Choosing the Right Tactics for the Environment

So much of life is aligning the right tactics to the environment. In the The Art of War. Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of adapting strategies to the specific circumstances of the battlefield.

This highlights how understanding and aligning one's actions to the environment and conditions can determine success. There’s examples all over the place.

I got reminded of this when watching Trump give his recent Trump speech.

He was aggressive and threatening Joe Biden a lot. No surprise there, if you’re perceptive you’ll notice every time Trump wears a hat, his focus sharpens on his opponent, his aggression spikes, and he swears more. But when the hat comes off, he digresses, rambles about random topics. It’s subtle, but watch his speeches and you’ll catch the shift in tone—hat on, hat off.

Humans are creatures of their environment. The hat puts a ceiling over your head. It lowers the air above you. Lower ceilings crank up focus and aggression. I’ve written about this before. Think about road rage—people stuck in their low-ceiling cars, the tension slowly rising. You probably feel the relief after stepping out of your car. Humans have a sensitivity to the space above their heads.

In contrast, high ceilings produce feelings of peace and creativity. Think of walking into one of those traditional big churches with the vaunted ceiling. Serenity washes over you. Religion has experimented with these techniques to manipulate our senses for thousands of years. For example, see how Montaigne discusses the affect of incense has over him. 

Today, I keep a baseball hat in my bag in case I need to do deep, focused work. I lower the ceilings. It’s made me more productive because I adjust my tactics depending on the domain I am in.

Working Outside vs Working Inside

A friend of mine who works as a writer mentioned that he liked to work outdoors, whether in a terrace or a park, because it doesn’t feel like work. It has to do with how being outside changed his way of thinking.

So last week I took my laptop out to my balcony to do work. The problem is, I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t do my regular job which involves reading emails, focusing on specific text and thinking logically. Instead my mind kept wandering, and coming up with ideas automatically. It took A LOT more willpower on my end to work outside.

My friend was right. Working outside doesn’t feel like work but only if you’re working on something creative like writing or idea generation. Then it helps you. But if you’re doing focused deep work like most regular jobs, then it actually hurts you. Different tactics for different work.

There’s even screens now that work in day light that are coming out. But I doubt they catch on with the regular corporate class because that takes focused work. Maybe they will become popular with creatives.

In This Newsletter

Tactics differ even at the societal level. For example, if I’m in a dynamic system like America I’m going to have to engage with fast change and the consequences that come with it.

1) America and Renaissance Italy: America today is like Renaissance Italy. It is a dynamic and rich society marked by crazy energy and competition that leads to change, innovation, and flux.

2) Happiness or Security: The central tension of modern life is that we want to minimize surprise  but surprise and serendipitity is where happiness exists. We are obsessed with happiness but also security. Two things that are the opposite of each other.

3) The Case for Satisfaction: Instead of exclusively pursuing happiness or security, we should aim for satisfaction.

American Dynamism Comes at a Price

Due to having a remote work lifestyle, I currently split my time between Europe and the United States.

When I enter into the US, especially in its cities, I feel an unmistakable energy that doesn’t exist in Europe. The energy borders on violent. But really, it’s because America is so dynamic. People are hustling everywhere—corporate boardrooms, small businesses, even the criminal world. People are looking to get an edge and beat the system. This energy is palpable. It makes me feel more aggressive. . Europe doesn't do that to me. It’s much more calmer. People are mostly working for the weekends and waiting for vacation. They're two different worlds.

America’s dynamic society drives this energy. You can’t have that kind of innovation without it spilling over into every aspect of life. When I’m in America, I’m thinking of new businesses to start, making aggressive moves with my career and networking. I’m looking for investment opportunities. I can feel the dynamic system in my bones and I respond accordingly.

America is unique that it has both a carrot and a stick. The incentives are there to become rich. But if you fall behind and fall in economic classes you will be entering a third world country. It’s one of the reasons why people are so scared to enforce public norms like music in public. Violence fills the air.

This energy causes immense competition, wealth creation and dynamic achievements. But it can be exhausting sometimes.

But this isn’t new. We can see the same type of behavior in previous eras of extreme dynamism. Think of Renaissance Italy. It was not a peaceful society, but it was a rich one and it created a lot of art.

America Resembles Renaissance Italy

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