The Lost Art of Becoming Good at Things

http://expertenough.com/295/the-lost-art-of-becoming-good-at-things

by damirkotoric • 15 years ago

100 14 15 years ago

doktrin• 15 years ago

Fair point. I spend far too much time on my laptop in front of the television pretending that I'm being kinda-sorta constructive just because I happen to be answering work related emails.

Time is valuable, time to treat it as such.

rudenoise• 15 years ago

This is a view that has been voiced periodically during the advance of human communication. There are certainly downsides just as there are positives. A nice encapsulation of the topic and it's counterpoint are presented by Paul Flatters in his BBC Four Thought talk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fourthought MP3: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fourthought/fourt...

mbesto2• 15 years ago

If everyone is failing to become experts in things, it means that the value of the expert goes up. This is derived from the fact that the value of an expert is relative to the number of non-experts.

In consulting this is a huge win for experts, since my industry is littered with people who could largely be considered incompetent. So I don't see this as being a lost art.

Plus, is expertise considered an art? IMO it's more a science or a craft.

bane• 15 years ago

>In consulting this is a huge win for experts, since my industry is littered with people who could largely be considered incompetent.

The danger of course is that the entire industry could start to be considered poorly, mean less overall business, and less demand for actual experts.

It's in an industry's long-term self interests to improve the quality of their output (quality meaning whatever feeds the highest demand for that industry's product).

csomar• 15 years ago

Exactly wrong. Imagine there wasn't a good number of experts in JavaScript/HTML5 (my field of expertise); there wouldn't be HTML5 BoilerPlate, Modernizer, Respond, Require.js and the handful of books I read. I couldn't reach the level where I am today.

mbesto2• 15 years ago

Sorry, I think you missed my point.

I'm not disagreeing that these type of experts exist. The JS/HTML5 field is also littered with incompetence as well. I get the feeling that the OP is trying to say that we culturally don't advocate these type of people anymore and thus it's a "lost art". I disagree. And for every hundred incompetent people, there is one writing a new boilerplate or book. My point is that this one person doesn't exist without the other hundred. It's unfeasible to suggest that all 100 should be experts and that there was a time when this was true.

...oh God, now we're getting philosophical...

gforces• 15 years ago

It's definitely a lost art: the page is down.

akg• 15 years ago

One of the best things I've done recently is get rid of my TV and Netflix account (to avoid streaming on my laptop). I've also got rid of my internet connection (so I can't mindless browse the net).

When I do need the internet I usually just head down to a local coffee shop to check emails (usually twice a day), download API docs, etc. Plus I get a nice break and get to have a nice coffee. You'll be surprised how much you are not missing out by delaying emails and twitter checks. I've found my productivity has increased significantly since I'm less distracted with twitter updates, chat messages, incoming mails, etc. And of course, for emergency internet connectivity, I always have my iPhone + 3G. The iPhone is great, since it is perfect for emergency look ups of information but a hindrance enough to not aimlessly browse the web. I also like that HN doesn't have a nice mobile compatible style sheet ;-)

digitalsushi• 15 years ago

I got frustrated with the web this weekend. My ability to use it as an expert has waned. If we can make the assumption that the proportion of self-promotion increases over time, I believe there is a personal inflection point where the average new information being consumed is a falsehood. I say personal since every person has their own threshold for truthfulness.

When I claim to be an expert, I just mean that I used to be pretty good at finding stuff I wanted to find. Google is the tool I have overused, ignoring better, newer filters as they have come wayside.

So I feel like just turning the whole damned thing off and learning the "slow" way might be the new way to be the fast way.

2015, want to find it fast? Flip open the index of a hard cover and start scanning.

paulhauggis• 15 years ago

This wouldn't work for me. My business requires me to have at least some internet connectivity at home (customer complaints, servers down, etc). I also like to surf/watch netflix streaming movies on the weekends.

I've gained a lot of knowledge through Internet research on various subjects (I cancelled cable awhile back).

It's more difficult, but I've learned how to just stop messing around and focusing on my work.

janus• 15 years ago

Becoming an expert at something is hard. Training requires a lot of mental and phisycal effort, and not a lot of people are willing to sweat it.

I believe that in order to stay motivated to become an expert, you need to have a clear goal. Why do you want to go the gym everyday? Why would you spend hours after office researching and learning about new technology? If you can't define the why, you will probably fail.

dos1• 15 years ago

Agree with your first sentence. Being an expert takes loads of effort. For some that effort is work, for others it's fun, but no matter what it takes time and determination.

What I see more and more of these days is (in the Midwest of the U.S. anyways) parents are not teaching the value of effort to their children. Their children end up being lazy and entitled, never knowing what it truly takes to be good at anything.

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

The problem is that consuming is social and doing tends not to be. It's hard to come home to your family and tell them that TV is bad, instead we should all go our separate ways and work on personal hobbies/projects. Exercising is the one thing that is social, but usually not if you want to get to the expert level.

kpennell• 15 years ago

Doing can be lonely if it's not inherently satisfying for you...

The Lost Art of Becoming Good at Things

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