#58 : The Art of Getting Unstuck
Every project hits a swamp where progress stops. This letter is a note on navigating such swamps.
If you studied physics in school, you've heard of velocity. You know this word even better if you prepared seriously for entrance exams as a science student.
Velocity is the rate of change of an object's position with respect to time, in a specified direction.
A car travelling at 10 km/h from A to B is at the same speed as one going 10 km/h from B to A. But their velocities are opposite. One is +10, the other is -10. Why? Because direction matters in velocity.
The Swamp
Now, let's zoom out from physics.
When you take up any project (exam prep, a startup, writing a newsletter like this one, making music, solving a case study) you get stuck in a swamp. A swamp is like a patch of confusion and chaos that halts progress. It is dirty and disgusting.
Most people give up on encountering these swamp like situations. Every terrain you try to navigate has swamps. In sports, love, academia, entrepreneurship, creative works, your job, everywhere. These swamps are uncomfortable, disorienting, and painful.
But they carry an important signal: It's time to get creative.
All of us, at some point, must think like artists and act like engineers to get out of these swamps. A great marker of creativity is how fast and effectively you are able to come out of this swamp.
Velocity > Progress
"Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius." - Tom Kelley
You can experiment wildly, try a lot of different things and land back on square one. That might seem like no progress, but that is high velocity. And a high velocity matters. To try a lot and fail is the design of life.
We are always measuring progress, by checking how far have we gotten in the right direction from a previous point in time. So then the question arises: Is velocity a better metric than progress?
I think so.
While stuck in a swamp, you try different approaches and see what works. Progress is what we want, but that can't be a metric. Progress is the goal, but the metric you really want to track is velocity.
While navigating life, we don't really have a map. Even if we do, it is probabilistic and imitative. We are operating on these predictions that we came up with or someone else laid out. We never truly know what is there and when we confront reality, it is different than what we thought.
Direction is found by stumbling. Hence you want to move fast, stumble fast, and find your direction. Once you do, you want to move slowly with balance and grace, without burning yourself out.
Trial and error leads to more enlightenment. It makes sure you are closer to reality. To plan for a distant future in isolation leads to disappointment because of how far you wandered away from truth.
What does high velocity look like?
So much about velocity, but what would it look like in reality?
For starters, get moving.
If fitness is the context, velocity looks like working to the first drop of sweat. Velocity looks more like action, and not planning. If you want to get fit, velocity will look like writing down 3 exercises you want to do and start doing. You may realize at the end of the workout that you don't like these exercise, or you need a mentor, or you want to play sports instead of isolation exercises. That is fine. That is great. That is a win. Because the whole point of velocity is to stumble yourself into what works, and you will never get it right in the first shot.
I like cricket analogies, and I admire Virat Kohli. He was a big part of my childhood growing up in bangalore. If you observe him play an ODI innings, his batting highlights has no eventful shots. He knocks the ball around taking quick singles and doubles. Nothing extravagant. That for me is velocity. Sure, you might not be getting boundaries. A single is also a good shot. Keep the scoreboard moving.
To have high velocity, you don't need a full proof plan. In fact an incomplete plan is what allows you to move with maximum velocity. A full proof plan only narrows you down and streamlines you into one path. High velocity is a discovery tool.
One reason you will never achieve high velocity is that you aim for perfection in the first draft. You will always have time for improvement. You always have the privilege to adjust, but in order to know what to adjust, you must move at high velocity.
Humans evolved from primitive beginnings. We didn't start perfect, and we're still evolving today. There is no final flawless state. Your first attempt doesn't need to be perfect either (It can’t). If you are saying that you do not want to take the pain of iterating and improving your first draft, then you are minimizing your possibility of creating good things.
Keep moving. Velocity matters more than perfection. Do not thirst for perfection in your first attempt. Velocity is a pre-requisite to figuring out.
How to Increase Velocity ?
To increase velocity, you need to start by defining what velocity means in your context. It is represented in some form of distance / time. Increase your distance, or reduce your time.
To increase distance, is to do better/more of your task in the same time. To reduce time is to do the same quantity and quality of work in lesser time.
Figure out what is distance and time in your context and optimize for velocity.
