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Old June 9th, 2017, 04:49 AM   #136
adouglas
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Name: Gort
Location: A secret lair which, being secret, has an undisclosed location
Join Date: May 2009

Motorcycle(s): Aprilia RS660

Posts: A lot.
Blog Entries: 6
MOTM - Jul '18, Nov '16, Aug '14, May '13
Ant: A couple of things from the posts above... First of all, for the tracks we're riding at the pace we ride, you really don't need to shift except on the straight. You ride a Ducati 999, which can pull stumps. You've seen the TTD instructors... did you know that people like Ken and Paul Duval ride the entire lap (except for the straight) at Thompson in third gear... on 600s? Similar with Palmer. And you know how fast those guys are.

Point is, that you're increasing your workload for no reason. The less you have to do, the less you have to think about, and the less you have to think about, the more bandwidth you've got to pay attention to what actually matters.

Which brings me to the second item... bandwidth and focus. Really like the story about your coworker and how he's so preoccupied that he's ignoring important things. I've ridden with you enough to believe that you're similarly preoccupied, trying to solve the whole equation at once. "I know what I need to work on," you've said many times, and then comes a list. What's worked for me is to concentrate -- REALLY concentrate -- on as few things as possible.

Forgive the windy anecdote, but it illustrates the point:

Many years ago I was taking a university course in plant biology. One day, the topic of the lecture was nutrients. We were discussing the three key elements necessary for growth: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). When you go to your local garden center and look at fertilizer, you’ll see a number like 15-2-2 prominently displayed on the label. That’s the percentage of those three elements in the bag.

The professor was talking about factors that limit growth. He drew a simple illustration: an old-fashioned barrel, the kind with vertical wooden staves. He labeled three of the staves N, P and K.

“The level of water in the barrel represents growth potential. Now what happens if I make one of the barrel staves shorter?” He erased the upper half of the P stave. The water level in the barrel could then, of course, be no higher than that.

“Phosphorous is limiting growth here. It doesn’t matter how much of the other two key nutrients you’ve got. If you don’t add phosphorous, you won’t improve growth. Here’s the point: It’s a waste of time, money and effort to add nitrogen fertilizer if what’s really limiting you is phosphorous. You have to focus on what’s holding you back.”

That one lecture changed the way I think about complex systems. Ever since, it has been my guiding principle for setting priorities.

Carry this over to riding. If what's limiting you is nailing your marks, then working on other stuff is a waste of time. Think hard about what your single greatest issue is, and work on that. Once you've got it, another weakness will emerge as the limiting factor, and you can work on that.

More in the next post....
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I am NOT an adrenaline junkie, I'm a skill junkie. - csmith12

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
Heri historia. Cras mysterium. Hodie donum est. Carpe diem.
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