Comments on: Synergy

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:01:44 +0000

Really good advice.

I always have a small notebook and almost always have my calendar with me– always have since college.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:55:24 +0000

The way I read it, it sounds like Trent’s talking about sort of a “self-syngergy” – the productivity of two hours of writing is more than the productivity of one hour of writing plus one hour of writing, just like, say, the deliciousness of peanut butter and chocolate is more than the deliciousness of peanut butter plus the deliciousness of chocolate.

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:47:49 +0000

Cooking at home is synergistic. Not only does one improve one’s skills, save money, etc but it provides quality time and relationship building with family. Trent’s children will have fond memories of their father cooking for them and the meals and good times spent together. We parent in much the same way that our parents parented. Trent’s children will be more likely to value preparing nutritious meals for their families as well. In the shorter term, Trent’s children will bring their friends home some day and having good food around will encourage youthful congregation in their home. Trent and his wife will get to know their children’s friends, hear what is happening in their lives and have a positive influence in the lives of the young people who visit thier home. They are creating the beginnings of what my husband and I call a ‘kid magnet’ home. As a parent, this is a good thing.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:19:49 +0000

It’s synergy as cooperation – synergy in the sense that you can be fulfilling more than one goal at a time – your several goals can be working together “synergistically” in one activity and thus produce a larger outcome than you might expect.

Oh, I think commenter #14 is referring to the book _Outliers_ – 10,000 hours of practice is outlined in there as what you need to really break a stride of expertise with something.

By: In the Money

In the Money — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:14:49 +0000

I agree with JD here in that you are not using the concept of synergy in the right way here. JD is right in defining it as “the whole is more than the sum of the parts.” Still, I really enjoyed your post. I think it is very nice that you can enjoy yourself doing the things you love. Maybe this concept is more leveraging the things you love to do to enhance your life and further build your skills.

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:19:32 +0000

So very true, although you didn’t mention the most obvious thing (to me)- playing a musical instrument.

I’m not a writer, but I’ve this same phenomenon in my life. Cooking at home has made me a better cook, and while I’ll never be a foodie, I know how to throw together a quick and tasty dinner. Also in my job I do a lot of SAS programming. When I started I “knew” how to program, but I was constantly getting frustrated by error messages. While I academically understood how SAS was supposed to work before, it took a year of pretty much daily programming before I truly understood how it worked and could use it efficiently.

Reminds me of that book… I think it’s called 10,000 hours where it takes 10,000 hours of practice at something to get really good at it.

By: Reinder Dijkhuis

Reinder Dijkhuis — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:11:00 +0000

I’ve managed to make my frugality, fitness, decluttering and foody obsessions synergistic by
forcing myself not to spend more than 20 Euro a week on food. I am eating mostly vegetarian food, emptying out my kitchen cabinets (a whole cabinet has been reclaimed for pans that used to be piled up under the sink), I’m not snacking because there’s nothing to snack on, and I’m forced to get creative with what I cook.

I’m beginning to think my running is also finally becoming synergistic in the sense that Trent is tlking about.

By: russds

russds — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:44:11 +0000

I love the idea of synergy. In fact, i recently started writing about how I’ve noticed that when my wife and i work with synergy we accomplish twice as much in half the time. It’s a great tool, and should utilized as much as possible.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:47:04 +0000

Writing for the examiner has been my thing recently. Your blog inspired me to start writing and now I can write about what interests me most–sexual health. You can make a little bit of money every month. It’s not a lot, but the better you get at putting articles together, the more money you make. I’m planning on buying a domain for my own blog one day but until then, I have this.

By: Jenzer

Jenzer — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:34:30 +0000

When I read this, I thought of the term “multi-purposing.” If you go to the Backwoods Home web site and look up the article “Simplifying Simplicity,” the author describes multi-purposing as “mak[ing] one activity serve several purposes.”

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:26:42 +0000

Ack… need an edit button…

Thought I’d chime in that it was a great article, and this is just semantics. I just re-read what I wrote, after hitting submit, that it might sound a little condescending and didn’t mean it that way.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:20:22 +0000

I gotta agree with J.D. because synergy isn’t being used correctly here.

In two examples, writing and cooking, you are practicing and developing a skill.

“I strive to fill my life with things I enjoy now that have long-term benefits down the road.”

Words that come to mind: efficient, fufilling, productive, multitask, and enrichment.

By: prodgod

prodgod — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:59:19 +0000

I was thinking the same thing, J.D.

But I love the article, anyway!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:28:28 +0000

@J.D. – No.

Perhaps Trent is engaging in a bit of poetic license.

By: J.D. Roth

J.D. Roth — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:14:20 +0000

Trent, I am very very confused by your use of the word “synergy” here. I don’t think it means what you think it means. Synergy is when two things blend together in new and exciting ways: “you got your peanut butter in my chocolate”, etc. I don’t have a name for the concept you’re describing, but it’s not synergy.

Synergy is quite literally the state where the whole is more than the sum its parts. It is not, as you say, “things that people enjoy in the now that also add value over the long term”.

(This reminds me of your recent tweet about declaring inbox zero when you actually meant you had declared email bankruptcy! Very different things.)

Am I missing something here?

By: Joan

Joan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:36:42 +0000

I made a commitment about two months ago to spend my free time doing things that I enjoy that are also productive or beneficial to my family.

Sometimes, that just means playing board games with my 9-year-old daughter instead of each of us doing our own thing.

One example: My biggest hobby is scrapbooking, which not only is FUN for me, it greatly reduces clutter – our photos from decades are getting organized and sorted – but it also blesses my family; we sometimes work together on albums, and we all, even my husband, enjoy sitting down and looking through them.

Another example is that I do math/logic puzzles to wind down before bed. They keep my mind sharp and are very relaxing, both more so than watching TV.

By: Eden Jaeger

Eden Jaeger — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:21:50 +0000

Great tips. There are a lot of things I want to get better at, but I don’t really put in the time on a regular basis to make that happen. I need to try to work these things into my daily routine.

For the ‘On Writing’ commenter- I just finished it about a week ago and absolutely loved it. It left me with the feeling that I should be pursuing that dream I’ve had for many years but always neglected because I never believed someone like me could really do it.

By: T'Pol

T'Pol — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:54:58 +0000

I recently got “on Writing” by Stephen King per your recommendation. It is truly inspiring. Just wanted to thank you!

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:22:16 +0000

Very true. If you dive far back into your archives as I have done, you can see all the little improvements over time. I’m not saying your old stuff is bad – far from it, but there is no disputing that as you get to more modern posts, they just keep getting better.

Writing synergy is real. I’ve only been blogging for a month now, but every post comes just that little bit easier. I started off with a middle but struggled for the beginning and an end. Now it just happens and to me at least, it makes sense and flows reasonably well.

Here’s to the next 5 years of TSD :)

Lee