Everyday Systems

Several of the questions that have been asked lately in the No S Diet forum have gotten me to thinking pretty hard about the concept of "The Basics".

I don't know if you've ever studied anything where you get drilled on what's called "The Basics". (Martial arts, dance, and music all leap to mind).

What's interesting is that people who master the basics CAN go on to tweak for their performance for that top 1% in whatever the endeavor is. But people who are fascinated by what they do get fixated on the tweaking because it's more interesting and subject to (ultimately non-productive) analysis than the basics.

But it's the (sometimes tedious) practice of the basics that gives the results. For most endeavors there is no "secret" to excellence -- merely a willingness to consistently go to working on "The Basics". It's 80% of almost anything you do.

My roommate, a musician, has commented that you cannot practice the scales too much. I know there's no such thing as practicing the basics too much in martial arts. In weight training, eat right and lift stuff that feels heavy to you. As a dancer, you do thousands of pliés. Knitters might get into the fancy lace knitting, and all kinds of advanced techniques, but we return again and again to making sure our stockingette is smooth and our stitches consistent.

Reinhard talks about this, I notice, quite frequently in his discussions of the No S Diet -- that it is the big and obvious stuff that's the issue rather than the tweaking.

But I think it's rather applicable to a lot of life in general.

Noel, you are right on target! I totally agree!

I do Pilates, and keep coming back to form.

I knit, and keep checking gauge and counting stitches.

Occasional flowery romantic gestures in a marriage are nice, but they really matter less than reliability and commitment in every-day life... being responsible for taking out the garbage and picking up kids from school.

And on and on... basics first.

Whenever I'm struggling with something, when I go back to basics, it always helps.

Noel,

You're absolutely right.

Knowing when to stop tweaking the rules is as important (if not more so) than coming up with the right rule to begin with.

I love the musical and martial arts analogies to no-s. They're sort of surprising on the surface, but very appropriate, if you think about it for a bit.

Reinhard

Noel this is so true of me. I get so obsessed with the tweaking that I loose sight of the original goal and by the time I am finished I am so off track that I am no longer following No S.

I have managed to do this for 2 1/2 years and this is the first time since I originally started (and was successful for about 3 months) that I haven't tweaked.

The basics work - the N days habits that are instilled by the basics more than compensate for the S days and eventually the N day habits infiltrate the S days as well.

This needs to be posted on the No S board. So many new friends, so many already trying to tweak! I'm going to copy this over there.

Wasn't there a winning baseball coach that used to start out spring training every year by holding up a baseball and saying "Gentlemen, this is a baseball"? His point was that they were going to start with and concentrate on the basics.

And speaking of baseball, go Yankees!

We need an emoticon with a Yankees hat.