In the Cards
“Regrets? I’ve had a few…”
Actually just one — and that is that I did not develop this idea earlier in my life.
Before this thing started, I had an urgent need for an answer to the question: “If you had a full year to spend working on something entirely of your choosing, how would you plan it?”
For me that answer was in the cards. Specifically, a stack of 18 3x5 cards.
It’s weird to call it a system when it’s just a stack of cards, but, whatever, it works.
It makes it possible to achieve anything, but in particular, it’s made it possible to do the thing I’m doing now. In a sentence, I’m spending 56 weeks on R&D in order to make a leap in my ability to deliver compelling software solutions using Machine Learning and Big Data for my bootstrapping startup company, Artificial Frost.
I’m working on six subjects: Math, Data, Machine Learning, Finance, Programming, and Web App Development and DevOps (which I treat as one combined subject).
Yes I’m doing this voluntarily.
“Glutton for punishment” is such a negative phrase — besides, I actually love this stuff. Most of it. And the cards really help me get through the material I’m just grinding through like a kid eating a turnip.
The mission of Artificial Frost is to create AI solutions that make people smarter, happier, more skilled, more effective — in a word, “better”.
Which means, I’m not just employee 001, I’m also customer 001.
So how do you plan an entire year of work that combines the grind of learning new tools and techniques with the freedom to innovate? How do you make a plan whose primary objects are “a more skilled and accomplished version of myself”, and “some good ideas made into working prototypes”.
I was pretty confident that three things in particular would not work:
- A date-based schedule
- A big list of tasks
- Fixed Course Curricula
My confidence was rooted in failure.
I have never known a waterfall date-based schedule to work well for software development and that’s the activity that most resembles what I’m doing this year.
I knew from experience that huge lists of tasks were also not going to work for me, because there were so many of them, and so many of the tasks were big and complicated. It could take months to build out such a vast list of lists and sublists of lists of sublists.
Taking courses and following their fixed curriculum was also not going to work for me because I had too many different things to learn, and they were highly focused — I needed to learn the equivalent of two or three years of courses but I only had 56 weeks, and I had to develop a bunch of products in that time too.
So instead of a vast list of tasks, or a twenty-foot-wide GANNT chart or a 3 year schedule of classes, I have a stack of 18 cards.
For each subject shuffled in the deck, there are 2–3 cards. Potential activities are comprised of forty books, 10 courses and four development projects, along with activities associated with the management of my 40-node data centre and the databases, apps and services that are running in it.
Each card presents a set of 2–6 choices amongst activities (books, courses or projects) for a given subject. The card tells me what to spend the next four hours focusing on. After four hours I use a hole punch to note which activity I spent time on (one punch per two hours), put the card on the bottom of the deck and do the next one.
The hole punch is crucial — I’ve gone with the Fiskar 1/8 incher.
When the program is disrupted for any reason, for any period of time, no problem. When I get back from lunch, the dentist, Antarctica — the answer to the question, “Where was I?” is sitting right on top of the stack.
If I have some period where I can’t work as much, I can either reduce the time allocation per card, or do fewer cards per day.
Cards 9 and 18 are ‘dynamic allocation’ — I just pick whatever subject I want, or something outside the box. Something fun and new. “Reorganizing my sock drawer” does not qualify.
Cycling through all 18 cards constitutes one round. I do 4 rounds and then I have a 7 day development cycle, where I just do development on one of the four main products for my company. That makes up one iteration.
After each iteration, I make the needed adjustments to the materials, the order of cards, the options on each card, etc. Additionally, by doing development of products for my company, I’m able to ensure that the materials I’m using are on target and that I’m focusing on the right stuff.
The thing is, I screw up just as much as the next person — I slack off, I do something other than what I’m supposed to do — that’s why I’m so amazed at how well this system works — the interleaving of the subjects and the choices of material are keeping things interesting and giving me insights into how these elements can be combined in novel ways.
The rhythm of the weeks is ever-changing because on any given day of the week, I’m doing something different than I did previously on that day.
This is particularly handy during the pandemic, since neither I nor anyone else in my household ever knows what day it is.
The most essential thing the card system delivers is the ability to make forward progress in every single session without ever feeling “behind schedule” or that the task is too big, or any of those other discouraging emotions.
The card system provides a kind of frictionless way to allocate time, and gives each day a distinctive shape.
Most of this work is challenging, and some of it is not that much fun. But by varying the materials and timing I don’t get so tired of pushing one single boulder up one single mountain.
I also need days off — days to do something different — those socks aren’t going to reorganize themselves! The card system accommodates that effortlessly.
This system values the simple application of time to a task over the completion of pre-set tasks on specific dates, on the basis that the objective will yield, but that you might need to get creative or fail a few times, or study the same thing three different ways — there’s room to breathe.
Ultimately, it’s that combination of structure and space that enables innovation to flourish without spinning out of control. I always have favoured new ideas over everything — but this system has helped me bring things into balance — new ideas and the grind of getting better.
So if you need to change your life (a little or a lot), to get to somewhere new, to be a better version of yourself… Deal yourself a new set of cards. You’ll be amazed by what you can do. Maybe Artificial Frost can help you out — after all, our business is a better version of you.
Notes:
I have been influenced by the physician and author, Atul Gawande, who wrote a whole book about the idea of trying to be better at something that you already know how to do — about how to make a system better when it is supposed to be the best already.
I found this article after I had already created my system — I think it does a good job of explaining why endless lists of tasks have inherent limitations.
Essential:
