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<h2>The Four Pillars of Performance</h2>
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<time datetime="2022-01-12 00:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2022</time>
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<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>This week, I watched Dr. Alok Kanojia's lecture on what he calls The Four Pillars of Performance, where he explains the core skills he's observed as a psychiatrist, clinician, and corporate consultant in high-performing individuals across many industries and how these skills are the key to high performance in the workplace, competitive sports, and life pursuits. One of my key takeaways was that these skills seem to apply regardless of industry or role. According to Dr. K, these four skills are:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Preparation:</strong> The act of studying, going to college, obtaining certifications, working for specific companies, etc. to set yourself up for opportunities and challenges.</li>
<li><strong>Adaptation:</strong> Being aware of your unique traits and circumstances, and accounting for them when taking on challenges.</li>
<li><strong>Communication:</strong> Humans evolved to be social, so good communicators tend to perform better overall.</li>
<li><strong>Mindset:</strong> Having a growth mindset (as opposed to an outcome mindset) shapes the effectiveness of the other pillars.</li>
</ol>
<p>In this article, I've distilled the key takeaways from the lecture and discuss them primarily in the context of a professional workplace and career, told through the lens of my experiences in aerospace engineering.</p>
<h1>Preparation</h1>
<p>Preparation for a job, for example, includes a variety of things: research, education, training / certifications, shadowing, coaching / mentoring, and interviewing experienced people who have the job you want. These are all things that I understood only after years of trial & error, without anyone to guide me in the process. Someone who's starting a job search for the first time (i.e. a new grad) would likely not think of doing all of these things without some guidance.</p>
<p>This can happen whenever we encounter a problem we've never had to deal with before; particularly when it comes to abstract, open-ended problems where the solution isn't immediately obvious. Here's an approach I developed by combining what I've learned from engineering with recommendations from Dr. K's lecture.</p>
<h2>1. Start by diagnosing the problem, not by looking for solutions</h2>
<p>People who struggle with a problem often instinctively start looking for external solutions; e.g. <em>"I failed a test, so the solution must be to study more hours."</em> Dr. K asserts that the <em>kind</em> of preparation you do also matters, rather than simply spending more time practicing or grinding. <strong>In other words, brute force practice is not what makes you better — intentional and mindful practice is.</strong></p>
<p>When you struggle with a challenge or experience a failure, take a step back and diagnose the problem to understand the nature of it, then develop more targeted solutions with newly gained insight. Understanding how we approach our preparations is just as important as the act of preparing itself.</p>
<p>Go meta and critically examine both the strong areas and the shortcomings of how you prepared for something. Simply spending more time preparing isn't necessarily going to result in better outcomes — it's about how you get smart by understanding <em>which</em> preparations are going to help you the most and prioritizing those strategies.</p>
<ul>
<li>When you fail a test, understand why you got the questions you got right, right; and why you got the questions you got wrong, wrong.</li>
<li>When you go through a job interview and don't get an offer, figure out which questions you got tripped up on and think about how you might answer them differently if you interviewed for the same job.</li>
<li>When you lose against an opposing team in a game, understand what both teams did well AND poorly, and what you can do to prepare for the next encounter against that team, knowing that they will likely do something similar.</li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Operationalize / Decompose the Problem</h2>
<p>In medicine, <strong>operationalizing</strong> refers to the process of breaking down a large, complicated problem into smaller, actionable steps. In systems engineering we have a similar term called <strong>decomposition.</strong> Large problems are often perceived as more difficult than they actually are when they haven't been broken down yet, especially when there's an emotional aspect involved with the goal.</p>
<p>For example, <em>"Find a job I don't hate"</em> can seem impossible or not worthwhile to someone if they previously had negative experiences like an exploitative manager or a toxic work environment, or if they assign blame to an external unchangeable circumstance. This can manifest avoidance of problem-solving towards achieving the goal and lead to chronic procrastination because any individual step towards the goal feels insufficient.</p>
