Golfing Is Not Rowing

4 months ago

Some activities like rowing, knitting, cycling, etc., have smooth progress bars where effort leads to proportional progress.
Golf is different; it involves coarse actions with few swings per game and no fine adjustments between swings.
Golf-like processes are characterized by mulligans (do-overs), useful when success is chaotic and sensitive to initial conditions.
Linear incrementalism fails in golf-like activities where brute force or small steps can't resolve fatal flaws.
Programs like NaNoWriMo can mislead writers because the initial phase of writing a book often involves thinking/planning/researching, not just writing.
Creative processes (writing, entrepreneurship, sculpting, programming) are more like golfing than rowing—chaotic and unpredictable.
Unlike golf, creative work lacks structured environments (fairways, greens) and has higher stakes with no second chances.
In creative work, there's no scorekeeping, so take as many mulligans as needed.

Hasty Briefsbeta