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Anything I am good at, the common theme for why I am good is the interest (or force) to keep at it for years, reading, and tons of practice. There really is no

• justaguyhere 8y ago
  Practice is what separates most people who are good things from those who aren't. Yes, but mindless practice doesn't help, isn't it? Is there a deliberate method to your practice? How do you keep track of your weak areas, and how do you specifically practice those weak areas?
  • WhompingWindows 8y ago
    Prevention of autopilot during practicing is a key aim of practice. When you autopilot, you allow muscle memory/habit to take over, when the entire point of practice is to improve upon your capabilities, not just repeat them over and over with no further thought.
    • hodder 8y ago
      Sometimes, but sometimes muscle memory is what you want. Do you want to learn to play a fast guitar solo? Learn it slow, then play it incrementally faster a hundred times or more over a week. Do you want to get good at doing squats? Follow a program that makes the motion second nature by squatting multiple times a week and incrementally adding weight. Muscle memory is really extremely useful for physical motions. Just be careful you are not cementing incorrect motions in your brain. This is why instructors, books, and videos can be very useful.
    • quickthrower2 8y ago
      That is what I get from skiing lessons. You focus on what you are doing so that you are not on autopilot. I sometimes do this with touch typing to make sure I’m not cheating.
  • barry-cotter 8y ago
    Mindless practice will get you substantially further than not doing anything. Even when you have only the vaguest idea what you’re doing doing something beats doing nothing almost universally. Deliberate practice is great but with a tight feedback loop just doing things works wonders. If you spend 1000 hours doing mindless practice you won’t get as far as someone who spends 500 hours practicing deliberately but you are unlikely to do worse than the person who did 100 hours.
    • hodder 8y ago
      Spot on, and a particularly good point for people overwhelmed with the volume of resources out there to learn things. Picking a method/book/instructor that seems to be getting good reviews and getting at it is far more important than wasting tons of time jumping from method to method but never actually putting in the time practicing.
    • foolinaround 8y ago
      More than "practice makes perfect", it really is "practice makes permanent" At least in martial arts, I have learnt the hard way that if you had practiced a particular form wrong, then it takes that much more time to undo the learning, especially if it is the basics.
      • afarrell 8y ago
        Amen. Growing up, I asked so often for guidance for how to learn to write essays. I got told “just do it” and “just write the damned essay” and “just buckle down” so much I concluded that there wasn’t a way to learn a better writing process. So, I practiced writing via my having an emotional breakdown, procrastinating heavily and doing something at the last minute. As a 29-year-old, I’m trying to unlearn this and figure out how to write a technical blog post in a calm this-is-merely-work sort of way. Its really hard.
  • john-radio 8y ago
    It certainly helps in that you learn what doesn't work. Whether you choose to admit that it's not working and try a different tack is up to you.
  • hodder 8y ago
    Indeed. That is why I included "Find good books and good teachers/videos/other instruction". They point out to you what and how you should practice, but practicing is still the key component.
    • afarrell 8y ago
      One important piece here is they guide you to where you should focus your attention. I find it so much harder to focus when I don’t know what to focus on.