Test the World: Trading Choice for Time
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- —
Dicks argues that rule followers are the least productive people in the world, because obeying unenforced rules and unnecessary expectations costs time that is never recovered. His method is empirical: rather than assuming a rule matters, quietly stop complying and see whether anything happens. For 24 years he has written 'upright' in the position field of school forms and no one has ever mentioned it — proof the field is irrelevant. Roughly half the administrative tasks he skips are never chased. When someone does object, he complies cheerfully and now knows the rule is real. Underneath sits the insight from a kindergarten corner: the worst outcome of breaking most rules is trading choice for time, a price you can decide in advance whether to pay.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Name the rule you're assuming is real
Pick a specific compliance cost — an administrative form, a field on a timesheet, a parking convention, a process expectation — and notice that you have never actually verified anyone enforces or reads it.
Watch out Restrict this to arbitrary bureaucratic and social rules. Dicks is explicit that he is not proposing anyone commit crimes.
- 2
Run a low-stakes test
Don't argue the rule — quietly stop obeying it, in a form where being caught costs almost nothing. Writing 'upright' where the form asks for your position is the model: fully visible, entirely harmless, and diagnostic.
Pro tip The best tests are ones you can repeat for years without anyone being harmed if you're wrong.
- 3
Wait and watch for enforcement
Let time pass and see if anyone notices. Silence is data: no one reading a field for 24 years is a signal that the question is irrelevant. About half of the administrative tasks Dicks skips are never mentioned and never affect his job.
- 4
Comply immediately when corrected
If someone does say you need to do that thing, the honest response is 'oh my gosh you're right, I'll do it next time'. Now you know that rule is real and enforced, at no cost. Dicks is a believer in being honest and not lying about what he did.
Pro tip Being caught cheerfully is cheaper than never testing.
- 5
Price the worst case before deciding
Ask what will actually happen — usually a teenage lifeguard asking you to move, a ticket, a note, or an hour of detention doing homework you'd have done anyway. Then choose knowingly: you are trading choice for time.
Pro tip Distinguish 'feedback from your boss on your performance' from 'trouble'. They are not the same event.
- 6
Reclaim the time and exploit the slack
Cut every corner you can, because your life and time are too precious to be absorbed by unnecessary bureaucracy. Where a system is visibly disorganised, treat it as opportunity — if they can't track their own stuff, they can't track you.
Watch out Systems that are genuinely well run will catch you; test them once and adjust.
In the wild
Every time Dicks does extra work as a teacher he must fill out a timesheet with a heading — his name, and his position. He is presumably supposed to write 'teacher'. Instead he has written 'upright' for 24 years. Nobody has ever said a word to him about it. He reads that silence as a definitive result: the field is a rule he's supposed to satisfy, but by answering it absurdly and going unchallenged he has proven no one ever looks at it and no one has ever cared.
→ A 24-year running experiment demonstrating that a mandatory field is entirely unread.
The Lake Club parking lot fills up, and the auxiliary lot is far away, so Dicks parks on the grass beside it. His children, who are rule followers, find this crazy. He points out who is actually in charge: not police, and there are no meter maids. The worst realistic outcome is a teenage lifeguard asking him to move, at which point he'll apologise and park elsewhere. He has done this for four years and no one has ever said a word.
→ Four years of reclaimed walking time, at an unrealised worst case of one polite request to move.
Trinity College had no teaching program, but a consortium let students take a class at another school. Dicks went to the neighbouring all-women's college and asked to take five education classes there alongside three English classes at Trinity. They said the consortium was really only for a class you couldn't fit at your home school — but nothing in the book said he couldn't take as many as he wanted. When the administrator said 'nobody does that' and called it a loophole he was exploiting, he said yes, now you understand.
→ He graduated with an English degree and a teaching degree simultaneously, while working full time at McDonald's.
Common mistakes
Reading feedback as trouble
Dicks's friend Jenny said she got 'yelled at' and 'in trouble' with her principal; on questioning, he hadn't raised his voice and there was no consequence — he gave her feedback on how to fix her performance next time, which happens in workplaces daily. Catastrophising ordinary correction is what keeps people over-complying.
Assuming someone is enforcing
There is no official in charge of most parking lots, no one reads most form fields, and half of skipped admin is never chased. The enforcement you're obeying is usually imagined, and you'll never learn that without testing.
Mistaking this for breaking real rules
Dicks states plainly that he isn't proposing anyone rob or commit crimes. The method applies to arbitrary, made-up, unenforced conventions — the ones whose only sanction is mild inconvenience.
From the transcript
“I always write the word upright my position is upright I've done that for 24 years and no one has ever said anything to me…”
“all I will ever have to do in life at worst is trade choice for time”
“test the world find where the pain points are most of them don't exist”
From the episode
Someday Is Today: Achieve Your Goals And Live Without Regret - Matthew Dicks
Matthew Dicks