> [!tldr] A real life example of realizing I had the wrong goal My home office is above the garage. It gets **hot**. I wanted to fix this. This turned out to be a great example of knowing [[What are You Optimizing For]] and how [[So much of productivity, communication, and fitness advice comes down to really knowing your goal.]]. # Last Summer > [!error] Original goal statement: > Lower the temperature in the office. I did a _lot_ of research and spent a lot of effort on looking at insulation, getting thermometers with memory, utilizing a box fan to push hot air _out_ of the room to create a low pressure zone so the one air conditioning vent in here would suck additional cold air into the room, and ultimately buying a portable air conditioner. **Last summer's result**: Nothing really worked except the portable AC, which is expensive to run. # This Summer > [!success] Refined goal statement: > Make the office more comfortable to work in. The temperature of the whole office doesn't really matter. What matters is the temperature _where I sit_. This is the real problem. It's much easier to solve. I put a box fan _out_ of the office blowing cold air directly onto my office chair. **Result**: meaningfully more pleasant experience with way less operating expense. **** # More ## Source - self