3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Measuring Success
Bed of Procrustes, Reference Norms & Overcoming Envy
I. Bed of Procrustes
The Bed of Procrustes is not as comfy as you may imagine. It’s named after the mythological Greek villain Procrustes. The son of Poseidon abducted travellers to his refuge where he made them fit into his bed. Regrettably, he did so by cutting off their limbs or stretching their body parts.
Metaphorically, we can think of Procrustean beds as arbitrary standards. Standards to which we’re forced to conform, regardless of our individual circumstances. A bit of intellectual stretching, for example, is highly desirable. But whether we feel good about being stretched, very much depends on how much and to where. In other words, to what standard we’re being held and how success is measured.
The Bed of Procrustes also happens to be the title of an aphorism collection by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which you’ll find on my list of practical philosophy books.
II. Reference Norms
In education and beyond, three essential reference norms are used when measuring success: criteria-based, social and individual.
Criteria-Based Reference Norm
Determine whether you have mastered an ability or met a standard. That works fine as long as the standard is realistic. Imagine playing in a live cover band. Does your audience expect your performance to sound live like the original bands sound on stage? Or do people expect you to sound live like the original songs sound on the album?
Social Reference Norm
Compare your performance with your peers — or any other reference group for that matter. The result depends on the group to which we happen to be compared. If your cover band plays in small regional towns, you only need to outperform the few other cover bands in your area. But as soon as you put your songs online you’re suddenly competing for listeners with bands across the planet.
Individual Reference Norm
Compare yourself to yourself and how you’ve improved over time. Are you a better musician today than you were a year ago? One should hope so because it means you’re progressing. In a sense, it’s the ultimate social norm in that your references are different versions of yourself. Just be careful not to build your own Procrustean bed; thinking you should be much more successful compared to an arbitrary standard.
III. Overcoming Envy
The social reference norm can hit us hard, leading to envy. Entrepreneur James Altucher shares an antidote to envy author Ryan Holiday once told him:
If you are envious of someone, you can’t just pick one or two things about them. Because it’s their entire history that has got them the one thing you are envious about.
So, he said: “Picture that you can change places in every way with them. But then it’s forever.”
He said: “Would you do it?”
—James Altucher, The One Cure for Envy and Jealousy
🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com