The father of invention must be perspiration. It’s the effort to raise them thar legs to get you off the seat and into the inventing place.
Hey alec, you could always get one of those USB port kettles. You wouldn’t need to get up nearly as often then! Or one of these kettles that you SMS when you want it to boil.
After writing the previous entry, I came across this article in the NY Times about “talent” and how it’s pretty much all about practice.
Not only is it about practice, but it also describes some attributes of the people who are likely to practice. Namely that, people doing what they like are more likely to practice. Obvious.
Also obvious then is the corollary which is, you’ll probably only be good at what you do if you like what you’re doing.
Po Bronson has a brilliant article (and book apparently) that describes “work-life balance”, “job satisfaction”, and a million other descriptors for productive satisfying use of your time.
It’s not about finding the perfect job, or the perfect company. There’s no such thing.
Even if you could find the perfect job or the perfect company, PSUT (Productive Satisfying Use of your Time) is not about doing the perfect job every day.
It’s about doing something because the end product is worth it. The thing that you do might be small, or it might be large, it could be totally thrilling or it could be crappy. But you’re doing it because you want that end product, that end goal. And you want it bad.
So, figure what you want your life to be like and do what you need to do to get there.
I’m not convinced that Bronson’s suggestion that you have to imagine what you want then do the shit work to get somewhere is The Way. He doesn’t say it’s the only way, but it’s a kinda pull-yourself-up-the-bootstrap kind a thing. A small dollop of libertarian smugness from somewhere who is at a Happy Place.
Bronson has found what he likes doing and this is his way of sharing his recipe with the world.
If you have a similar belief structure to Po, this message and method probably works for you too.
In other words, if you have an education, live in a western democracy and you believe that you’re better than your fellow human in some way, and you can work it to your advantage, then you can get somewhere – if you can figure out where it is.
If you share the same background, but you can’t learn faster (or be better in some way) than the person next to you, hey, I mean, it’s perfectly okay to be middle-of-the-road-normal, then you’re not about to be “transformed” by this method. In fact, you might stay the same ol’ dissatisfied self.
Never mind the 95% of the world that doesn’t fit the mould.
I’m not bitter. I just stand in a different place.
Scholarly Sunrise 