Interview
Off the Clock #6: Starting Small with Conor Barnes
- Connor Barnes plans to complete editing his novel by the end of the current year to a state where it can be sent to an agent, with an expectation that it will be forthcoming sometime in 2025, though he acknowledges a possibility of sending an unfinished draft if necessary.
- Regarding productivity and ADHD, Barnes notes that while medication may not provide a massive effect in any single instance, it potentially offers sufficient executive function to utilize external tools, a hypothesis he has not yet validated through a controlled experiment.
- Barnes intends to maintain the use of a calendar for external discipline, citing a month-long boss-mandated trial that significantly improved his life, and expects to continue running productivity experiments based on their results.
- In terms of career and relationships, Barnes predicts that status quo bias remains strong but argues people should be more willing to quit, citing a Freakonomics study where individuals reported doing quite a bit better six months after leaving, despite uncertainty regarding long-term outcomes.
- Barnes advises filtering ideas by looking for reasons not to pursue them, noting that most ideas are not worth engaging with and that individuals should avoid those who are perpetually aggrieved or angry due to the potential for them to be harmful or energy-draining.
- To build discipline and self-trust, Barnes plans to make promises to himself rarely but treat them seriously, such as writing 100 short stories, and expects that external accountability, including weekly metrics with a boss, is more reliable than relying solely on internal motivation.
- Writing remains the primary focus of his time and a source of joy, with plans to continue writing daily, sharing short stories with Bella for feedback, and publishing some works on Substack and in online magazines without using AI to edit to preserve personal happiness.
- Barnes expects that younger people and those from non-technical backgrounds like classics may underrate the utility of their skills, predicting that committing to a problem as the most important will likely drive creativity and finding a way to contribute, even if the specific knowledge is not directly applied.
- A key strategy for problem-solving involves explaining issues to others or a "rubber duck" to conceptualize the problem better, a method Barnes expects to remain a core part of his advisory and work processes.