August 29, 2025

Smoke On The Water

Let’s say you want to get better at playing Smoke On The Water on guitar and you decide to practice every day for a month.

How do you decide how much to practice each day?

I see two obvious approaches:

1. On a time basis (e.g., every day, you practice for an hour)
2. On a results basis (e.g., every day, you practice until you can play the next four bars beautifully)

I guarantee you that the results-based approach will be more effective because it focuses on the desired outcome.

The time-based approach is a causal fallacy that encourages gaming of the system.

A professional musician is not rewarded based on the number of hours he or she spent practicing.

They are rewarded based on how effective they are at moving an audience.

Here’s the thing...

Your clients don’t care how many hours you put in over the years.

They only care how effective you are at delivering results.

Yours,

—J

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