Annotations (8)
“Merely having energy and imagination is quite rare. But to solve hard problems you need three more qualities: resilience, good judgement, and a focus on some kind of goal. Resilience means not having one's morale destroyed by setbacks. Setbacks are inevitable once problems reach a certain size, so if you can't bounce back from them, you can only do good work on a small scale. But resilience is not the same as obstinacy.”
Psychology & Behavior · Strategy & Decision Making
DUR_ENDURING
Resilience: morale unchanged, mind flexible
“The persistent are like boats whose engines can't be throttled back. The obstinate are like boats whose rudders can't be turned. In the degenerate case they're indistinguishable: when there's only one way to solve a problem, your only choice is whether to give up or not, and persistence and obstinacy both say no. But as problems get more complicated, we can see the difference between them.”
Psychology & Behavior · Strategy & Decision Making · Philosophy & Reasoning
DUR_ENDURING
Persistence = flexible engine; obstinacy = stuck rudder
“The persistent are attached to the goal. The obstinate are attached to their ideas about how to reach it. Worse still, that means they'll tend to be attached to their first ideas about how to solve a problem, even though these are the least informed by the experience of working on it. So the obstinate aren't merely attached to details, but disproportionately likely to be attached to wrong ones.”
Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior
DUR_ENDURING
Early ideas are least informed by experience
“The persistent are quite rational. They focus on expected value. It's this, not recklessness, that lets them work on things that are unlikely to succeed. There is one point at which the persistent are often irrational though: at the very top of the decision tree. When they choose between two problems of roughly equal expected value, the choice usually comes down to personal preference.”
Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior · Economics & Markets
DUR_ENDURING
Rational everywhere except problem selection
“Persistence and obstinacy aren't opposites. The relationship between them is more like the relationship between the two kinds of respiration we can do: aerobic respiration, and the anaerobic respiration we inherited from our most distant ancestors. Anaerobic respiration is a more primitive process, but it has its uses. When you leap suddenly away from a threat, that's what you're using. The optimal amount of obstinacy is not zero.”
Biology, Ecology & Systems · Psychology & Behavior · Philosophy & Reasoning
DUR_ENDURING
Aerobic vs anaerobic: evolution not opposition
“One thing that distinguishes the persistent is their energy. At the risk of putting too much weight on words, they persist rather than merely resisting. They keep trying things. Which means the persistent must also be imaginative. To keep trying things, you have to keep thinking of things to try. Energy and imagination make a wonderful combination. Each gets the best out of the other.”
Psychology & Behavior · Creativity & Innovation
DUR_ENDURING
Energy demands ideas; imagination needs outlet
“Obstinacy is a reflexive resistance to changing one's ideas. This is not identical with stupidity, but they're closely related. A reflexive resistance to changing one's ideas becomes a sort of induced stupidity as contrary evidence mounts. And obstinacy is a form of not giving up that's easily practiced by the stupid. You don't have to consider complicated tradeoffs; you just dig in your heels. It even works, up to a point.”
Psychology & Behavior · Philosophy & Reasoning
DUR_ENDURING
Reflexive resistance becomes induced stupidity
“I can't think of anyone more determined than the Collison brothers, and when you point out a problem to them, they not only listen, but listen with an almost predatory intensity. Is there a hole in the bottom of their boat? Probably not, but if there is, they want to know about it. It's the same with most successful people. They're never more engaged than when you disagree with them.”
Psychology & Behavior · Leadership & Management
DUR_ENDURING
Predatory intensity toward criticism
Frameworks (1)
The Five Components of Productive Persistence
How to Be Stubborn the Right Way
A five-part model distinguishing productive persistence from counterproductive obstinacy. Productive persistence requires energy (keep trying), imagination (generate new approaches), resilience (bounce back from setbacks without changing morale), good judgement (focus on expected value), and goal focus (clarity on what you're trying to achieve). The obstinate lack this structure and instead apply reflexive resistance indiscriminately across the decision tree, becoming attached to their first ideas rather than to their ultimate goal.
Components
- Energy: Persist Rather Than Resist
- Imagination: Generate New Approaches
- Resilience: Protect Morale, Not Ideas
- Good Judgement: Focus on Expected Value
- Goal Focus: Specific Enough to Guide, General Enough to Allow Discovery
Prerequisites
- Ability to distinguish goals from methods
- Willingness to change your mind
- Capacity for self-reflection
Success Indicators
- You change tactics frequently but goals rarely
- Criticism makes you more engaged, not defensive
- You can articulate why you're pursuing a goal beyond 'I started so I'll finish'
Failure Modes
- Becoming attached to first ideas
- Letting setbacks destroy morale
- Defending methods instead of outcomes
- Setting goals too vague to guide or too narrow to allow discovery
Mental Models (5)
Decision Tree Optimization
Decision MakingRecognizing that decisions exist in a hierarchy and the appropriate level of attachment varies.
