Forget Success

Minimize misery instead. Via Negativa.

Minimize misery instead. Chasing success 40 hrs/week for years sidetracks you from reality, the way things are actually happening. Most of these are neutral, not in anyone’s control. So minimize misery. Reduce friction. Neutralize all good and bad emotions that work creates. Never too high, never too low. Especially never too low. Identify, embrace, fix the root causes of passive aggression, internal competition, and shitty Monday mornings.

As SEOs and UX practitioners, it’s not only our job to reduce friction for engines and customers, but also our colleagues. And like with airplane masks, you situate yourself first, then colleagues.

Your boss might instead want you to pursue success, productivity, and gains only. They’re not wrong, the intention is positive and often genuine. But their thinking is limited by corporate walls (even remote work is walled).

They’re like Prison Mike, it’s their job to tell you you have it good, because they realize that all their employees want and need autonomy, meaning, and peace with their jobs. Remember the construct: Same shit, different day: you work together with mostly the same people on the same shit for 2,080 hours year after after.

Just remember via negativa. Pursue happiness at work by eliminating all the sad shit. Instead of dogpiling on it with pursuits of big titles, big direct deposits, big security blankets, work everyday to make things less confusing, less panicky, less dramatic, less meetings, less snark (seriously, we’re all passive aggressive, until we’re not), less commutes, shorter emails, simpler PPTs.

Most of all, less venting to persons C-Z when you know your problem can be solved by talking directly to person B.

And if your manager, company, culture are hellbent on preventing you from minimizing misery in yourself and others around, downsize.

Dennis Rodman

Administrator at UX + SEO
Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration and neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance.

He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning.

In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab Podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the Top 25 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.

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