TL-DR:

  • Sign up for goals you are 80% qualified for.
  • Progressively overloading over time results in compounding.

What is Progressive Overload?

If you are into strength training, and have followed any accomplished strength training expert, and you will inevitably have come across the principle called “Progressive Overload”.

The idea of Progressive Overload is simple: If a beginner can lift a specific weight for a given number of reps, they should consider adding a bit more weight to the bar: Continuously lifting the same weight won’t enhance their ability to lift heavier weights.

Personally, I find the concept of progressive overload compelling. It involves identifying your comfort zone, making efforts to step out of it without going so far that failure is imminent, but just enough to induce growth while retaining a meaningful chance for success.

Don’t be an Expert Beginner.

Staying in the comfort zone for an extended period can lead to being an Expert Beginner. An expert beginner possesses sufficient knowledge to tackle familiar problems, despite existing inadequacies and bad habits. However, an expert beginner avoids more challenging problems, either consciously or subconsciously. This prevents the awareness and therefore a correction, of these shortcomings. The lack of exposure to demanding problems hinders growth, leaving them incapable of overcoming harder challenges.

The 80% rule.

So, how far beyond your comfort zone do you dare to venture? I find it personally beneficial to take on challenges where I am approximately 80% qualified. Why 80 and not 75 or 83? No particular reason; 80 just resonates as a nice round figure.

I am pretty sure I picked up the 80% rule advice from one of the lectures by Dr. Andrew Ng.

Taking on tasks at that you are 80% qualified to tackle stretches your current limits and pushes them. Upon completing the task, you achieve 100% qualification, as you’ve just successfully accomplished it. It’s essentially a tautology. Consistently following the 80% rule will lead to the benefits compounding over time.

Compounding is very powerful but typically non-intuitive.

Personally, I find the 80% rule to be a valuable mental model when choosing the next side project or setting goals. It becomes particularly useful when evaluating job offers: being 80% qualified for a role provides a solid foundation for success while allowing enough headroom for personal growth. Anything below or beyond the 80% threshold sets the stage for failure, even if the potential failure scenarios vary widely.