In Practice: Distinguishing where to be firm vs. flexible
Demonstrated by Leg-jdr-001
Confirmation Bias vs. Evidence Seeking
PsychologyThe tendency to search for information that confirms pre-existing beliefs.
In Practice: Contrasting how persistent vs obstinate people respond to criticism
Demonstrated by Leg-jdr-001
Positive Feedback Loop
Systems ThinkingA system where outputs feed back as inputs in a way that amplifies the original
In Practice: How energy and imagination mutually reinforce to produce productive persistence
Demonstrated by Leg-jdr-001
Expected Value Calculation
Probability & StatisticsA decision-making framework where you multiply the probability of each outcome by its value and sum the results.
In Practice: How the persistent rationally pursue uncertain outcomes by focusing on expected value
Demonstrated by Leg-jdr-001
Evolutionary Vestige
Biology & EvolutionA feature or behavior that was adaptive in ancestral environments but persists in modern form despite reduced utility. Obstinacy functions as an evolutionary vestige: the quick, unthinking 'don't give up' response (like anaerobic respiration) served our ancestors well in immediate physical threats but becomes maladaptive when applied to complex modern problems requiring sustained reasoning. Understanding this helps explain why obstinacy feels natural (it's ancient) even when it's counterproductive (it's optimized for a different problem set).
In Practice: Why obstinacy exists if it's counterproductive: it's a primitive system with limited but real uses
Demonstrated by Leg-jdr-001
Connective Tissue (2)
Boats with broken engines vs. boats with stuck rudders
The persistent are like boats whose engines can't be throttled back (power that can't be reduced but can be steered). The obstinate are like boats whose rudders can't be turned (stuck on one heading regardless of conditions). This engineering metaphor illuminates the fundamental difference: the persistent have directional flexibility with constant drive; the obstinate have fixed direction with no ability to adjust course. The analogy extends to the decision tree framework: the persistent can adjust any low-level tactical decision while maintaining strategic direction, whereas the obstinate resist change at all levels indiscriminately.
Distinguishing persistence from obstinacy through mechanical systems analogy
Aerobic and anaerobic respiration as evolutionary relationship model
Persistence and obstinacy aren't opposites but have a relationship analogous to aerobic and anaerobic respiration. Anaerobic respiration is more primitive (inherited from our most distant ancestors) but serves a purpose: when you leap away from a threat, that's what you use. Similarly, obstinacy is a more primitive form of not giving up that has tactical uses (prevents panic, provides quick unthinking response to threats) but can't sustain complex problem-solving. Aerobic respiration is more sophisticated and powers sustained activity; persistence is the more complex system that powers sustained progress on hard problems. The optimal amount of the primitive system (anaerobic/obstinacy) is not zero, but relying on it as your primary mode fails for anything requiring endurance or complexity.
Using biological evolution to explain why both persistence and obstinacy exist and when each is appropriate
Key Figures (1)
Patrick Collison and John Collison
2 mentionsCo-founders of Stripe
Contemporary entrepreneurs used as exemplars of productive persistence. When you point out a problem to them, they listen with 'almost predatory intensity,' wanting to know about any hole in the bottom of their boat. They represent the pattern of being most engaged when someone disagrees with them.
- When you point out a problem to the Collisons, they not only listen, but listen with an almost predatory intensity. They want to know about any hole in the bottom of their boat.
Glossary (3)
predatory
VOCABULARYIntensely focused, like a hunter tracking prey
“when you point out a problem to them, they not only listen, but listen with an almost predatory intensity”
aerobic respiration
DOMAIN_JARGONOxygen-using energy production, efficient but slow to start
“The relationship between them is more like the relationship between the two kinds of respiration we can do: aerobic respiration, and the anaerobic respiration”
anaerobic respiration
DOMAIN_JARGONEnergy production without oxygen, quick but inefficient
“anaerobic respiration we inherited from our most distant ancestors”
Key People (1)
Collison brothers (Patrick and John)
(1988–)Irish entrepreneurs who founded Stripe
Concepts (3)
decision tree
CL_STRATEGYHierarchical structure of choices where high-level decisions constrain lower-level options
evolutionary biology
CL_SCIENCEStudy of how organisms change over time through natural selection
expected value
CL_ECONOMICSStatistical calculation of average outcome: probability times payoff for each scenario, summed
Synthesis
Synthesis
Migrated from Scholia