Do the Opposite - Stop Analysis Paralysis And Make Progress On Your Projects And Dreams

Hello friends,

Welcome to the newest issue of the Do the Opposite newsletter, sent every Monday! If you like it, please forward this email to your friends or share this link with them: tinyletter.com/dotheopposite - this helps the newsletter grow!

If you want to share any resources, articles, books or anything else with the community, please reply to this email with your recommendations!
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On the further development of Do the Opposite
& How to make progress on multiple projects
As many of us, I always struggle with transforming my ideas into reality. Over the years I've collected a bunch of project ideas that constantly claw at me, yearning to be born. This newsletter is just one of these projects. The vision for the Do the Opposite is grander, and I am hoping to bring it to life this year, and to continue developing it further in the future years.

The key to success with writing this newsletter consistently was a public commitment, and also the fact that I've chosen one day a week (Monday night) when I write it - no matter what happens. If I can, I try to do it early, but I would write it even if I got home at 3am on Monday - the consistency is that important to me. With each letter sent I am proving to myself that I am able to persevere and stay consistent, which helps me grow my confidence to tackle the other project ideas I have.

(As I analyze this,) The other problem for me is that because I have many projects in mind, whenever I have free time to work on any of them - I don't know what to choose and I am stuck in "analysis paralysis". That project makes sense to do first because it will help me advance my coding skills, another will help the newsletter grow, and so on. So I end up procrastinating all that time away, deciding to wash the dishes or, worse, watch a bit of some TV Show instead - and I do that to the most important and precious time there is - a couple of hours each day that I could be making progress on my life's goals.

Besides projects, there's articles I had in my mind for years that I think "Oh yes I definitely should write about that" and then it never happens. As years pass the frustration with wasting potential only grows so I want to change all that. Whenever I am doing something uncomfortable, being consistent, taking risks - I feel really alive, and I feel that "yes, that's the real me". The other times, it feels like living in a shell of the real person that's trapped inside, waiting for me to change into the person I was meant to be. (Damn, this sh8t is getting really personal really fast :)

The most frustrating thing is the more I try to rationalize it "on the day of" the free time, the more I get stuck - so the way I want to tackle this is by eliminating the need to decide what to work on - "on the day of", and instead 'give it to the machine' - the system/weekly schedule, which would tell me what to do and when. The reasoning is - if this works that well for this newsletter and everything else gets left behind, I should copy what works and apply it to other areas (projects).

The decisions below is first part of what's coming - I will address more decisions when the time comes, because if I try to do everything at once, the whole system of changes is going to break the second week or even earlier (I know me :) ). As I figure out the rest I will keep sharing my thought process, decisions and struggles here, in hopes that it would help you tackle your projects and work toward your dreams.

I've decided that:
1) As before, this newsletter will be out every Monday.
2) Every Wednesday I will write a Do the Opposite blog post (some of the topics I shared in this newsletter I would love to elaborate more on in the form of blog posts) If opportunities to write for other publications come through I will use Wednesday evening to write them, thus, again, eliminating the need to decide and find the time/day to address them.
3) Every Thursday I will record a Do the Opposite video.

P.S. Personal update: I am still going strong with my running as I prepare for the races in Sept and Oct, averaging 3-4 runs a week - for now. I've noticed that running helps my self-discipline and confidence a great deal. I think reading the "Can't Hurt Me" book really changed something inside me - activated a different kind of mode. I like it.

New DTO section introduction: Tech Corner
Lots of subscribers have asked for having a section on Tech and learning to code. I think it's a great idea and I am going to be adding one starting next letter. I've added this section once before, but I think it's worth keeping it permanently because I always come across cool tech stuff I'd love to share and it seems there is interest in this topic.

Also, If you are learning to code on your own or thinking about it, and have questions, feel free to reply to this letter or DM me on twitter: @ka11away I would love to help out!

Articles:
1) "Phishing Emails Have Become Very Stealthy. Here Are 5 Ways to Spot Them Every Time" by Neill Feather
I think it's vital to keep up with the latest phishing and scam techniques - not to obsess and go full paranoid about it, but to be aware of the techniques used so you don't lose your head when you encounter that. Developing critical thinking and healthy doubt that can override the fearful emotions should you ever encounter any of this.

The scammers almost always play on fear. They call saying that your loved one was in accident and they need money, or that you haven't paid your taxes in full and now need to urgently give them the information on you accounts.

I once almost got scammed through phishing, and I work in tech so I should be at least more familiar with this stuff - but when panic sets in, you are not thinking rationally. I've received an email stating that someone from "Paris, France" has logged in into my iCloud (Apple) account and I need to click to change my password. In panic, I clicked, but by some lucky chance, the website it forwarded me to didn't open (maybe it was operational on desktop but didn't work on mobile) and I didn't type in my password for the scammers to use.

This article explores ways to spot the phishing attacks and not become a victim of it. From me, I want to add that almost always there is something just sliiightly wrong with a phishing email (at least the ones I've seen) - bad phrasing, or broken layout (CSS). However, even if the email looks perfect - exercise caution. P.S. If you are on iOS (Apple), click on the name of the person/entity who sent the email to see the real address. Sometimes it would say something like "Your Bank's Name" and then you click to see email and it's something like yourbank.asdf2f2039.com or similar.

Consider this your "Defense Against the Dark Arts" lesson :)

2) "Surveillance Cameras Debunk the Bystander Effect" by Richard Florida
I love articles that disband some old negative stereotypes about people and their nature and this article is just that. The Bystander Effect is a phenomenon where (previously believed) if something bad happens to someone on the street, the other people around (passers by, bystanders) would ignore it and behave as if they are not seeing what's going on.

The data from more than 200 incidents caught by cameras in Amsterdam, Cape Town and Lancaster (England) showed that in 9 cases out of 10 at least one person would intervene. On average, 3.8 people would intervene in various ways, trying to help the situation and the person affected. Now that doesn't mean that that would happen everywhere and every time, but it does brighten up our look in the human nature.

3) "To Create a Habit, Tell a Good Story" by Leo Babauta
Almost all of us by now are familiar with the basic tenets of habit formation: be publicly accountable, change one habit at a time, start (ridiculously) small, don't skip more than 1 day in a row, etc. What I like about this article is that it explores how to sustain a habit once you are already on your way, with life getting in the way + as well as mood changes, commitments and other obstacles. You can make your habit resilient by constantly feeding yourself a story of why you are doing it, how it improves you and your life (and, very often, the lives of the people close to you), focusing on the positive aspects of the changes you are making. Thus, you throw in more logs into the fire of your new habit – so it burns long enough to become a part of who you are.

Tweet that resonated with me
P.S. Also see the reversal of these points in the tweet directly below this one :)

Bonus: An amazing video demo of iPhone backgrounds that look like real physical objects are behind the screen. Take a look!

Ethos:

Quotes:
"Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us."
– Richie Norton

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
– Edmund Burke
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TELEGRAM CHANNEL: Do the Opposite has a public Telegram channel. The content there is a little different than in the newsletter: faster to consume, a bit more random - basically anything weird or interesting that catches my eye - articles, tweets, videos, images, etc. Hope to see you there as well! :) Here it is: t.me/dotheopposite

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Keep doing the opposite,
Alexander Kallaway
Website: dotheoppo.site
Twitter: twitter.com/ka11away