<p>The antidote for the emotional aspect begins with awareness, but that's a topic which deserves it own discussion. For this article, here are some useful methods operationalizing / decomposing a problem into smaller pieces that you can tackle on your own.</p>
<h3>2.1. Write Down Everything You Know (and Don't Know)</h3>
<p>In engineering we always start working on a problem by writing out all the variables: knowns, unknowns, and unknown knowns (i.e. variables that you know exist, but don't know the answer to). Once you have everything written down, you can start to develop a rough plan of next steps. The key here is to avoid spending all your time on analysis & planning, and aim to take action.</p>
<p>In Julie Zhuo's <em>"The Making of a Manager",</em> she recommends that you should aim to make a decision when you have about 70% of the information you think you need — otherwise you're probably moving too slowly. Engineers also recognize how easy it is to get stuck in analysis paralysis. This is expressed by the Fifth Law of Systems Engineering regarding Failure to Commit:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Never try to be completely right (analysis paralysis) or you will never converge on anything. Failure-to-commit stops progress in its tracks. Don't try to make everything perfect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dr. K discusses a corollary of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy">the planning fallacy,</a> arguing that your plans at the beginning of your journey are objectively the worst they can be because you haven't solved any problems, and thus don't have any experience yet. </p>
<p>As you work through the problem in a more intentional and structured manner, you will also discover unknown variables that you were previously not aware of (unknown unknowns). With some experience, insight, and problems solved under your belt, you can iterate and pivot into new directions with confidence.</p>
<h3>2.2. Working Backwards Towards a Goal</h3>
<p>Dr. K's method to work backwards from the goal will lead you to exactly what you need to do next. Let's use <em>"Get a software engineer job at Google"</em> as an example, assuming someone is starting from zero:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Goal:</strong> Get a software engineer job at Google</li>
<li><em>"I don't know anything about software engineering"</em> → Research what software engineers do, interview people, job shadowing, etc.</li>
<li><em>"Software engineers need to be qualified in C#" → "I don't know C#"</em> → Get credentials in C#</li>
<li><em>"I don't know the best way to show my credibility in C#"</em> → Research → Computer Science degree or coding bootcamp</li>
<li><em>"I don't know whether a CS degree or coding bootcamp is better for me"</em> → Research shows that job outcomes are similar → Coding bootcamp feels like a better option because it takes less time than a traditional degree</li>
<li>Begin studying fundamentals of C# to prepare for coding bootcamp</li>
</ol>
<h1>Adaptation</h1>
<p>One of the most important skills I've learned through my experiences as an engineer is how to iterate. Failure is expected, especially at the beginning when we know we understand the problem the least. We have a formal process for handling failures and turning them into forward progress. Lessons learned turns into cultural knowledge, and the cycle begins again with each new failure. Of course, we want to minimize our failures over time, otherwise nothing would ever get done.</p>
<p>When we fail at something, it's easy to avoid a formal process like we use in engineering, and instead construct an identity around that failure, like <em>"I'm bad at math"</em> or <em>"I'm terrible at dating"</em>. These identities become fixed traits that we assign to ourselves, and creates an unsolvable problem because it can often feel like you can't do anything about <em>"I'm bad at math".</em> These fixed traits give your mind an excuse to avoid doing the work to actually become better at something you might actually care about.</p>
<p><strong>Adaptation is not about changing who you are — it's about accounting for who you are and not letting those things get in the way of your performance.</strong> It's the difference between a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset. Here are some strategies to avoid creating negative identities and cognitive blind spots, and instead adapt to your traits & circumstances.</p>
<h2>1. Learn and understand the ways you work best</h2>
<p>This seems a bit silly and obvious, but there was a lot I didn't understand about myself and how my mind worked before I started my self-improvement journey. For example, my mind is very analytical, which translates into a methodical way of communicating that others could perceive as slow, or think I'm not paying attention. I'm far more composed in writing than I am in live conversation.</p>
