When I was kid, all I saw was talent bc kids don’t haven’t had time yet to put in sustained effort. That led me to believe that talent was super important to success. The smart kids - those were the ones would be successful. It was genetic lottery. I felt like I was in that group too - got good grades and went to Columbia.
As I got older, I saw career outcomes for smart kids and not smart kids diverge.
Now I believe that sustained, focused effort is 90% of success. What I observed as a kid was relative talent differences. Compared to a frog, all people are nearly identical in absolute talent. The only difference between people is how they spend their limit processing power, not how much processing power they have.
TL; DR if you can figure out what you really want to be good at, you can be in the top 10,000 people in the world for that thing regardless of talent.
The real challenge is figuring out what we should focus on.
"The only difference between people is how they spend their limit processing power, not how much processing power they have." - 100%
Great comment on challenge of figuring out what to focus on. I'm thinking two parts: 1) curiosity and innate interest guides domain, 2) coaches and mentors guide specifics within chosen domain. Innate interest is needed to sustain the effort needed. Coaches pinpoint for deliberate practice. Parents and network influence heavily as well.
When I was kid, all I saw was talent bc kids don’t haven’t had time yet to put in sustained effort. That led me to believe that talent was super important to success. The smart kids - those were the ones would be successful. It was genetic lottery. I felt like I was in that group too - got good grades and went to Columbia.
As I got older, I saw career outcomes for smart kids and not smart kids diverge.
Now I believe that sustained, focused effort is 90% of success. What I observed as a kid was relative talent differences. Compared to a frog, all people are nearly identical in absolute talent. The only difference between people is how they spend their limit processing power, not how much processing power they have.
TL; DR if you can figure out what you really want to be good at, you can be in the top 10,000 people in the world for that thing regardless of talent.
The real challenge is figuring out what we should focus on.
"The only difference between people is how they spend their limit processing power, not how much processing power they have." - 100%
Great comment on challenge of figuring out what to focus on. I'm thinking two parts: 1) curiosity and innate interest guides domain, 2) coaches and mentors guide specifics within chosen domain. Innate interest is needed to sustain the effort needed. Coaches pinpoint for deliberate practice. Parents and network influence heavily as well.
Thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts!