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Patterns Persist Because We Are Creatures of Habit

by Alan C. Fox 2 Comments

 

Whenever I visit a buffet restaurant I eat more than I had intended. This was true when I was twelve years old. It remains true today, and I’m now seventy-four.

Patterns persist.

When I hired Karen five years ago to be my assistant her references were outstanding. She was extremely personable at her interview and earned a very high score on our thirty-question logic test. There was only one item on her resume which concerned me.

“Karen, you’ve held a number of previous positions, but you have never stayed at any job for more than eighteen months. If I hire you, why should I believe that you will stay with me for more than a year and a half?”

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
—Alphonse Karr, Les Guépes

I don’t recall Karen’s answer but I did hire her, ignoring my own conviction that patterns persist. Did she stay with me for even a year and a half? Nope. After five months her ideal job came along and it was “adios” for Karen.

Patterns Persist. Persistent patterns persist persistently.

In 1991 my wife and I traveled to Hawaii to see a total eclipse of the sun. We stayed for a week at what was then the Hyatt hotel on the Kona coast. We found that the entire staff, from reception desk to bus boy, was extremely friendly and helpful. That same pattern has persisted in every Hyatt hotel we have stayed at since. Yes, patterns persist for organizations as well as individuals. A Big Mac tastes the same in San Diego or St. Louis or even Moscow.  That is why we trust (or dislike) MacDonald’s.

When you try a restaurant for the first time and are met with poor service and mediocre food, do you go back? I don’t. I assume that the pattern will persist, and I’m almost always right in this assumption.

Nothing is stronger than habit.
—Ovid, Ars Amatoria

A friend of mine, Steve, badgered me for years to invest money with him to speculate in Treasury bill futures. He was convinced he could triple my investment.  Of course, he needed my stake because he had previously lost all of his own money doing exactly the same thing. I agreed to open an account for $30,000 and split the profit or loss with Steve. It was a rousing ride, but in less than three months he lost half of my original capital. I grabbed back the $15,000 that remained, and haven’t touched the commodities market since.

What are the lessons here?

1. Recognize your own patterns and expect them to persist. If you like the pattern, embrace it. If you dislike the consequences of the pattern either avoid the area entirely (I will never speculate in the commodities market again), work around it (eat in a restaurant which has no buffet), or intentionally try to change it (use a different approach, or People Tool, than you have in the past).

2. Recognize the patterns of behavior in others. Expect those patterns to persist. On your 25th wedding anniversary your husband will probably still refuse to ask for directions when you get lost. Ask my wife.

3. Recognize the patterns of an institution or marketplace. Expect those patterns to persist. If you are interviewing for a job with a company which experiences high employee turnover, don’t expect to be with them    for very long.

Patterns Persist. Persistent patterns persist persistently.  Believe it.  Or, if you don’t believe it, you might be continuing a pattern which will continue to return the favor and disappoint you yet again.

Alan

 

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Kill Your Darlings

by Alan C. Fox 0 Comments

 

Last week, I finally finished the manuscript for my new book, People Tools for Business: 50 Strategies for Building Success, Creating Wealth, and Finding Happiness. In the midst of the final throes of the writing process, I was happy to stumble upon a delightful NY Times article by Amy Klein about her experience having her writing critiqued by others at a writer’s workshop. Using humor and insight, she lists a variety of tips that one should have in mind when engaging in the often-excruciating process of critique.

I found her experience to be quite familiar and got a much-needed comic break from my own writing process. I wanted to share several of my favorite tips here, which you may or may not be familiar with.

When in Doubt, Take it Out

This is the age of texting.  I limit my weekly blog to about 600 words.  Would you be as eager to read it at 2,000 words?  I wouldn’t.  Take out every word that is not necessary.  I recently edited the following sentence:

Original — I am writing this letter to you today to ask for a one line endorsement of my new book “People Tools for Business,” which is scheduled to be published on September 30, 2014.

Revision — I am writing to respectfully request a one line endorsement of my new book “People Tools for Business.”

Deletions — “this letter” (that fact is obvious); “today” (obvious – did you write it tomorrow?  Last week?  Who cares.); “which is scheduled to be published on September 30, 2014.” (At this point not relevant.  If the answer is “yes,” then timing will be discussed.)

Use Words Which are Strong, Specific, and Interesting

“Ran” is stronger than “went.”  “Smug” or “vain” are more specific than “proud.” “Thundering” is more interesting than “loud.” 

