most expensive bargaining chip. The later you go, the more investment you need to make to catch up. If you take the initiative to throw yourself into a steep slope before your responsibilities are full, you can often lock your position earlier.
The steep path will also force you to learn across disciplines and roles, so that combined abilities can have a superimposed effect. "Being more familiar" on a flat slope is safe, but it is difficult to push people to a higher level, and the moat will be thinned instead.
Almost every jump is uncomfortable. The real nodes are when you are forced to have no way back, you can only grit your teeth and move forward.
How to confirm that you are standing on a steep slope
- Feedback density: It is a real steep slope. New data and new conclusions will hit you every week; if the project is reviewed only once every three months, it is 80% that it is just a flat slope with a new packaging.
- Knowledge gradient: Are there any new concepts recently that refresh your understanding? If the old question types are reskinned every day, it means you are probably stuck in the same place.
- Leverage sensitivity: If you multiply your investment by three, will the result be a collapse of the entire market or a doubling of the index? Steep slopes either have a built-in platform effect or have channel leverage, otherwise they are just hard work without compound interest.
- Feeling of system lag: Frequently feeling that processes and tools are slowing you down means that your pace is ahead of the organization; this discomfort is a signal of the existence of a slope.
- Emotional curve: Switching back and forth between "fear of screwing up" and "wanting to break through" is a normal state; complete numbness or frequent 'collapses' mean that the slope is not chosen correctly.
Actually, collapse is very interesting. Every time you get through it, you will find that your cognition and character will improve a lot.
A way to make the curve steeper
For me, the feeling of steep slope is not that of staying up until two o'clock, but that the same investment of 1 unit of resources can leverage a series of new variables. You have to endure it even if you don't see any returns in the short term, as long as the curve is turning upward.
I will first make the skills into combo punches. Single-point in-depth research can at best make me a skilled worker. What really widens the gap is to tie product decisions and data insights together, and put technical solutions and business models on the same whiteboard. The more combinations there are, the steeper the slope.
The way the project is played also needs to be changed. I set myself an experimental window of 3-6 months, and don’t wait until all conditions are met to get started. I deliver a reusable framework first, and then go back to make up for it. Projects that cannot do this are mostly just a flat slope replaced by a steep slope.
There are also those critical points - the chaotic period when a new business is just launched, a key version is about to be launched, and the organization is restructured. They look high-risk, but actually have the greatest potential. Every time you grab a spot: Don’t be too busy proving what you’ve done, answer “how else can you enlarge” first.
The sense of security on the steep slope
Don't just focus on how steep the slope is, make sure you can handle it. The bottom line is to hold on to core assets such as cash flow, health, and key connections. Steep slopes require courage, but they are not gambling.
Rhythm is also a talisman. Write learning, output, and review into the plan to prevent the rhythm from being completely disrupted by the outside world. The stronger the sense of regularity, the easier it is to digest the fluctuations caused by the slope.
Peer partners are also important. Meet regularly with people who are also tossing on steep slopes and break down each other's goals. Fear tends to shrink when someone reminds you where to make big bets again.
Some tips to try
- Take stock of the most time-consuming projects recently, compare the "feedback density" and "knowledge gradient" to find the one with the lowest compound interest, and decisively cut it off or reduce its rights.
- Apply for a task that makes you nervous, and immediately write down the indicators and verification paths to be delivered in the next 90 days, without waiting for external dispatch.
- Draft a "steep slope review template": what has been verified this week, what pitfalls have been stepped on, and what should be amplified next. Stick to it for a quarter and the slope changes will be visible to the naked eye.
- Find someone who is half a step ahead of you and agree on a fixed frequency to dismantle each other’s goals. Because someone is watching, you naturally don't dare to relax.
Conclusion
The question at the beginning still exists: If life is already complete, does it really need to continue to go uphill? My answer is yes. The stability brought by perfection is not the end, but a greater springboard. Steep slopes bring fear, exhaustion, and frustration, but it is these emotions that remind us that we are breaking through the old cost structure.
Frankly speaking, not every steep slope attempt was successful, but every time I tried it, I became more aware of compound interest and had more choices. Time is most afraid of being boiled away by warm water. Instead of boiling it slowly, it is better to let yourself face the slope early. You don’t have to run all the way, but you must at least learn to find your footing at the steepest place and accumulate potential energy inch by inch.