it’s hard
it’s really hard to go against the elephant in your head
elephants are huge
no one messes with them
and when they want something they’ll go for it
that is your mind
most of the time
but your rational self is sitting on top of the elephant
you can’t tame the elephant completely, but you can guide it with your reigns and nudge it in the right direction
in the long term, even a small nudge will take you in a completely different direction than just simply going straight
“Consider this. If you’re going somewhere and you’re off course by just one degree, after one foot, you’ll miss your target by 0.2 inches. Trivial, right? But what about as you get farther out?
- After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet. Not huge, but noticeable.
- After a mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet. One degree is starting to make a difference.
- After traveling from San Francisco to L.A., you’ll be off by 6 miles.
- If you were trying to get from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., you’d end up on the other side of Baltimore, 42.6 miles away.
- Traveling around the globe from Washington, DC, you’d miss by 435 miles and end up in Boston.”
Blog of Jeff Wang 