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Remember that you're looking at survivors. The obvious question is how many people studied, practiced, and never became great. You'd have to look at the initial

by diego 14y ago

Remember that you're looking at survivors. The obvious question is how many people studied, practiced, and never became great. You'd have to look at the initial pool.

Confusion 14y ago
While you wait for confirmation that studying and practicing increases your changes of becoming Great at what you do, I'm just gonna go practice, expecting to race way ahead of you. I don't need an academic study to confirm the obvious: practice makes perfect. If all survivors did A and none did not do A, then A is likely to be at least a precondition. But more than that: the number of people that choose to spend time deliberately studying and practicing is already so small that there is room for them all to be Great. I am convinced that nearly every single person that deliberately studies and practices to become better at what he does will become Great at what he does, because 'Great' is a relative concept and most people are easily contented.
- diego 14y ago
  That is an unnecessarily aggressive comment. What makes you think you're racing against me? "Practice makes perfect" is a platitude, not something obvious. Like another commenter said, I could practice infinitely and never be any good at basketball. I just don't have the body type. On the other hand, I was a pretty good programmer at 13, one year after discovering computers (1983). I could tell you that what made me "great" (I'm rich thanks to software) was practice and studying. In reality, it was mostly luck. Think what you want.
  - Confusion 14y ago
    It was not intended aggressively, but rather rhetorically. We are not racing against each other, but if you intend to be 'good' at something, you are in a competition with a great many other. If you find excuses not to improve yourself, you will definitely not be 'good'. If you practiced basketball every day for the next year, and enjoyed doing that, you'd be an excellent basketball player after that year. That you couldn't make it as a pro doesn't detract anything from that. There's a near infinite amount of things every single one of us could do if they wanted to. The only problem is that we usually do not want to. The number of things that you truly can't do because it depends on some physical characteristic is fairly limited. You could be a physics professor, an awesome captain, an excellent stock broker or a locally successful artist. You are just not interested in any of those things.
    - diego 14y ago
      When I was a teenager I wanted to be a world-class runner. I trained as hard and as methodically as I could for three years. I could never break a five-minute mile. I was mediocre, and slower than guys who barely trained but had bodies more suited to running. I still run 25 years later, but just for fun. Perhaps I could run a three-hour marathon if I really cared, but that's far from great. Note that this is completely unrelated to the enjoyment you derive from the activity. If you want to be great at something, you have to pick your battles and play to your strengths. Some people just cannot be great programmers no matter how hard they try. Most people can be great at something if they try hard enough, but most people cannot be great at programming. That was the point that you seem to miss.

by diego 14y ago

Remember that you're looking at survivors. The obvious question is how many people studied, practiced, and never became great. You'd have to look at the initial pool.

Confusion 14y ago

While you wait for confirmation that studying and practicing increases your changes of becoming Great at what you do, I'm just gonna go practice, expecting to race way ahead of you. I don't need an academic study to confirm the obvious: practice makes perfect. If all survivors did A and none did not do A, then A is likely to be at least a precondition. But more than that: the number of people that choose to spend time deliberately studying and practicing is already so small that there is room for them all to be Great. I am convinced that nearly every single person that deliberately studies and practices to become better at what he does will become Great at what he does, because 'Great' is a relative concept and most people are easily contented.

diego 14y ago
That is an unnecessarily aggressive comment. What makes you think you're racing against me? "Practice makes perfect" is a platitude, not something obvious. Like another commenter said, I could practice infinitely and never be any good at basketball. I just don't have the body type. On the other hand, I was a pretty good programmer at 13, one year after discovering computers (1983). I could tell you that what made me "great" (I'm rich thanks to software) was practice and studying. In reality, it was mostly luck. Think what you want.
- Confusion 14y ago
  It was not intended aggressively, but rather rhetorically. We are not racing against each other, but if you intend to be 'good' at something, you are in a competition with a great many other. If you find excuses not to improve yourself, you will definitely not be 'good'. If you practiced basketball every day for the next year, and enjoyed doing that, you'd be an excellent basketball player after that year. That you couldn't make it as a pro doesn't detract anything from that. There's a near infinite amount of things every single one of us could do if they wanted to. The only problem is that we usually do not want to. The number of things that you truly can't do because it depends on some physical characteristic is fairly limited. You could be a physics professor, an awesome captain, an excellent stock broker or a locally successful artist. You are just not interested in any of those things.
  - diego 14y ago
    When I was a teenager I wanted to be a world-class runner. I trained as hard and as methodically as I could for three years. I could never break a five-minute mile. I was mediocre, and slower than guys who barely trained but had bodies more suited to running. I still run 25 years later, but just for fun. Perhaps I could run a three-hour marathon if I really cared, but that's far from great. Note that this is completely unrelated to the enjoyment you derive from the activity. If you want to be great at something, you have to pick your battles and play to your strengths. Some people just cannot be great programmers no matter how hard they try. Most people can be great at something if they try hard enough, but most people cannot be great at programming. That was the point that you seem to miss.