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The flip side is, when you're naturally good at something, it becomes fun to do. So you do it a lot. I tried for 2 years to get good at guitar. Never got good.

by pud 13y ago

The flip side is, when you're naturally good at something, it becomes fun to do. So you do it a lot. I tried for 2 years to get good at guitar. Never got good. But didn't practice very often either. Then one I sat down at a drum set and was immediately better than the drummer in my band. I had a knack. It was so fun to play those beats that I practiced almost every day for many years, and still do. And have gotten pretty darn good. Natural ability turns into learned skills.

manmal 13y ago
Considering myself an above average guitar player - I'm not sure whether guitarist vs drummer abilities carry over to hacker vs business skills. Your problem with playing the guitar was most probably related to left-right-coordination or some physical feature (like joint flexibility), right? Or maybe you did not "hear" the notes? I think that both good/x10 business people and hackers need similar personality traits (or let's call them habits) - focus, persistence, and willingness to learn. Concrete skills like talking to or with people you have never seen before, or learning a framework in the matter of days, can likely be acquired when trying long and hard enough. E.g. I learned to learn new songs in the matter of half an hour or less; I'd never imagined I was capable of that! But it's a skill just like any other. But we really have to _want_ to get good at something in order to do it. Staying with the guitar example - I can do finger exercises for months and months, but if I don't have a lick I want to eventually be able to play, I will not follow through, whatever focus and persistence I put in during exercise. That's why I prefer to sketch out interfaces before implementing them - hacking and Photoshopping is just a necessity in order to get the product I dreamt up. I do enjoy programming, and I do it focussed and persistent, but I have to really want the outcome (in that case a cool interface and UX).
- SatvikBeri 13y ago
  Based on my reading & observations, skill at the upper end of a creative/intellectual domain seems to range from about 5-20% talent and 80-95% practice-related factors. A lot of people don't realize how important different types of practice are. The Talent Code cites a study where researchers found that students who believed they would practice an instrument for all their lives learned nearly 4 times as quickly as students who thought they'd play the instrument for a few years-with the same amount of practice! The one consistent element of natural talent that comes up in intellectual/creative pursuits is working memory. The average person can hold roughly 7 "units" of information in their brain[0], which is why phone numbers are 7 digits long. When sightreading, pianists with a high working memory effectively have an advantage of a few extra years of practice[1]. I would imagine that a high working memory is also helpful in programming, as it determines how large a program you can easily hold in your head. [0]: it's a little more complex than just 7 pieces of information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory#Capacity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory#Capacity [1]: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/7/914.abstract http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/7/914.abstract

by pud 13y ago

manmal 13y ago

Considering myself an above average guitar player - I'm not sure whether guitarist vs drummer abilities carry over to hacker vs business skills. Your problem with playing the guitar was most probably related to left-right-coordination or some physical feature (like joint flexibility), right? Or maybe you did not "hear" the notes? I think that both good/x10 business people and hackers need similar personality traits (or let's call them habits) - focus, persistence, and willingness to learn. Concrete skills like talking to or with people you have never seen before, or learning a framework in the matter of days, can likely be acquired when trying long and hard enough. E.g. I learned to learn new songs in the matter of half an hour or less; I'd never imagined I was capable of that! But it's a skill just like any other. But we really have to _want_ to get good at something in order to do it. Staying with the guitar example - I can do finger exercises for months and months, but if I don't have a lick I want to eventually be able to play, I will not follow through, whatever focus and persistence I put in during exercise. That's why I prefer to sketch out interfaces before implementing them - hacking and Photoshopping is just a necessity in order to get the product I dreamt up. I do enjoy programming, and I do it focussed and persistent, but I have to really want the outcome (in that case a cool interface and UX).

SatvikBeri 13y ago
Based on my reading & observations, skill at the upper end of a creative/intellectual domain seems to range from about 5-20% talent and 80-95% practice-related factors. A lot of people don't realize how important different types of practice are. The Talent Code cites a study where researchers found that students who believed they would practice an instrument for all their lives learned nearly 4 times as quickly as students who thought they'd play the instrument for a few years-with the same amount of practice! The one consistent element of natural talent that comes up in intellectual/creative pursuits is working memory. The average person can hold roughly 7 "units" of information in their brain[0], which is why phone numbers are 7 digits long. When sightreading, pianists with a high working memory effectively have an advantage of a few extra years of practice[1]. I would imagine that a high working memory is also helpful in programming, as it determines how large a program you can easily hold in your head. [0]: it's a little more complex than just 7 pieces of information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory#Capacity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory#Capacity [1]: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/7/914.abstract http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/7/914.abstract