Overhead - the multi-order effects of work and decisions

There are overhead costs to decisions and the work we do. Every project you say yes to implies multi-order effects on the commitments in your life. Overhead can be of administration type, where the admin work you get to do because of starting a new project adds to your already long list of admin tasks to attend to. It can also be of psychological type, where you get to fill your proverbial bucket of finite energy and willpower with an additional drop of water, when the bucket may be already filled with millions of drops of water, each producing lightning-fast thoughts that arise and pass away with each moment of your waking experience.

When you are already in a positive life situation, where you got here from a place lower in the hierarchy of your interest, the concept of overhead in decisions can begin to make a difference in your broader life, already filled with sometimes overwhelming responsibilities. If you are enjoying the journey of increasing your success in the domains you care about, the concept of overhead may fill you with a sharp sense of short-term joy because you now find yourself with something meaningful to do, added onto your small bucket of hundreds of drops.

For the former group of people, the seemingly predominant school of thought in this historical period advises that you practice saying “no” to more things because saying “yes” to more opportunities produces the multi-ordered overheads described above. For the latter camp, the predominant advice is to say “yes” to every opportunity that arises to increase your personal surface of luck and move your way up the hierarchies of the games you are playing. A different, more spiritual school of thought may posit that accepting the opportunities that arise in the course of your life is the way nature would want it—and you are an integral part of nature. So you may surrender your will to whatever chance arises in your life, and accept it and its overhead implications.

You may strike the balance among these (and other) schools of thought by forming your own mental model of how to make decisions in your life, and what amount of service for others versus service for yourself you intend to implement. Service for others can create fulfillment and a sense of philosophical meaning as you navigate through the days in your life. Service for yourself can allow you to recharge your energies and inquire within while practicing boredom and dealing with the possible monsters rising and vanishing within your thoughts and consciousness.

With this conceptual reflection, you are able to inspect your life situation and define a north star that can guide you through the decisions in your daily experience and how you intend to process them, depending on the current period of your life, future vision, and current mission.