<p>One adaptation I've come up with for this, especially when people ask my for my opinion on a complex subject, is to ask: <em>"Can I think for a minute?"</em> This lets the other person know I heard them and I'm thinking about what they said. It also gives me a moment to organize my thoughts and take the pressure off of from feeling like I need to respond as if it were a race.</p>
<p>Some other major areas of growth for me over the past few years:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Exercise and Nutrition:</strong> The mind-body connection and our gut biome has a huge effect on how we think & feel day-to-day. Even though I'm quite lazy (a physical trait rather than an identity), taking better care of myself has become important to me because it makes me feel better physically, which allows me to achieve my goals more effectively. As a rule of thumb, the average person needs at least 30 minutes of physical activity three times a week to maintain a healthy baseline.</li>
<li><strong>Motivational Style:</strong> Not all minds work the same, which affects how we focus on tasks. Dr. K explains this using <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRWX21lW_bU"><strong>Ayurvedic doshas</strong></a>, which I think is a helpful framework to naturally motivate myself and optimize my productivity.</li>
<li><strong>Life Perspective:</strong> Shifting away from <em>"I should"</em> vs. <em>"I want"</em> and framing my life in terms duty / responsibility / values has given me a sense of purpose and the motivation to work on the things I care about most.</li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Re-reframe "Good at" vs. "Bad at" to "Experienced" vs. "Inexperienced"</h2>
<p>Telling yourself you're "good" or "bad" at something, or using other adjectives like "gifted", "smart person", "has potential", etc. can create identities for yourself that for so-called positive traits (e.g. smart person) sets you up for failure when you inevitably don't meet the miscalibrated expectations of the identity; and for negative traits (e.g. lazy), turns them unsolvable problems that can feel difficult for you to act upon, and gives the mind an excuse to not do any work.</p>
<p>By re-framing to <strong>Experienced vs. Inexperienced,</strong> it turns the identity into a something inherently about practice and taking action. You can't do anything about <em>"I'm bad at math"</em> because it's a fixed trait, but <em>"I'm inexperienced with math"</em> means you can do more practice problems, join study groups, and get tutoring to actually get better at it. If you seem to always stumble over your words in a presentation, you're inexperienced at public speaking, and you can practice that in training, with co-workers, and public speaking groups.</p>
<h1>Communication</h1>
<p>Another important lesson I learned as an engineer is that communication is absolutely vital even in technical fields and roles. I went into my first job thinking that I could sit at my desk, get my work done in a blackbox, and turn it in like a homework assignment.</p>
<p>The reality is that any team, regardless of industry, must organize and communicate well with each other to get meaningful work done within the budget & schedule constraints of the project. Now, eight years into my engineering career, I find myself communicating with everyone from other engineers to Chief Engineers and Program Directors.</p>
<p>There are some exceptions to this, like creative jobs that spend most of their time doing deep work and don't need to frequently talk to anyone, such as writers, painters, digital illustrators, and probably various kinds of research positions. But in general, improving your communication skills is going to set your performance above somebody who communicates poorly. Some specific tips for communication:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Establish the intent of your communication.</strong> This will help frame the conversation in your mind, which others will pick up on. For example, asking for help and making it clear that you've tried a few things on your own already will be appreciated by the people helping you.</li>
<li><strong>Recognize when you need to communicate across different groups.</strong> Look at the big picture and understand who is affected by your work and decision-making (i.e. stakeholders).</li>
<li><strong>Know your audience and adjust your communication style accordingly.</strong> The way you communicate with engineering is going to be much different than the way you need to communicate with sales, business development, and project management.</li>
</ul>
<p>There's a great chapter in Julie Zhuo's book on the art of feedback that I highly recommend as well.</p>
<h1>Mindset</h1>
<p>According to Dr. K, what is in your mind when you set out to do a task can drastically affect how successful you are. Mindset is incredibly powerful because it shapes the effectiveness the other four pillars. It's the essence behind all of our actions. When we go into a challenge with a positive mindset, it somehow makes the challenge seem less arduous. And when we go into a challenge with a negative mindset, failure almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because in our mind, we've already failed.</p>
