Infinite Pacing: Activity & Inactivity, Rest & Recover to an Interesting Life

I remember watching a Jackie Chan interview on his methods and what he learned from Fred Astaire. If you watch any of Astaire’s old dance videos and compare this to Jackie Chan’s action scenes there is a lot of similarity. 

Frenetic Movement & action, followed by a pause, then more movement. I think about this as I reflect on my pause in Vancouver this recent summer while visiting with my parents. 

This goes back to my post “Work Like a Lion, not like a Cow: https://hardfork.substack.com/p/work-like-a-lion-not-like-a-cow ”. I’ve been running myself ragged for this year already with travel, conferences and lots of activity from my portfolio entrepreneur life. 

I think I’ve been able to keep pace because of how I normally run my life weekly. 3-4 days of lots of calls/ meetings and work, followed by 3-4 days of reading, napping and chilling with the family. 

It goes contrary to the industrial age teaching of hustle culture mindset. Working & grinding 24/7 all day all week for years on end. 

Don’t get me wrong, you do have to do this hard grind sometimes, especially when you are starting your career as you don’t know anything! I did that for 18.5 years of my tech career. While lucrative and educational, all it did was burn me out at the end. Net net: it’s not a sustainable way to work in the long run. Perhaps this is why there are not many folks with real longevity and thus relevance in the tech industry. 

Paraphrasing Naval: Be a Lion, not a Cow! Work intensely for short periods of time followed by breaks of training & preparation, preferably long ones. Just like how a triathlete or professional athletes operate. These breaks are an opportunity not just to rest but to retool and train. A chance to get in physical and mental shape.  

My new model of work I’ve discovered is not just more sustainable but also more fun. The time of resting, lots of reading, writing & thinking helps you become a more interesting person when you do actually go meet people or go to events or conferences. You have an actual informed point of view on ideas and the world. 

Think of the many super successful people you have met, who are also the most boring, uninteresting and also worn out individuals ever. It’s really sad actually. It’s like that old Bob Marley quote: “Some people are so poor…All they have is money.” This is endemic in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. 

Don’t be like these people! And the path to not being these people is pacing. Travel, have hobbies, do lots of cool & fun things. But also make sure you take the rest breaks so you can process and reflect on these experiences too. 

Life is meant to be impactful but it should be interesting too. Many people seem to have missed this point completely.