1st and 5th Gear
Does taking a selfie while biking cancel out the fact that I was wearing a helmet?
Do you ever have the feeling of wanting to move faster because there are others around you? I notice this for myself on the highway; if I’m the only car in sight, I’ll go closer to the speed limit and be happy with where I’m headed. But the closer other cars get, the more there’s a pressure to either move out of the way (and let 130km/h do their thing) or zoom past the ‘slow’ cars in the middle lane and shake my head at them.
I think it’s partially reflected in how I view cars & driving — I can’t remember the last time I ‘went for a ride’; it’s always a functional activity to go from Point A to Point B. A better parallel is walking downtown, where I have the same frustration when commuting to the gym, but feel more at ease when I’m calling a friend and going for a walk.
My career has been oddly similar to driving. Since high school, I’ve always had a “Point A-B” mentality. Getting into a good college, then getting good internships, then starting a business, etc. Everything I do has a purpose and a destination, and I’ve typically crushed it at getting there as fast as possible.
I’ll call this “5th gear” — working efficiently and moving quickly to the destination / goal. In this post, I want to unpack how I’ve operated in 5th gear, and how I’m viewing my upcoming transition to what I’ll call 1st gear. This is an evolution of my last post on Mastery vs Adventure, so if you haven’t checked that out already, please give it a read.
For those who are skimming, key points / summary below:
I want to maximize my potential and be ‘ahead’, which means being on the most productive gear (5th gear) of my metaphorical bicycle
Sometimes I need to switch from 5th gear (solving problems) to 1st gear (finding problems) when I hit a hill in my career. This takes a different mindset and I don’t always see the hill.
Biking without a purpose (1st gear but on a flat surface) can reveal a lot of things that I never noticed. A faster route from Point A to Point B, a rest stop that doesn’t reset my progress, etc.
‘Bike rides’ don’t last forever and focusing on Point A/B (purpose) means I might miss the intrinsic value of ‘biking’, as I’m too focused on an outcome
There’s always the fear that I’m on a stationary bike and I’m expending energy / time without a purpose — but simply asking myself this question helps with reflection
Being the fastest
One of my biggest fears on a day-to-day is that I’m not accomplishing my full potential. Whatever I’m doing (work, personal, etc.), I want to be as effective as it as I can be. Notice that while it often yields comparisons, it’s more of an internal battle — if Trevor made $10 yesterday but could’ve made $12, Trevor today will be disappointed with him.
A lot of my friends who fall into the ‘optimizer / Type A’ category echo this sentiment. They want to get to Point B the fastest, so that they can set a new destination and be further ahead. I remember getting a lot of praise for being ‘younger’ to do something (get a specific job, start a business, etc.). While this happens less as I age, there’s still a feeling of being ‘ahead’ of the pack.
I also took pride in being ‘ahead’ not to due being the smartest, or working the hardest, but rather working the smartest. Taking the path of least resistance to a given outcome, and constantly asking “what is a faster/better route” when I started to encounter any meaningful resistance.
In my opinion, this is the embodiment of 5th gear. Assuming your bicycle has speeds 1-5, by being in 5th gear, you are peddling the least while making the biggest strides / advances. This also echoes the concept of problem-solving; give me a destination and I’ll get there. But what happens when there isn’t a destination?
Finding the next problem
You can’t always be in 5th gear when cycling. The basic look at this is “if you’re always in 5th gear, you’ll burn out” but that’s not the way I see it. Instead, I would look more at the situation I’m in… When I’m sprinting at a problem but realize I’ve been tackling it the wrong way, I equate this to approaching a hill.
To beat a hill, you need to be in 1st gear. You peddle more but on a shorter track (wheel?) but you don’t exert as much energy and make similar progress as taking that hill in 5th gear. If we equate 5th gear to ‘solving problems’, then 1st gear is ‘finding problems’.
Whatever this thing is called (Unsplash - 2019)
The goal in 1st gear is to be in discovery (explore) mode. The smaller wheel rotations are equivalent to small experiments — unlike 5th gear, where you’re sprinting towards an outcome, 4-6 months at a time, 1st gear means that every week could look (feel) drastically different since you’re evaluating a lot of different options.
This takes a very different skill set & mindset than 5th gear. It involves being more introspective, asking questions about purpose / goals, and being patient with when the outcome will arrive. It may feel like I’m not making progress, especially when I see people in 5th gear going much faster, even going downhill (tailwinds, getting outcomes, etc.).
It’s also hard to shift gears, because you don’t always see the hill. Sometimes I’ll peddle with the same intensity as I had in 5th gear, and get frustrated when I’m not making the progress I was before. It’s also a weird feeling… Taking longer to walk to the gym tomorrow, without knowing why that’s the case (i.e. that the problem / destination has changed), is a mind bender.
Coasting
Are you following me thus far? If you are, I might be about to lose you. Using the analogy of the bicycle, I want to throw a new (meta) scenario at you. Instead of thinking of 5th gear as Point A to Point B, and 1st gear as tackling a hill, I want you to imagine that you’re on a flat surface with no end in sight.
You can peddle hard in 5th gear or you can peddle a lot less in 1st gear. Naturally, you might shift to 1st gear (exploration) since it doesn’t make sense to exert energy without purpose. But at the same time, if you’re not in 1st gear for a reason (i.e. to get to an outcome - finding a problem), then why are you on the bicycle…?
Lots of people bike for fun. Some people do intense rides to test their cardio and try and beat their last time. Others do it to explore their city / area, where they see more than being in a car but cover more ground than walking. If it’s truly a casual bike ride, you might take the same route you’ve done 100 times but notice things you didn’t before, because you were too focused on going from Point A to Point B.
A lot of these realizations may be practical. Maybe it’s finding a faster route from Point A to Point B for future rides, when you are trying to get somewhere as fast as possible. For longer rides (journeys), you may discover new rest stops that allow you to regain your energy, without having to restart your ride or cut it short.
It’s clear that 1st gear - or coasting - has a lot of utility beyond just tackling a hill. When you’re not expending all your energy towards achieving an outcome, you can accomplish a lot.
A Finite Ride
No bike ride lasts forever. Lack of energy (burnout?) may be the #1 cause, but even in 1st gear, it’ll get dark, you’ll have other commitments to attend to, etc. And when you’re no longer able to ride your bike, or you’re only able to do it with a purpose (Point A to Point B), what will you miss the most?
Despite all the things you can do by riding a bike, there’s also an important segment to remember. A handful of people just bike because they like the feeling of biking. Not exercising, going from Point A to Point B, exploring, but just biking.
I recently had a knee injury from soccer and it’s sidelined me for the season. Now that I can weight bear on it + do most of my day-to-day activities, the main thing I miss is just being able to play the game. Not win / compete, get cardio, etc. I realized I can supplement those things with other experiences (stationary bike, playing video games, etc.). But I can’t supplement the feeling I get when I’m playing soccer.
Conclusion
I’ll end this post with another prompt, which this cute video of Bob the Hamster reminds me of. What happens if you realize that you’re on a stationary bicycle? You’re expending energy trying to get from Point A to Point B, trying to accomplish a specific goal that you can see in front of you, but something happens and you realize you were never moving.
In this example, you never get the enjoyment of being in 1st gear or the enjoyment of just being on a bicycle. You’ve simply expended energy and time without accomplishing anything notable.
I don’t think I’m on a stationary bicycle, but the analogy of being on a bike has helped to challenge my natural next step and what I think I should be doing. Even if it doesn’t change my course, the act of asking why I’m on a bike, which gear I’m in, and whether I’m heading to a destination or just biking, has helped to open my perspective to options beyond the default path.