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The hidden cost of Shiny Object Syndrome
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What’s the harm in taking on one more project? We can get some idea by asking the question, How many people need to be in a room before two have the same birthday?
The answer is counterintuitive, and sheds light on the hidden complexity that holds us back from finishing what we start.
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To be totally sure at least two have the same birthday, you’d need 366 people in a room (assuming no leap birthdays), but it gets really interesting when we ask how many it takes to have a 50/50 chance.
Using rough intuitive math, you might figure, There are 365 potential birthdays, so maybe about 180 people for a 50% chance two have the same?
If you have two people in a room, you have one potential shared birthday.
When you add just one more person to the room, the number of potential shared birthdays triples.
When you go from three to four people, the potential shared birthdays jump from three to six.
To have a 50% chance two people have the same birthday, you only need twenty three people. By that point, there are 253 potential shared birthdays.
The birthday paradox is a paradox because it is hard for our brains to grasp this rapid rise in connections. Now try to apply this to your creative projects, and everything else in your life.
Let’s say you have your day job, your home life, and your podcast. These areas can conflict with each other in three different ways. For example, you can’t record your podcast at work but your house is only quiet enough to record while everyone is at work or school.
Add a social life with friends, and potential conflicts jump from three to six. Add one more project, say a rock band, and now you have ten potential conflicts.
When you get an idea to add on another project, you aren’t just adding one more thing – you’re adding that one thing and how it affects every other thing. You can very easily find yourself overwhelmed.
This idea is borrowed from Chapter 3 of Finish What Matters. It will debut in a couple weeks, explaining how to turn Shiny Object Syndrome into a shiny object strategy. But the Preview Edition closes in just a few days! Join now »
