By Adam Alter
Overcoming stuckness through strategic action
Subject
Themes
Being stuck is universal. A survey of hundreds of people found that every single respondent could identify at least one area of stuckness, with 70 percent saying the problem came to mind very easily. Half had been stuck for years or decades. Yet most believed their struggles were unusual, a classic case of pluralistic ignorance fuelled by the headwinds/tailwinds asymmetry: people fixate on their own barriers while overlooking both their advantages and other people's hardships. Brie Larson was rejected 98 to 99 percent of the time across thousands of auditions before winning an Academy Award. Airbnb's cofounders were turned down by fifteen angel investors and racked up $30,000 in credit card debt before building a $100-billion company.
Being stuck is universal. A survey of hundreds of people found that every single respondent could identify at least one area of stuckness, with 70 percent saying the problem came to mind very easily. Half had been stuck for years or decades. Yet most believed their struggles were unusual, a classic…
Adam Alter's 2023 work arrives during a period of intense public interest in productivity, resilience, and the psychology of performance. The self-help genre has expanded dramatically since the early 2000s, driven by bestsellers that draw on behavioural science to offer practical frameworks for…
One of the most striking findings from a survey of hundreds of people is that every single respondent could identify at least one area in which they felt stuck. Seventy percent said the sticking point came to mind "very easily" because it consumed a significant chunk of their daily mental energy.…
A-ha's "Take On Me" spent seven years evolving from a raw keyboard riff before reaching number one on the Billboard charts. The band nearly disbanded after two commercial failures, and the song only succeeded on its third attempt, when Warner's US office bankrolled a high-budget animated music…
People instinctively add complexity when they encounter problems rather than subtracting it. Engineer Leidy Klotz observed this when his toddler solved a LEGO problem by removing a block, while Klotz's own instinct was to add one. In laboratory experiments, only 41 percent of participants chose the…
Fifty years of Doctor Who episodes reveal a striking pattern: the best episodes emerged when the creative team included new blood from different backgrounds, while the worst coincided with closed, familiar networks. "The more closed the network around an artist, the less creative their work," the…
Paul Simon sat awkwardly opposite Dick Cavett on television, whispering self-conscious answers, until the moment he picked up his guitar. Then he bloomed. Hundreds of YouTube commenters noticed the transformation independently: "The second he picks up the guitar, he blooms." When Cavett asked how he…
Clark Hull spent decades at Yale studying rats in mazes and noticed a consistent pattern: animals moved slowly at the start and middle of a maze but sprinted when they neared the end. He called this the goal gradient effect. Subsequent research confirmed the same pattern in humans. Coffee shop…
Three types of traps keep people stuck, each disguised to avoid detection. The first is the "this isn't a problem" trap, illustrated through unintentional herd behaviour. In 1980, thousands of parents independently chose the name Adam, believing it was distinctive. They were all swimming in the same…
Lionel Messi, the most decorated footballer alive, is famously anxious, once habitually vomiting before big matches. His evolutionary tweak is to barely move during the opening minutes of each game, walking slowly while his eyes dart from player to player. Former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola…
Architect Bill Hillier measured the "maze-iness" of London neighbourhoods and devised an intelligibility score capturing their complexity. The best way to get unstuck is to simplify the unintelligible. Diagnostician Thomas Bolte, nicknamed "the Real Dr. House," does this with a thirty-two-page…
Doctor Who, the world's longest-running television show, has endured creative stagnation and a sixteen-year hiatus. Researchers combing fifty years of episodes found that the best ones emerged when the creative team included new blood from different backgrounds. "The more closed the network around…
Researchers tracking thousands of artists, directors, and scientists found that most experience one hot streak occupying about 20 percent of their careers. The trigger is a specific sequence: a period of exploration followed by a period of exploitation. Peter Jackson explored diverse genres…
By Adam Alter
Subject
Themes
Being stuck is universal. A survey of hundreds of people found that every single respondent could identify at least one area of stuckness, with 70 percent saying the problem came to mind very easily. Half had been stuck for years or decades. Yet most believed their struggles were unusual, a classic case of pluralistic ignorance fuelled by the headwinds/tailwinds asymmetry: people fixate on their own barriers while overlooking both their advantages and other people's hardships. Brie Larson was rejected 98 to 99 percent of the time across thousands of auditions before winning an Academy Award. Airbnb's cofounders were turned down by fifteen angel investors and racked up $30,000 in credit card debt before building a $100-billion company.