What I Learned About Exponential Growth While Knitting This Scarf
Over the last two days, I taught myself how to finger-knit with loopy yarn.
Loopy yarn is famously regarded (in crafting circles anyway) as super easy to work with and so fast and so fun.
So I went in thinking I would have the time of my life!
And let me tell you what actually happened, and what I learned from it:
First 60 minutes
Effort: 10/10 | Output: 0/10 | Feeling good: 0/10
I found a written tutorial and tried to follow what it said. It didn’t work.
I found a video tutorial and tried to follow that. It didn’t work.
I tried working in smaller pieces (10 loops, then 5 loops, then just 3 loops). It didn’t work.
I tried my own technique that I made up. It REALLY didn’t work.
I googled to see if I could just crochet this yarn like I usually do. I couldn’t.
This was my end result after an hour: (And yes, I was ready to give up.)
Next 90 minutes
Effort: 10/10 | Output: 1/10 | Feeling good: 1/10
I tried another video tutorial and this time it clicked. I figured out how to do this.
I made a few rows. I realized I had made a mistake. I undid everything I had done.
I made a few rows again. I realized I had made a DIFFERENT mistake. I undid everything I had done.
I made a few rows again. This time, I had avoided both of the mistakes. And I was tired and ready to go to bed.
End result: I had made, taken out, and re-made this same set of rows three times:
Next 60 minutes
Effort: 5/10 | Output: 5/10 | Feeling good: 5/10
I sat down the next day to try again.
I knew how to finger-knit. I knew the mistakes I needed to avoid, and how to avoid them. So I carefully paid attention and counted my stitches and got to work.
It took a while, and a lot of counting, but I finally got to this (half a scarf!):
Last 30 minutes
Effort: 1/10 | Output: 10/10 | Feeling good: 10/10
Now I’d gotten the hang of it. I knew how to finger-knit. I’d figured out how to avoid mistakes without needing to pay as much attention. I was finally in the groove.
And I whipped out the second half of the scarf in 30 minutes while cheerfully enjoying a drink to boot 🥂
Final output (hooray!):
Are we going to make a chart about this? HELL YES we are!
Let’s look at how my effort, output, and feeling good tracked over time while I was learning something new:
For the first 150 minutes that I was trying…
More than 60% of the time I was working on this project…
I was putting in a LOT of effort, not feeling very good, and having very little to show for it.
Then for ANOTHER 60 min…
Another 25% of the time I spent…
It was all kind of “meh.” Felt okay. Got some stuff done. Effort matched output, and it felt fine.
It was only in the LAST 30 min…
In the last ~12% of the time I spent…
I got all the benefits ALL AT ONCE. It just clicked. I hit exponential growth.
And I got more done in 30 minutes, with LESS effort and MORE fun, then I had in the previous 3.5 hours.
And now I’ve figured it out. Now, for the whole rest of my life, any time I finger-knit with loopy yarn, it’s going to look like the end of this graph.
Our brains are not good at “getting” exponential growth.
Our brains think linearly. When you’re in the “minute 0-150” range, your brain will think “It’s just going to be like this forever.”
It will extrapolate the line in a linear way and tell you that progress will always be slow and difficult.
And when you think progress will always be slow and difficult, you will want to give up.
But your brain is WRONG about this!
Progress is NOT linear. Very often, progress is surprisingly exponential. You try, you try, you try, you have very little to show for it, and then suddenly it clicks. And then it’s a breeze.
Why? Because this is how your brain is designed.
Your brain wants to preserve energy and be as efficient as possible.
The last thing it wants to do is expend LOTS of energy every day being super deliberate and effortful. It wants to be in flow and in “automatic mode” as much as possible!
So when you keep being really deliberate and effortful about something, consistently, over a period of time…
At some point, your brain will come in and make it automatic.
It’ll be like: “Enough!! Omg! This is taking SO much energy! We’re stepping in and automating this.”
And that’s when you get to the end of the graph.
That’s the fun part — where all of a sudden, you’re getting more done in less time and it feels super easy. It’s because your brain has stepped in and moved the task from “deliberate” to “automatic,” and you get to reap the benefits.
If you just show up and keep trying, this process is literally INEVITABLE.
You don’t even need to succeed that much. You DON’T have to get it right. You DON’T have to see steady progress. It’s okay if you get it wrong every single time.
What matters is that you put deliberate effort toward the goal on a consistent basis.
That’s it. Mess it up 1000 times, it doesn’t matter. You just need to keep trying.
And after you try enough times, consistently, your brain WILL step in and automate.
The only thing that disrupts this process is if you stop trying.
If you do minute 0-60. Then take a break for 3 months. Then do minute 0-60 again. Then take a break for another 2 months. Etc. etc.
A lack of consistency will mess this process up. And you’ll go back to Minute 0 again and again and again.
And the only reason you’ll be inconsistent is if you believe your brain’s faulty prediction that progress will be slow and difficult forever.
No, it won’t. Progress will be surprising and exponential if you just keep showing up.
This process is exactly how I learned:
How to make Excel models
How to easily stop eating when I’ve had enough food (was 100% convinced this was impossible for me)
How to coach
How to send emails 3x a week without massive anxiety
How to post on Instagram 5x a day without massive anxiety (which was a huge step up from 3x a week emails)
How to actually believe that I might be good enough and stop beating myself up (still working on this one)
How to feel and process difficult emotions rather than avoid them (still working on this one)
Whether it’s a skill with a tangible output (like a scarf or an Excel model)…
Or an intangible output (like believing different thoughts and feeling better)…
The same principle applies.
Show up and try try try try try.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a face-flopping fail EVERY SINGLE TIME. The outcome doesn’t matter. The EFFORT is what matters.
Because if you direct deliberate effort toward it enough times on a consistent enough basis, your brain WILL take over and automate the skill.
It will suddenly just click, all at once.
And then you get to reap the rewards forever.
And the only thing that can stop you is if you don’t show up to try.
What would you do, if you knew that you were guaranteed success? If you knew that, without fail, you would get it and it would come easily and it would even be super fun?
You probably have a whole list of those things.
So pick something and start showing up :)
PS: I know. You can know this intellectually all you want. And your brain may STILL put up a big toddler-tantrum fight every single day when it’s time to try. So if you want some help to get this done, come talk to me :)
📸 Instagram | 💌 Newsletter | 👋🏽 New? Start here