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Ira Glass has some advice on the issue of when you start something you enjoy, but your skill doesn't match your taste. Push through and keep practicing until yo

• dragonwriter 12y ago
  I don't think the problem is things you enjoy but don't have skill to match your taste, the issue is identifying things you would enjoy if you had more skill, so you know where it is worth investing the effort to get over the lack of current skill.
  • tswartz 12y ago
    Thats a good point. I suppose you could use your taste as a guide to what you may be good at. But, like you said, there is that gap between investing the time and discovering if you are skilled at it.
  • newtonapple 12y ago
    I'd argue that sometimes you don't really know what good taste is or whether or not you would enjoy something until you've acquired a certain level of competency for it. Sports, programming and math are all like this. The more you work on them the more enjoyable they become, and you'd become a lot more "tasteful".
    • dingaling 12y ago
      > The more you work on them the more enjoyable they become Hmmm. After a decade of running, swimming and circuits I still detest them every day just as much as when I started. The key might be that one can only enjoy activities that are done purely for whimsical reasons.
  • paulvs 12y ago
    Programming, maths & science, etc. are acquired tastes. Not things you can enjoy from the get-go. I think many friends and family of mine would make far better programmers than I, or great scientists, but they've never had the need to venture out of their comfort zone to try something new. The age of constant distractions and an easy lifestyle is not conducive to breaking out of the norm. The things I enjoy most took me years of studying.
    • dragonwriter 12y ago
      > Programming, maths & science, etc. are acquired tastes. Not things you can enjoy from the get-go. I dunno, I enjoyed all three from the get-go. Ballroom dance I suspected I would enjoy, but it took me a while to get to the point where it wasn't just work to do it (even though I enjoyed watching it.) I know plenty of people for whom those things are flipped. I don't think "what you can enjoy from the get-go" and "what takes more time to learn you can enjoy" is constant from person to person.
      • paulvs 12y ago
        In my case, I didn't expect to enjoy learning Paraguayan traditional dancing, but it sure was fun and I'm glad I tried it. Like another poster pointed out, it's the hard work that comes first (overcoming the fear, or plugging away at the books), then comes the satisfaction. I think it must feel lonely being a great mathematician for example, knowing that everyone else has settled for less, and that only you and a few others have even a slight understanding of the universe.
        • eru 12y ago
          Math is mostly about communication with other people. Only recently have computer proofs become somewhat accepted. The holy grail is still to find simple proofs to interesting problems to enlighten people.
          • deleted 12y ago
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• simi_ 12y ago
  Thank you, I'm going through such a phase (similar to a very long burnout), and this helps.
  • tswartz 12y ago
    Glad to hear to it helps. I've watched this many times when I've felt like quitting.