It’s 2020 so I feel quite justified in borrowing a Victorian literary device Dear Reader so that you can see for yourself the struggle of a writer’s mind as if you were here sitting right beside me.

Consider how, right now, the existential issues facing us as a civilization and threatening our survival as a species require that I focus my writing on what helps us make better decisions under pressure. At the same time, as I write about what are essentially tactics you can use my mind grapples with and wants to chase the big-picture strategy that attracts my curiosity.

Now, you will say, this is didactic to some extent, certainly but hardly earth-shattering enough to warrant yet another piece. And I would be obliged to point out just how inaccurate that belief is. Let me explain, if you please, by transporting us both into the neuroscientist’s bag of tricks where motivation is always a struggle between pain and pleasure. And I call it a struggle because pain, of the right sort, is itself highly instructive and pleasure of the wrong variety has the ability to waste time and lives.

With that insight laid bare it becomes evident that while I write about the things I have to write about, their level of inherent interest notwithstanding, their difficulty and the constraints I labor under serve to increase my level of cognitive discomfort. The pursuit of other ‘dreams’ so to speak then, is nothing but a whimsy. An illusion created by my mind that wants me to procrastinate and engage in tasks less arduous and chase fields of enquiry that, at first glance, will always be more amusing and captivating than what I am doing just now.

Lesser writers than yours truly would, of course, fall for this. They might even convince themselves that their desire to chase the new and the interesting is the result of it being truly new and interesting in which case they’d abandon what they’re working on and start something else, only to have to repeat the cycle anew once the internal balance of discomfort versus comfort shifts once again; as it will.

Luckily this one writer does not engage in such pursuit. The fortitude that is required is there by virtue of awareness of the nature of the illusion; an awareness that springs from the knowledge of its root cause.

So here we are, Dear Reader, you and I now inhabiting the very same page; sharing a deep understanding of motivation and perception and how these two affect, directly, human endeavor and human behavior.

Is virtue then, I know you will ask, a simple case of denial? A requirement that one turns away from that which appears attractive and embraces the discomfort of writing; like a hair shirt to be worn at all times? And here too I have the answer for you. Of course not. Awareness brings self-knowledge. Self-knowledge helps differentiate between direction and distraction. More importantly it helps identify when distraction leads to direction through the serendipitous connection of fields of overlapping interest.

So writing then in truly a balancing act. It is discovery and exposition, organization and explanation all rolled into one. It is about making better decisions and recognizing the implications of the choices we alight upon. It is what creates shared truths and common understandings with you, Dear Reader, so the sojourn that drains us both delivers delights of mind that make it worth the punt.

The Sniper Mind: Eliminate Fear, Deal with Uncertainty, and Make Better Decisions