The Mindset of Open Options

We live in a culture that prizes keeping one’s options open. It’s better to be maximally flexible, the popular reasoning goes so that we can respond to any opportunity at a moment’s notice. Committing to anything, even for just a few months, locks away other possibilities, and is thus undesirable.

But even if you want a more varied life, you still need to commit to projects for bursts of time to make progress. The person who commits to three-month projects may not achieve mastery. Still, they will get further than the person who merely thinks about doing those projects.