4 ms·
> Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. This is one of the things that sounds cool on paper, and make people feel inspired, but do
by pizza234 6y ago
> Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally.
This is one of the things that sounds cool on paper, and make people feel inspired, but doesn't really work like that in real world.
Being extremely good in something requires a resource (time, attention...) expenditure that easily eats the rest of life (unless you're one of the few geniuses who can afford a balanced life). In practice, if one aims really high, they will need to take a conscious decision to sacrifice a significant part of their life. This is in conflict with the "live a balanced life" message underlying many of the points of the article.
This subject is in my opinion explored with much more depth (and honesty) by Carmack in his graduation speech. [I] Advocate long, hard work [...] embrace the grind :)
- thundergolfer 6y agoAre you referring to John Carmack’s speech at UKMC?
- pizza234 6y agoYes! Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOZnqjHkULc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOZnqjHkULc. It's a bit odd to hear, as it goes against conventional modern wisdom ("you hear a lot about work life-balance, work smarter not harder, and that's all fine, but there's is a quality to obsession, that is really hard to match"), but it's understandable from a position to somebody who's really trying to be "aiming to be the best in the world".
- thundergolfer 6y agoThanks for the confirmation. I've very much on Carmack's side of things, and I do often have to explain my 'unbalanced' approach to things.