Use the Microsoft Word Thesaurus.  I find it to be both quick and helpful.

Write the way you Talk

If you wouldn’t use a word when you speak, then don’t use it when you write.  Would you ever say in conversation, “The articulateness of the speaker was surpassed only by his exaggerated sense of his own self-importance”?  I prefer, “He was more smug than articulate.”

Never Over-edit

Revise your writing to your heart’s content, but be aware that, especially when you are tired, your edits might weaken your text rather than improve it. 

‘Kill  Your  Darlings’ (from the article)

William Faulkner is  one  of  the  writers  attributed  with  having  said  “In writing,  you  must  kill  all  your  darlings,”  which  means  you  should  take  the one  phrase  you  love  most  and  get  rid  of  it.  That’s because if you’re  so enamored  with  some  bit,  it  probably  doesn’t  work  in  the  grand  scheme  of the  piece.

However, when your peers  tell  you  this,  they  might  be  excising  every original  construction  you  ever  wrote  (see  #1,  “Find  Your  Voice”).  Perhaps they don’t understand brilliance.  Perhaps they understand brilliance but don’t want you to succeed. 

You can read the full article here.

Always remember that each of us, including you, often has a hidden agenda that lives in the unconscious mind, and we would deny that agenda if asked.

CAVEAT:  I am not writing this blog to let you know how wonderful I am as a writer or to plug People Tools for Business.  

-Alan

 

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Old Money Habits Die Hard, if at All

by Alan C. Fox 4 Comments

 

I hate to waste money, but for the past six months I’ve been driving my new red Tesla which is the most enjoyable car I’ve ever handled.  I’m able to listen to every radio station in the world, including News Burundi.  I now have a trunk in front and a trunk in back, so my new car serves as an even better portable closet than my last one with hardly any storage space at all.

The two factors which I most love about my Tesla are:

1.    The burst of speed.  I haven’t been pulled over for speeding yet, but I do accelerate from 60 mph to 80 mph rather swiftly.  In fact, if I aim for 80 I usually hit 92 before I notice and throttle back.  Oh, well.
2.    No gas.  I haven’t visited a gas station in the past six months.  I plug my car into its special electrical outlet at home every evening, and in the morning I’m ready to drive another 200 miles.  When I drove to Monterey I did stop twice at a Tesla charging station where the price for the electric charge was right.  It was free.

Of course, there is always a little trouble in paradise.  In this case the difficulty was announced by a flashing light on my Tesla dashboard, proclaiming that the tires had low pressure.

My first line of defense was to ignore the flashing light.  Sure enough, it soon went dark, validating my approach.  I properly assumed that there was an electronic malfunction rather than a tire problem.  During the next several weeks the flashing light and I established an intermittent relationship.  It blinked.  I ignored.  Blinking stopped.  Until today.

This morning, as I backed out of my garage, the blinking light was joined by a rather nasty “beep beep beep,” and the message changed to “very low tire pressure.”

Fortunately I remembered where there was one of those relics – a gas station – on my way to work.  I stopped to fill my tires, and immediately encountered a problem.  There was a $1.00 charge for using the air pump.  As I walked around the rear of my car, intending to drive on to work, I had the following internal debate.

“How dare they charge a dollar for air.  Air should be free.”
“But Alan, they have to stay in business, and they’re selling less gas all the time.”
“But a dollar?  Why not twenty-five cents?”
“What difference does it make?  You’re not buying gas anymore.”
“Maybe there’s a station down the street where the air is free.”
“You don’t have time.  And you’re driving on the freeway later.  This is a safety issue.”
“Suppose the machine takes my four quarters and then doesn’t work?”
“Alan, shut up and just do it.”
“I don’t know if I even have four quarters.”
“DO IT!”

That’s the way this type of inner debate usually ends.  Normally reason trumps emotion, but my emotional habit is to save every dollar I possibly can.  I had a similar debate with myself in a men’s room yesterday.  A penny was lying on the restroom floor.  It was a bright copper penny.  But I had to bend over to pick it up.  In that case emotion won.  I picked it up and dropped it into my pocket, vowing to write an article in a few years about how I turned the penny into a million dollars in my spare time.

Of course, now that penny is gone, together with 99 of its brothers and sisters, disappearing into the machine selling me nothing but air.

I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my wife.  She’s going to laugh at me.  I spent $1.00 this morning for air.

Alan

 

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