On Pivoting
Many people quit after a week in the swamp. They pivot to a new project, thinking that the current one is fatally flawed. This is the "fatal flaw fallacy."
Somehow you believe that this swamp is particular to this project and you will not have to deal with it in your next project. The brain looks for an easier route, and to conclude that you should be working on something else seems logical enough for you to scrap the project.
The next project will have a swamp too. Velocity means you iterate your way out, rather than seeking a swamp-free journey. The art of getting unstuck is something you will have to figure out at some point.
If you are pivoting because of the swamp, remember that you will face a new swamp. And then you will have to optimize your velocity once more. Don't seek swampless projects. They don’t exist, and if they do then those are not the right projects for you to be working on.
If you want to achieve something high-impact, you need to try, fail and learn faster. The more faster you prototype a solution the more sooner you will get yourself out of the swamp. That is how you win uncertain domains.
Everything is a project. Every project has swamps.
Every attempt to go from A to B is a project. Studying for exams, writing a blog, starting up, long term relationships, organizing an event, searching for a job. And in every project, you are going to get stuck at some point. In a swamp. Like a car caught in mud. You press the accelerator, the wheels spin, but you go no where. Your fuel burns more, but you stagnate. It is a helpless situation.
That is not a sign to quit. Life asks you to look at it like an engineer, think like a creative, and do something different. Because swamps are not overcome using playbooks and best practices. But trial, error and velocity.
Every project will eventually bring you to a moment where you feel stuck. The whole point of your intelligence is to figure it out without a playbook.
Swamps are good. They force you to stop, pay attention, and flex your problem-solving muscles. Being stuck is not a burden but often a signal that begs you to pay attention to the situation. There is more to these moments than just being stuck. It's your main character moment.
We are trained since school to seek maps. To check for solutions at the back of the book, practice it 3 times, then move on. Exams can be cleared this way, but there is no syllabus for life. It tests you on your ability to get rid of swamps. Every swamp is different. So prescriptions, formulas and answer keys won't help.
Optimize for velocity. Prototype faster.
The Price Of Doing Important Things
The price of working on things that matter is that you must focus on velocity even when there is no visible progress.
If you find yourself endlessly tunneling into an unsolved problem (which you will in all important projects), pause. There may be emotional swamps you need to exit first. Clear those before you tackle the external ones.
The swamp is real and it will slow you down. But velocity is all you have control over. Don’t thirst for perfection in your first attempt. Optimize for velocity, and pay attention to your life’s context. Like I mentioned earlier, don’t seek playbooks and formulas. This is your life, and your intelligence matters more than ever in situations like these where you are clueless at first glance. Life asks you to become more adventurous and run through a lot of failed attempts until you land on something that helps you get one step forward.
Hope you liked today’s letter. It was inspired by these lecture slides I found from the CS 197 course taught at Stanford University focused on research in computer science. It does not take more than 20 minutes to go through these slides.
This is my 58th newsletter. Thank you for being a close reader. In case you want to write any feedbacks, suggestions, or changes I must make to improve your reading experience, feel free to write them down here.
Life Updates…
I have started my 4th year of college. My course is for 5 years, and I will have to spend my 5th year interning somewhere. I don’t yet know where. I am hesitant to be honest and open about my future plans, but when I am 100% sure I will write about it on this newsletter.
I feel old in college. All my seniors have graduated. Some have taken up jobs, some are pursuing masters and PhD. I suspect that this year will race through fast, but I want to make the most of it working on meanigful projects. Life 101 is definitely one of those meaningful projects.
We are also close to 500 subscribers. We have been flirting in the 485-495 range for the last two weeks. I hope we cross 500 soon and 1000 by the end of 2025. I recently wrote a letter on clinical depression. If you are interested in biology, psychology, neursocience, and mental health, you might appreciate it.
Take care folks :)
3 Favorite Quotes Of The Week
Would you still do it if you couldn’t tell other people about it? If you would, it’s real. If not, it’s just a social ego boost.
The fastest way to lose motivation is for your identity to be dependent on the outcome.
The unhappiest people I know spend their life consuming. The happiest people I know spend their life creating.
totally awesome!! Much needed post!!