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To be the best at anything, means that you must live abnormally and do abnormal things. This is why being the best at everything is nearly impossible, since ea
by sev 15y ago
To be the best at anything, means that you must live abnormally and do abnormal things. This is why being the best at everything is nearly impossible, since each thing to master would require different kinds of abnormalities and different ways of living abnormally.
This is why you find "geniuses" in a particular field, like math, or music, and they're usually not-so-genius in most other fields. "Genius" is attainable in my book, it's a matter of being focused and "putting your mind to it" as the article states, and this focus and "putting your mind to it" require being and doing abnormal things.
- jaggederest 15y agoThat's what makes the old-school polymaths like Goethe and Von Neumann so amazing to me - they not only did it in a single field, but many, all relatively simultaneously.
- sev 15y agoMany, which are very closely related. Computer science and mathematics are essentially one and the same, or maybe a subset of another (as an example)
- kevinalexbrown 15y agoGoethe did more than math or CS.
- sliverstorm 15y agoThis is why I abandoned the desire to be the #1 best at something. This isn't to say I can't strive to be exceptionally good, but being the best is such a great cost. I haven't yet found something where I feel the payoff of being THE best is worth it. This doesn't really jive with conventional worldviews, and I feel like I should be ashamed for "giving up", but honestly it seems like a destructive behavior/goal.
- dominostars 15y agoAccording to a lot of research, it isn't that the person does abnormal things, it's that the person invests an abnormal amount of time into practicing his skill. It's an important distinction, because it illustrates that 'being the best' is more of a decision than an abnormality.