I was talking to a dear friend lately—she recently picked up origami—so cool and what a great thing to try during shelter in place, I thought. During work video calls, colleagues also talk about the amazing new dishes they’ve tried out—it seems like everyone I’ve talked to has turned into Anthony Bourdain… making everything from squid ink pasta to seafood paella to strawberry shortcake (damn, my sweet tooth is itching for a piece).  Maybe “gourmet” cooking is something I should consider as well-- given my salmon and steak I threw in the oven this week seems so basic. Finally, another friend is using the current “down” time to invest in her business—seemingly taking the advice of the famed venture capitalist Marc Andreessen who in his recent article “It’s Time to build” called on inventors and entrepreneurs to use their creative energy to build something of value.

As I thought about it some more, I began to mildly scold myself—geez, how come you haven’t been doing channeling your inner Julia Childs, tired out a new business idea, or picked up an interesting hobby?! Should I buy an electric keyboard and re-learn how to play music? Once upon a time I played the piano and could actually play some Beethoven (or maybe it was Chopin). Geez, could this really me happening? Am I getting FOMO (fear of missing out), even during quarantine? Come on, FOMO is what’s supposed to happen when my friends are all out on a Friday night but I’m too exhausted so I stay in to watch Gossip Girl—but then regret the decision to be lame and wish I was out instead. Before the mild panic of my incompetence turned into a severe panic, a calmer version of me prevailed and I called an intervention to remind myself of some important lessons.

The first is an age old adage; you cannot judge a book by its cover. That gourmet three-course meal that my colleagues made, well that was one day out of the week… What about the other six days? For all I know the rest of the time, they were eating canned tuna and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (which used to be my favorite cereal until I realized exactly how much sugar was in it).  We should all know by now that seeing one foodie Instagram post doesn’t actually mean we can extrapolate that into someone’s entire life. Besides, I actually enjoy my basic meals… basic but still tasty… So should I really be that stressed that I haven’t turned into Anthony Bourdain or Julia Childs? (Pssh The correct answer is no).

The other key lesson I remembered is a saying by one of my favorite people… entrepreneur Derek Silvers who has the famous line “Hell yes or no.” As in, when deciding whether or not to do something… The answer is not yes or no—instead, if it’s not a “hell yes” then it should be a no—as in you should only commit to things that actually excite you. While I think that this should come with some caveats, I absolutely agree with the principle. I think often times we have a hard time saying no because we are afraid to hurt other people‘s feelings, or bored of our current state, or in general just don’t like confrontation— which just results in a bunch of things on our calendar that we feel lukewarm about. So if you are someone who has never enjoyed culinary mastery, then forcing yourself to start cooking during quarantine likely isn’t the right move and will only make you miserable. And if you’re like me, who likes structure and is pretty risk averse (the opposite qualities needed for an entrepreneur), you definitely should not be contemplating being a start-up founder—quarantine or no quarantine. And that’s totally ok—ask yourself what you really want to say hell yes to—regardless of whether it’s what the cool kids seems to be doing these days. For me, I’ve always been one to plan and rally friends for fun gatherings—whether it’s wine nights, food festivals, or potluck dinners—so I’ve taken the opportunity to start organizing virtual gatherings (clearly not the same, but still the semblance of what I love doing).

Finally, in startup land, there is the saying to “fail fast.” There is even a book written about it called Fail Fast, Fail Often written by 2 psychologists who teaches a course on it at Stanford. While I love psychologists and love recommending books on the blog—this one I’ll actually refrain from recommending—why read the book when the title already gives it all away—it’s like going to watch a movie where all the funniest parts were already given away in the previews (my apologies to the authors if you’re reading). However—absolutely agree with the notion—now is a great time to “fail” at new hobbies—in fact, spend less time thinking about the perfect hobby to try out and just do it, as Nike says best. For me, I’ve already failed fast (even before corona) at several things—I picked up The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley as it was recommended my one of my fave angel investors—unfortunately it didn’t light my world on fire so I abandoned ship after about 20% of the way through. I decided to give adult coloring books a try as they are supposed to be therapeutic—I got bored and gave up. I even tried several popular t.v. shows that almost everyone has been talking about--Tiger King, Love is Blind—both  terrible in my opinion, so I dropped them like a hot potato. One of my friends started watching this terrible t.v. series (by his own admission!) but he says he’s already committed 5 episodes so now he’s in it for good—if you read blog post #7, you should know about the sunk cost fallacy—and don’t fall for this brain malfunction. Therefore your challenge—should you choose to accept—try your hand at 3 (or 5 if you’re feeling real saucy) new things and abandon ship as quickly as possible on the ones that you’re just not that into.

Until then, maybe I’ll try my hand at jigsaw puzzling or better yet, I’ll try making bread, since I’m still a carb fiend while everyone seems to be going opposite direction with low carb dieting.