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Extraordinary is boring. If one wants to draw as good as Michelangelo Buonarroti, or play the alto sax technically as well as Charlie Parker, one has to put in
by SCAQTony 6y ago
Extraordinary is boring. If one wants to draw as good as Michelangelo Buonarroti, or play the alto sax technically as well as Charlie Parker, one has to put in the hours. Imagine only having one interest? Example: Michelangelo and Charlie practiced or executed their craft incessantly.
"In an interview with Paul Desmond, Parker said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day."
"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all." ~ Michelangelo
I argue that one is more employable, more accomplished and has more opportunities if one is average, or above average, in five separate disciplines. Has more diverse friendships too.
- lowiqengineer 6y agoI don’t really want to be Charlie Parker extraordinary, I just want to be Harvard CS major who makes $500k as a T5 at Google extraordinary. I assure you, that person has more diverse friendships and more leisure time than I do.
- realbarack 6y agoNote that "that person" is not actually a specific person, but merely your image of one.
- lowiqengineer 6y agoI mean I can probably go on LinkedIn right now and find someone that fits these loose criteria. They’re fairly common!
- ZephyrBlu 6y agoIf your definition of "fairly common" is something like a ~1% chance, then sure.
- RussianCow 6y agoCertainly more common than Michelangelo-level artists! I think the OP's point was that you don't need to be the absolute best in your field, or even that close, to be rewarded handsomely.
- lowiqengineer 6y agoAgreed. And this makes not even being close even harder for me.
- SCAQTony 6y agoThere are artist all over instagram that can do anatomy better than Michelangelo. In fact Michelangelo never painted a portrait because he couldn't do it. Leonardo could but Leonardo could not sculpt.
- burntoutfire 6y agoHow can you know what goes on in their lives though? Maybe they're bored or bitter or lonely or even suicidal? $500k a year alone does not do much for your well being.
- lowiqengineer 6y agoI mean I'm all of those things too but I have way less money and external validation
- nickmooney 6y agoMan, your issue is not that you do not have enough external validation, it's that you crave it so badly. I guarantee you achieving your concrete goals would not make you happy -- you would just move the goalposts. I would really recommend therapy as a way to understand and reframe the desire for external validation.