At work, my team is in charge of the company’s website and all its pages. So far, most changes we make are based on stakeholder preference. For example, the boss of Product A thinks blue buttons result in more sales, so we change the button on Product A’s page to blue for her. Life is a lot like that: you may work, say, in a full-time, 9-5 job because you think it means more stability and ultimately, buys you a happier life.
My team wants to change how we make these decisions: we want a culture of experimentation. We can design the version of the page with the blue button, but instead of changing it for everyone, we set it up so that at random, only 50% of visitors see that version. The other half see the original version of the page (the control page). This is what’s known as an A/B test, and after some time, we can see what people with each version of the page do and let the data speak for itself. If more people do indeed buy shit with the blue button, great, we’ll use that. If not, original page it is.
It may mean more time spent upfront designing multiple versions of pages, but it results in far better decisions and higher clicks in the long run (and eventually higher profit). While we’re still in the process of transforming the culture, it’s already become a mental habit for us to catch ourselves asking which of two things would work better, and then to say “Only one way to find out!”
This mentality has been seeping into my personal life, which I noticed when I was talking to a friend the other day. I was telling him how I was considering applying to a smaller business, one which does something I care about and would love to contribute to. I realised that while it’d be nice to care about what I’m doing, it would probably also mean more work, given the smaller size of the business. I can’t say I’m passionate about my current job, but having the occasional quiet day – so quiet I can fuck around or do my own things – is pretty neat. My question then was “would I be happier if I cared about what I was doing but had to work harder?”
As soon as I noticed the type of question I asked (“would x or y be better”), I answered before he could, with – you guessed it, “Only one way to find out!” And so I turned that consideration into action by preparing my application for that other job.
In many ways, this concept isn’t profound. It’s another way of packaging “learn by doing”, a concept dad tried to ingrain in me long ago (with more success lately compared to when I was a kid). I do see a distinction though. I associate “learn by doing” with two things: One, learning how to do something (e.g. learning Python by actually coding things, not just reading a book about it). Two, learning from life experience. While this “life as an experiment” thing also draws on life experience, I feel it’s a bit more targeted. You have a question, usually involving “what would be better for me” in some way. If there are multiple options, you make plans to try out both, and see for yourself.
Hmmm, anchovy pizza sounds interesting, but so does quattro formaggi. Which would I prefer? Try one now, and the other another time. I learned a lot about my food preferences this way, and it let me branch out from pizza and burgers and become a more adventurous eater. By regularly trying new things, I kept breaking assumptions I had about my likes and dislikes, until I stopped assuming. I’ve recently come to realise that you can test entire life situations this same way too. It just takes longer.
If I succeed in my application to that smaller company, I can work there for a while, and then see whether I prefer having more work I care about, or less work but not really giving a shit. If it turns out I prefer having less, I can rest easy knowing that, and find a job like my current one again. Of course, unlike an A/B test, you can’t experience both life situations at once (and if someone else lives them, their preference might be different from yours). But you’ll still be a lot smarter trying both things and not just the one.
Inspired by Iceland and Spain and frugal folk, I’ve recently started to look into working a four-day work week (at 80% pay). The closer I got to asking my boss (after doing the math and realising I could already do it), the more questions crept to mind, like “Will I enjoy my lifestyle as much?” “Will I find better things to do with that extra day?” “Will I feel lazy for it?” In the end, there’s only one way I’ll know. So I’ll ask (and report the results back to you).
Would I prefer living here or in Canada? I can ask people that have lived in both places all I want, but my curiosity will never be satisfied until I pack my bags and go live over there for some time. Maybe I’ll soon find out that nothing beats Melbourne, but at least I’ll have three things: a greater appreciation for Melbourne when I return, all the life experiences to look back on from my time abroad, and a satisfied curiosity.
I often write about food, exercise, and sleep on this blog. What if you encounter two conflicting ideas about how to eat? And you don’t know how to tell misinformation from fact? You could fret about it until the cows come home. Or, you could follow one source’s advice for a week or a month, and then the other’s. See how you feel. Not just during and directly after meals (lest you think that a sugar rush is something to seek out), but how you feel in general. Between meals. With which diet do you feel less hungry? More energetic?
As I turned 17, I occasionally forced myself to eat oats, weetbix, or muesli for breakfast, with fruits. Flavour-wise, it was quite the downgrade from those delicious nougat pillows (translated literally from German – I imagine they have a different name here) I had for most of my life up to then, but soon, something strange happened. Suddenly, I felt terribly shaky whenever I went back to the sweet cereals. I never noticed it before because it was the only thing I knew. But by trying a healthier food, I then realised the damage I was doing before. Over time, I grew to like these new foods too, so I felt less deprived of pleasure.
There are less carby things that oats or weetbix, but they were miles better than whatever pure sugar I had before. And I then only learned through experimentation that there were breakfasts that made me feel even better. You’ll never see the issues with what you do until you try a different way. And the converse works just the same: if you try something else and it turned out to be worse, you can that much better appreciate the current way you do things.
My most recent example is that I quit drinking this way. For a long time, I noticed that I don’t seem to enjoy drinking the same way others do. I love an ice-cold beer, but I don’t feel better. I just feel sleepy. Whether I have heaps of shots in a row or slowly sip on a cocktail, I noticed over and over again that, once I had my first drink, I had less social energy that before it. So I decided to experiment: I had a BBQ coming up, so I thought “fuck it, let’s dedicate ourselves to ONE event without a drop of alcohol. If it’s weird to not hold anything or I feel no different, drink again next time.” So I did, felt better, and never looked back. You can make all sorts of assumptions about what will happen, but you can’t know for sure until you do.
I’m only getting started with this approach. I’ve done a lot of incidental learning this way over the years (as with what foods to eat), but I want to practice this more and more. Working for another company and four days a week are two things I’m about to find out, and there are way more examples I’d like to find out over the years. Maybe, by posting them here publicly, I’ll feel that much more accountable to trying them:
- Working as a life coach (in other words, not just comparing jobs within the corporate world, but entirely outside of it too)
- Living in different countries
- Avoiding screens completely before bed for an hour or two, and seeing whether I sleep better
- Going full keto, and seeing how I feel and function
- Turning my mask videos into a full-time gig to see whether I enjoy it less
The list goes on! So, dear reader, what have you learned over the years by just saying “fuck it” and trying it? What piques your curiosity and would you like to still try?