This is so well articulated. It also brings up, for me, the related concept of talent. It seems that in recent decades, a lot of what we used to view as God-given-talent isn’t exactly such, and for exactly the reasons you laid out. BUT, this is one area where my experience as an athlete is skeptical that talent doesn’t exist at all—I have seen people with a certain je ne sais quoi that does seem to lie beyond practice and genes. Which also then bleeds into conversations about personality, birth order, and basically so many connected concepts that point to the combinations of things that form how an individual interacts with the world. But anyway…
And the hard part is recognizing that your ‘talent’ may not always align with what you actually want to be good at. Or rather, admit that there will be heights you won’t scale.
(That got gloomy. One of my few talents, let’s say…😉)
This is so well articulated. It also brings up, for me, the related concept of talent. It seems that in recent decades, a lot of what we used to view as God-given-talent isn’t exactly such, and for exactly the reasons you laid out. BUT, this is one area where my experience as an athlete is skeptical that talent doesn’t exist at all—I have seen people with a certain je ne sais quoi that does seem to lie beyond practice and genes. Which also then bleeds into conversations about personality, birth order, and basically so many connected concepts that point to the combinations of things that form how an individual interacts with the world. But anyway…
And the hard part is recognizing that your ‘talent’ may not always align with what you actually want to be good at. Or rather, admit that there will be heights you won’t scale.
(That got gloomy. One of my few talents, let’s say…😉)
Like when Daenerys Targaryen said “We all enjoy what we’re good at,” and John Snow replied “I don’t.”
Hi Gunnar: I like your take and analysis on the 10,000 hour pop culture hypothesis. I wrote my own take on this: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/curious-realizer-10000-hours-to-what
Skill acquisition and mastery is influenced on many factors, totally agree - it's not just time spent.
I also appreciate your take on visualization, totally agree that focusing on steps and process is going to be way more effective than the result,.
Great article!
Thanks, Mark! Appreciate it. I'll check out your take, but based on this comment, I think I'll agree with everything ;).