- [[Productivity]] [[Success]] [[Taking Risks]] [[Zettel]] [[Work]] - Last Updated: [[2020-12-16]] - Date Created: [[2020-08-30]] - Source: [[15 Lessons that Improved My Life]] by [[Ali Abdaal]] - "Two different approaches to risk or change. **Window openers** have to see through the window before they open it. **Door knockers** knock on many doors without knowing what's on the other side." - Door-knocking opportunities occur more frequently than do window-opening opportunities. How often does an opportunity present it self where all the advantages and disadvantages are clearly identified, where information is perfect and available, and where all you need to do is decide whether you want it or not? - More often, opportunities show up that are surprising and unexpected, that present risks that we might not even be able to foresee yet, that promise rewards that we never knew we wanted. Door-knocking is the only way we're going to be able to capitalize on these opportunities, so we may as well start now. - We only need to __knock__ on doors, not open them and go through them in one fell swoop. Exploring other opportunities or different paths is okay. Apply for that interesting-sounding job in another field. Throw your name in the ring for the Green Card lottery. - You don't have to decide to enter the room at the moment of knocking. Knocking just means exploring an opportunity, so you really don't have much to lose. The worst that can happen is that you decide you don't want to go into that room after all. - To some extent, this is the same approach that [[Learning in public]] advocates. Learning in public, in full view of everyone else, implies that you're not just looking from the outside in; you've fully committed to the activity you're learning, even if it's just temporarily. You've knocked on the door and entered the room. - Being a door-knocker also works well with being a [[Polymath]]: it encourages the exploration of other possibilities and other lines of work. A polymath is someone who is interested in many things, and also someone who learns new things even without an initial goal. When you knock on doors, you don't yet know where it will lead, and you can't formulate a plan for what you'll do when you get there - until you get there. -