Just keep doing the bit (Karma Yoga Edition)

16 Jun, 2024

I have been preparing for job interviews (looking to get into genai+backend roles you know). I like building projects and learning new stuff but job search is something that scares me. Partly because of the various uncertainties involved like places to apply, strenous interview processes, where I would work next, what kind of work I will get. It’s not the first time I am going through this process but it sucks (a lot in the beginning atleast). The other aspect is the grind.

Translation: I am not afraid of slap sir, I am afraid of job search

I could be solving some leetcode problems right now, I could be applying right now… I have many things to do even outside job search - oh no - fuck fuck fuck. That’s sort of the state of my mind - atleast in the background. Till I don’t build some momentum, it’s easy to fall into procrastination loops.

Source of comic with analysis

Anyways, I will stop coping now. This post is not about job search It’s about doing the bit. Job search involves lots of randomness so I think it’s an apt premise for this post.

Yesterday, a friend posted the above meme which I had created an year back from a video (discussion on this later) and that acted as a good reminder of the ‘focus on the process idea’. I casually post 'just keep doing the bit' and 'just poast' when I am doing stuff and I am glad things circled back to me when I required the reminder.

So in the spirit of getting reminded, it’s time for me to “delve” into Karma Yoga and the various forms of memes it pops up in on the internet.

The original teaching from Bhagavad Gita:

From Bhagavad Gita chapter 2, verse 47: You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

It means:

We have the right to do our duty, but the results are not dependent only upon our efforts.

A number of factors come into play in determining the results—our efforts, destiny (our past karmas), the will of God, the efforts of others, the cumulative karmas of the people involved, the place and situation (a matter of luck), etc.

Now if we become anxious for results, we will experience anxiety whenever they are not according to our expectations. So Shree Krishna advises Arjun to give up concern for the results and instead focus solely on doing a good job.

The fact is that when we are unconcerned about the results, we are able to focus entirely on our efforts, and the result is even better than before.

Above explanation is clear but let’s try to understand it better.

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doing gita-posting and western bros were confused Source on X

Important and challenging tasks may have your mind spinning with potential outcomes and uncertainties. As you try to navigate through the maze of possibilities, you find yourself overwhelmed by the branches of first-order, second-order, and third-order effects that seem to grow endlessly in your mind.

There are several external factors into play - your efforts aren’t going to be the sole factor for your success or failure. Uncertainty, luck are different ways of referring to these external factors and the combination of these leads to what we call randomness. You can’t wrap your head around randomness. You should not try too.

Life is random - from the moment you are born (your parents, your geography, your intelligence, your appearance). Life is unfair. Don’t try to balance things in your head. You will end up miserable.

All you can do is maximise your surface area to get favoured by randomness - serendipity. This means you research ways both conventional means as well as the unconventional means (e.g hidden alpha by design by nearcyan) to maximise serendipity and then you put in the work in those directions i.e focus on the process / bit.

Thread on X

Some of these are obvious and high return on investment while others have low chance of success. Some are in much control of yours, others not so. Be mindful of the external factors - beyond our control - that we process as randomness.

Account for these and then focus on putting effort on things that are in your control. Identify your prescribed duties. This is the bit. Once you focus on the bit, anxiety looms away. Flow state starts happening. Dopamine starts to flow in anticipation of progress. Just keep doing the bit. Nothing matters more than the bit.

You will have intrusive thoughts on the way. Thoughts to give up. You will have to notice them and not indulge. Redirect back to the bit.

There will be thoughts of failure. Thoughts of risk due to side effects of your success, potential 2nd order dangerous outcomes of your efforts. Think Oppeinheimer.

Maybe roon saw sparks of AGI and had thoughts of impending doom. But you gotta stick to the bit.

You will often fail or not perform upto expectations despite working hard. Sometimes, you may get results even without putting much effort (serendipity). That’s how things work. My interpretation for “… nor be attached to inaction.” is it means to you should neither get complacent on success nor get demotivated due to failure. Inaction is slow death.

You can sort of internalise this via posting on social media like Twitter or Youtube where there are algorithms at play. A better but much harder way would be to land in the market - either you do job search or you run your own startup and search for product-market-fit (super hard mode difficulty). Life partner search also sort of falls in this category. Search problems are really hard honestly lol.

Origins of just keep doing the bit and other posts

where it all started.
just keep doing the bit. pic.twitter.com/XCjNoysHq2

— sankalp (@dejavucoder) June 9, 2024

I would not have done justice to this topic if I don’t mention the original video from Tiktok by @ Antipsivision. I had transcribed this video to create the meme. I think it perfectly captures the sticking to the process teaching.

Source

But what’s the bit she is talking about?

I think @Antipsivision got the idea from “commit to the bit”

From a reddit comment

A "bit" originally refers to an improv comedy routine, or joking around to try and get a laugh, or more broadly something lighthearted that you do because you find it funny.

In the middle of a bit, you can either drop the act and go back to being serious/earnest, or "commit to the bit" and keep going with it and elaborating further on the joke.

There are two major interpretations - playing a certain role (roleplaying) and the other one is sticking to the process (Karma Yoga). I believe that roleplaying is part of Karma Yoga too as you have to stick to a process to role play.

All of us play different roles in life - we all roleplay - our jobs, to different friends, online, relationships… Things like building an online brand or being a niche poster are all role-playing. You have to stick to a set of things and ideas you post about.

Talking about being roles that are self-less, think of parenting, think of helping others. Our parents commit to the bit for so long and self-lessly that we start taking them for granted. It’s funny but no one gets it at this point but that’s the bit.

When you do the bit in silence for a long time without hesitation, people may even forget that it’s a bit. Most people do not become an overnight success, they have been commited to their bit for a long time.

On surrendering - you are an instrument

Even without your participation, all the warriors gathered here will die. Therefore, arise, Arjuna; conquer your enemies and enjoy the glory of sovereignty. I have already slain all these warriors; you will only be my instrument. B.G. 11:34

Part of the commitment to bit is surrendering to the universe. To surrender means to accept that there are several external factors at play. Accept your responsibilities despite personal reservations and ego. Put your head down and work. You don’t really have an option so stick to the bit.

So stop complaining and get in the chariot Arjuna / get in the robot Shinji.

Get in the fucking robot Shinji!

Just do stuff

Yacine frequently posts “you can just do stuff”. I don’t know how to explain but I subconsciously associate this idea with doing the bit.

Forget overthinking, forget about outcomes. Literally just do stuff. Doing stuff leads to more ideas. Doing stuff helps you know what you want and don’t want. It will lead to an aim.

Literally just go to X.com and search “just do stuff from:yacinemtb”. Honestly these posts require an entire blog post of their own.

Just wake up and do stuff like karpathy

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Your bit doesn’t have to be around goals all the time

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Your bit can be a routine. It doesn’t have to be connected to an aim. It doesn’t need to change the world. Some bits/processes are to keep ourselves sane. To just engage the mind, to be in the present moment. It’s about carving order from the chaos of the world. Order is purpose.

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Finally to end this post. Thanks for reading, please upvote/share if you liked.

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