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| I have no mustache, but I was a smart, capable engineer. |
That quote is in my day planner for 22 August and it fits with the discussion we had at work last night.
My old squadron commander used to say that we were looking for the "best athlete for the competition" when recruiting. He didn't say he/she needs to be an expert in X or have 15 years experience using some database. We were looking for team players who were willing to learn new things and work hard towards an objective.
Seth Godin, in his book The Dip, talks about putting your energy in whatever it is that you can be "the best in the world at." The world could mean your neighborhood, your office, your city, your county or whatever domain you define as your "world." It's easy to spend your energy on multiple projects that won't gain you success. I enjoy languages (after I saw the movie Stargate I wanted to learn Egyptian...or is it Arabic?), computers (I took two years of C++ in high school and keep dabbling in learning about new languages), crafts (I've made four knives in the last year and have equipment to make a few more) and homebrewing (been doing it four years and I keep acquiring equipment and taking brews to holidays). I could continue on
with this and be mediocre in all four areas or I could pick one (probably the latter), get rid of the other ideas in my head and the equipment on my work bench in the garage and be the best in my "world" at homebrewing. I might not be Ken Schramm...or maybe I could be like him, but it will take 15 years and much hard work and study.
Malcolm Gladwell states that "experts" need about 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert in something and that this is what truly separates the experts from the amateurs tinkering in their garage (or maybe he was wrong). We could argue ad infinitum that the boy down the street shooting hoops with his dad won't be the next Larry Bird, Michael Jordan or LeBron James, but we'll never know until he shoots till he hits that threshold or thereabouts. Yes, I'm sure we all have a limited amount of ability, talent, attribute, whatever you want to call it, but hard work will take you there.
Tangent to this (but maybe not that unrelated), studies have shown the kids who are praised for their ability (intelligence, athletic ability, musical talent), test (or compete or sing) worse than those who are praised for their hard work.
It's amazing how heavy squats can improve your mood.
Warmup: 10 dips
Workout:
Front Squats 5-135, 5-135, 5-185, 5-205, 5-225
Back Squats 5-225, 5-250, 5-265, 5-275, 5-290
Cooldown:
10 45# plate lifts
7 95# high pulls
5 95# curls
Some fruit made its way onto my plate, along with some Earl Grey tea, hot.
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| My eggs swim in butter. |
If you were coming here hoping for more Batman complaints, sorry.