<p>Whereas the other pillars have a practical skillbuilding component, mindset is more abstract and therefore trickier to develop. I've found that how well I can develop a positive mindset in any given situation depends a lot on my emotional well-being, which affects my capacity for both empathy towards others, and compassion towards myself as I press forward through tough times.</p>
<p>This leads me to believe that much of the work with mindset involves emotional processing, identity work, and instrospection. These can all be done through therapy, coaching, and self-reflective activities like journaling. I also think we need to get a healthy amount of what Dr. K calls "emotional nutrition", which is everything that supports our mental well-being that isn't coaching or therapy — things like being able to talk to a friend about what's going on in your life, and having a sense of comradery with the people on your team from going through the crunch weeks and long nights at the office together.</p>
<p>All that said, I think anyone can start thinking about how to develop a good mindset by understanding some key features I've noticed about them.</p>
<h2>Keys to a Good Mindset</h2>
<ul>
<li>Action orientation over outcome orientation / Avoid becoming emotionally attached to outcomes</li>
<li>Focus on problem-solving and <a href="https://johntrinh.net/task-conflict-in-engineering.html"><strong>task conflict</strong></a> over relationship conflict</li>
<li>Growth mindset over fixed mindset / Mastery orientation</li>
<li>Everyone has a mixture of both mindsets, but growth should evolve to be the dominant mindset with experience</li>
<li>Avoid constructing negative identities</li>
<li>e.g. <em>"I've been rejected"</em> (an independent event) vs. <em>"I am a reject"</em> (fixed negative identity)</li>
<li>Internal Locus of Control: Ability to attribute failure or rejection to yourself due to possible shortcomings in your understanding, method, or execution</li>
<li>External Locus of Control: Ability to accept that a failure or rejection was out of your control due to possible external factors / circumstances</li>
<li>Ability to objectively switch between internal & external loci of control</li>
</ul>
<h2>Programmer / Engineer Mindset: "We're probably screwed, but let's see what we can do."</h2>
<p>In his lecture, Dr. K talks about some of the best programmers he's worked with, and how they have this weird mindset of cynicism and defeatism but perseverence. One where you know things are going to be screwed, but you YOLO it anyway. This was a funny coincidence because it mirrors a lot of my own experiences in engineering and makes total sense after reflecting on it.</p>
<p>This mindset comes from the fact that in any kind of technical development of a complex project, there are some unfortunate realities that always seem to come true: The team has been told that upper management has promised the customer an amazing product with "never before seen" features. Everyone is understaffed and HR can't seem to hire anyone. Meanwhile, people are quitting left & right for better gigs. The project is over budget and over schedule, and project management is seems preoccupied with paying lip service, but behind the scenes are willing to sacrifice engineering to keep the customer happy.</p>
<p>When engineering bands together to keep pushing forward on a project that seems screwed, that somehow turns into excellent engineering outcomes in spite of bad upper management, and certainly some memorable projects.</p>
<p>Think about some of the best people you've worked with in your field. How would you describe their mindset? How did they perform under pressure, or when given a bad situation?</p>
<h1>Concluding Thoughts</h1>
<p>Now you can understand why preparation, adaptation, communication, and mindset are the four pillars of performance no matter what you set out to do. Whether you're a student, engineer, doctor, or streamer, you can apply these skills to optimize your performance and adapt to almost any situation presented to you. Like all skills, simply knowing about them isn't going to help you — you have to practice them with intention and awareness in the spaces that demand them.</p>
<p>There are many topics I've only covered here at a surface level and I hope to write about them in greater detail this year.</p>
<h1>References</h1>
<ol>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YEoDAu1ET0">What Sets Professional Esports Athletes Apart From Average Gamers</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://johntrinh.net/task-conflict-in-engineering.html">Task Conflict in Engineering</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRWX21lW_bU">3 Motivation Styles determined by Personality</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/dweck-growth-mindsets">Carol Dweck on How Growth Mindsets Can Bear Fruit in the Classroom</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means">What Having a "Growth Mindset" Actually Means</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>"The Making of a Manager"</em> by Julie Zhuo. Portfiolo, 2019.</p>
</li>
</ol>
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