I was spending some time reading through my personal wiki during a flight home the other day and stumbled upon some notes around gumption that I took while reading Robert Pirsig’s Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s been years since I read the book, but I’m realizing I’ve incorporated a lot of these ideas into my work having forgotten the origin of them. These discoveries are one of the many joys that come from keeping a personal wiki!

I’m publishing a cleaned up version of my notes just in case someone else might find it useful (or maybe to inspire another reader of the book). Here’s a teaser:

Gumption is a term used to describe enthusiasm for your work. It’s the psychological gasoline that keeps you going.

Progress on a project is impossible without gumption, but when properly nurtured progress is impossible to avoid. The monitoring and preservation of gumption is the most important aspect of work.

Read the full page here: Gumption