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Poly, but for projects

People (eg my wife) often say that I take on too many projects. I think this might be the case; or it might be the case that this is an ascended way to approach doing work.

Questions:

  • What makes one more suited to working on many different things in parallel, vs doing just one thing?
  • Do successful people “just do one thing” or “do a bunch of things?” Why?
    • It does seem that late-stage success (eg Sam Altman, Elon Musk) involves doing a bunch of different things
      • Or is it that being successful buys you the ability to sample and try many different projects?
  • What fields and domains are better with things in parallel?
    • Things that involve lots of farming for opportunities?
    • Things that move slowly in the real world (eg sales, comms, vs engineering?)
    • Related: Where is flow state possible? Where are task switching costs high?
  • What’s the difference between “working many different jobs” and “wearing many hats at one job?”
  • During a particular project, when should one double down; when should one expand to try other things?
    • Seems like to get anything to work, you have to try many things and iterate rapidly
    • (or: is there a version of wisdom/insight where you can call your shot and have things happen extremely accurately?)
  • Where is the “poly” analogy fruitful?
    • What is “new relationship energy”? I do feel like starting a new project is very energizing