The Will, The Wall

On 20 November 2008, Phoenix said:

I really need time to write a full reply, but since I don't have that:

First,

"I suppose at some point I need to admit to myself that even with all the time and money in the world, the skill required to fulfill my desires will always elude me."

I don't particularly subscribe to this idea. With all the time and money in the world? I look at things successful people have done when they were first starting out, and they are invariably crap. (Sure, Mozart was composing great at age 5, but you should have heard the shit he wrote at age 3. Drivel, I tell you).

Talent is, in my opinion, overplayed. Skill, acquired through practice and study, beats "talent" every day. If you really REALLY devote time to something, you will improve.

For some reason I'm reminded of the interview that Darthside-version Darth Vader gave to Anne Arkham:

AA: If you couldn't be an intergalactic bully, what would you be? DV: Podracer. Or possibly a composer. I do not play any instruments, but if I could devote some serious time to it........who knows? It would also be cool to design robots professionally. I see some really sub-par robots out there.

(emphasis mine) I don't know why that popped into my head. ^_^

Secondly,

I'm certainly not content to simply be a cog in the system, but without cogs, the system wouldn't run.

Some people ARE content to simply be a cog in the system. Actually, MOST people are this way. Did I not forward the article (that came up at the S3 meeting) to you? The one about differing brain structures. The majority of people are satisfied with the world as it is (although this isn't to imply that they don't want more for themselves, which is a natural human imperative, but rather they don't want the world to change). A minority want to change the world.

This must sound strange, or even inconceivable (I keep using that word...) to you, but that is because you are in the minority. You want to be unique, to leave your mark, to change the world. Most (believe it, or don't) do not. It's crazy!

(For the record, I can't imagine being a cog either)

Thirdly, what I hinted at earlier, people are predisposed to being unsatisfied. Enough is never enough. Want more from life? Good. It means you are classified as human (as opposed to, say, a meat popsicle).

Fourth, grand masters, those that are the best at what they do, are the best at the expense of other areas in their life. Sad but true. Want to be one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of cinema? I believe you can do it! However, you might end up without any friends to share the accomplishment with (as your social life suffered to get you where you are), for example. Do you really want to be the BEST? You will have to make sacrifices. That's how it works.

Be careful what you wish for.

[I really wish I had the time to write my thoughts out properly. Sorry for the thoughtstream in place of an actual comment]

On 22 November 2008, wonderyak said:

I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I found the article fascinating:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/15/malcolm-gladwell-outliers-extract

"In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals," writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, "this number [10,000 hours] comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."