Why solving for what’s easily explained winds up making things hard

Did you know that Warren Buffett advises against using a schedule? That way, he argues, you just do what’s most important at any given time.

Buffet is as celebrated as Elon Musk when it comes to a certain kind of success, but I’d be willing to bet you’ve heard more about how to implement Musk’s five-minute interval schedule than Buffet’s advice to avoid scheduling entirely.

The reason for that discrepancy is the same reason that 98% of productivity advice sounds the same. It’s the reason so much of this advice is written by and for the same types of people who have succeeded in the same types of industries. It’s also why this advice is counterproductive for a significant percentage of smart, ambitious people who want to be able to build their things with more focus and direction.

It’s a problem that’s hiding in plain sight, and it becomes visible as soon as we shift our perspective a little. Consider:

Which do you think is easier to teach — how to break your day up into five-minute increments or how to reproduce whatever is happening in Warren Buffet’s brain when he surveys a vast financial empire and selects the most important thing to focus on in the next hour?

Yep, it’s the five-minute-increment thing.

I call this teachability bias, and I see its pernicious effects on my clients, mentees, and students every day. It has created a kind of cultural tunnel vision around what it means to work well that’s crushing our productivity, our creativity, and our spirits.

Let’s get out of the tunnel and into the light.