Trying, and why it sucks · 8:34am Jul 12th, 2018
'Trying' implies stakes, a failure state, and a level of engagement on the part of the try-er. You want to 'win'. You do it by either achieving some objective set of criteria, or (more commonly) by avoiding the failure state for the duration of the activity. You want to 'win', but it's still possible to 'lose'. You can even set up the rules in such a way that you can never win, even if everyone around you thinks you did 'okay'. You still lost.
'Trying' also implies a level of strategy and forethought. How to achieve. I've fallen into the trap many times, where I get wrapped up in planning to the point where nothing actually gets done. It's circular: you plan up to a point, then realize that your newest bit of plan contradicts an older bit, or doesn't really mesh well with what you've got so far, so you need to re-do or re-write everything to sync up. The more time you spend planning something, the less likely you are to accomplish it. The rule only applies to an extent, but if you do what I just described, try not doing that.
See, if you don't try, you can't fail. That's not to say you should never do anything; on the contrary, do away. Just don't try. You learn by doing, not by trying. If you made a mistake, you don't have to look through your plans to see where something went wrong. You won't be super-discouraged by failure, because you weren't trying to achieve anything in particular.
At least, that's how I see things.