Brilliant article. This quote is going to be posted somewhere I can see it, daily.
"You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do."
I can't count the number of times I have read a tid-bit or passage in a book on a topic for insight and later, realized that when I actually follow the advice given, layers and layers deeper is the real meat. This is the meat I would have missed had I not done the actual act rather than simply read a tip.
The times I got better by leaps and bounds were when I practiced, and showed my result to someone better than me who took the time to critique.
So you really can't spell. It really is a shame.
I've always felt that people who program that can't spell are in this career to hide their lack of IQ.
But then most atheists also succumb to comforting lies, and make excuses for death even less defensible than the outright lies of religion. They flinch away, refuse to confront the horror of a hundred and fifty thousand sentient beings annihilated every day.
I would like to think that I, as an atheist, don't have to rationalize the unknown and accept that we just don't have the answers to the "why" of death. I realize he is in pain, but I don't think I'm lying to myself about death just because I don't have some over-arching dogma to believe in.
So IM is better? 3000 messages in my inbox that I can attend to when I'm ready vs. IM - where I'm dealing with everybody simultaneously and live? That's worse than the telephone, IMHO.
Anyway, if you get the same query more than once, it is time to put the answer into a wiki or blog.
I can't stand Card's political views. He hates gays and has expressed violent attitudes toward gays.
Who knows, maybe his writing is a form of repressed homosexual relief for him.
I still enjoyed Ender's Game very much, however. My problem with the review is that it can apply to any fiction that withholds gratification or attempts suspense and has a "super hero" type character. I think of Ender as a kind of super hero, in fact. Just one with geek qualities.
Do we then, call comic books a form of pornography?
1. I'm saying your timing is suspicious.
2. My own anecdotal experience tells me successful people want to believe they earned their success through brains and hard work
3. Gladwell states that a good portion of success is due to hard work but that you have to be lucky enough to be able to put in the 10,000 hours at the right time and of course, have the luxury of putting in that kind of dedication
So bottom line, he really flatters successful people on the surface, while making the successful folk equal to the rest of us.
I don't think you are "mad" at Gladwell. I just think the motivation is strong and possibly an unconscious aversion to accepting that your success may be in huge part due to luck.
But then. Take with a huge grain of salt some asshole spouting off on a forum.
Believe it or not, you are one of my heroes, and I never seriously expected YOU of all people to be reading this.
Cheers to you and don't stop doing what you do. We are a better field because of it.
It kills me how the Gladwell book brought this out of Joel. Nobody wants to be told their success is a good part luck and timing. They all want to believe it is because they are smarter and worked harder.
So suddenly the software world's number one anecdotal blowhard decides to slam another blowhard. Okay. Whatever.
I dunno. I re-read the article after I read your comment, and I came to a different conclusion: It is very possible we are in one of those gaps in time where if you have put in your 10,000 hours, you can leverage them. You can be one of those lucky ones.
His point is, then, how do you know you aren't coming of age during a lucky time, when the old goes out the window? It is quite possible this is that "garage electronics" time when nobody has any money and some of us figure out unique ways to save and as a result, make millions.
You can bet, SOMEONE will. We are going to hear, in about 4-5 years, of someone down and out who "did it" during 2009 after they got laid off and were living in their parents' basement. Instead of shooting their employer, they proved everyone wrong and succeeded.
I am one of the jaded and cynical, however. This is just a "glass is half full" perspective.
I really hate over-simplified platitudes. They only comfort the stupid or short-sighted. Kind of like reading a sound-bite on trickle-down economics and applying it to your life.
"You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do."
I can't count the number of times I have read a tid-bit or passage in a book on a topic for insight and later, realized that when I actually follow the advice given, layers and layers deeper is the real meat. This is the meat I would have missed had I not done the actual act rather than simply read a tip.
The times I got better by leaps and bounds were when I practiced, and showed my result to someone better than me who took the time to critique.