0:00:20.927,0:00:23.665 I wanted to be extraordinary. 0:00:23.665,0:00:28.571 If I could have chosen at 15 what to be extraordinary at, 0:00:28.571,0:00:31.967 I probably would have picked science. 0:00:31.967,0:00:38.384 I like science. I was pretty good at it too but not extraordinary. 0:00:38.384,0:00:45.519 I come to believe that talent was some sort of genetic boolean. 0:00:45.519,0:00:49.716 You either have it or you don't. You're born with it or you're not 0:00:49.716,0:00:52.954 and I apparently was not. 0:00:52.954,0:01:00.911 At 15, I had not shown a single glimmer of extraordinary talent in anything. 0:01:00.911,0:01:09.407 and because scientist do their best work when they're young and I was already 15, I figured it was too late. 0:01:09.407,0:01:12.263 so I pivoted it. 0:01:12.263,0:01:17.978 For years, I tried to ferreted out my innate talent. 0:01:17.978,0:01:24.788 I was going to be a potter. I was an apprentice potter for about a week. 0:01:24.788,0:01:32.097 and then I was an apprentice artisan woodwork that was maybe for 6 months and I was like "screw this thing. I'm going to high high school 0:01:32.097,0:01:36.165 of performing art". 0:01:36.165,0:01:41.892 After 3 years on a tenor saxophone, it was obvious that I was not cut out to be a jazz musician. 0:01:41.892,0:01:46.243 I was pretty good at composing things like baroque coral music. 0:01:46.243,0:01:50.874 So I put together an application for a college of musical composition for film 0:01:50.874,0:01:54.748 and before I even sent off the application, I tried out for a theater school. 0:01:54.748,0:02:01.051 After a week of audition, I was inexplicably accepted as a student. 0:02:01.051,0:02:07.252 After a year, I could tell you with certainty that theater was not my talent. 0:02:07.252,0:02:09.475 neither was ballet 0:02:09.475,0:02:11.564 or fencing 0:02:11.564,0:02:15.436 or contemporary French circus. 0:02:15.436,0:02:18.939 I tried a lot of things and not halfheartedly either. 0:02:18.939,0:02:21.035 I worked really hard. 0:02:21.035,0:02:24.377 But whenever there's something that's really [br]difficult, there is this voice that reason. 0:02:24.377,0:02:32.486 It must not be my talent because had it[br]been my gift, it would have come naturally. 0:02:32.486,0:02:35.515 (inaudible) 0:02:35.515,0:02:39.223 I believed in the genetic explanation of greatness. 0:02:39.223,0:02:42.563 I thought you just have to stumble across that accidental match. 0:02:42.563,0:02:46.759 To find the lock for which you are the key 0:02:46.759,0:02:52.195 and inevitably by aiming in every possible direction at once, hoping to hit a target. 0:02:52.195,0:03:01.591 I wander blindly into a low paying job where[br]the only requirement was that you can type 80 words per minute. 0:03:01.591,0:03:07.032 I woke up on my 25th birthday thinking a quarter century? 0:03:07.032,0:03:14.707 I'm a washed up evolutionary dead end in a back water dead end life. 0:03:14.707,0:03:21.966 I performed a reality check and came to the [br]conclusion that even if I couldn't be an extraordinary scientist, 0:03:21.966,0:03:26.897 I can still probably become a top tier mediocre scientist. 0:03:26.897,0:03:32.980 All I needed was a university degree in something scientific. 0:03:32.980,0:03:37.731 Having majored in saxophone in high school, [br]there were remedial credits involved. 0:03:37.731,0:03:41.299 I began to teach myself math and physic and chemistry 0:03:41.299,0:03:45.459 and because I knew I wasn't talented, I didn't expect it to be easy. 0:03:45.459,0:03:48.508 I expected it to suck. 0:03:48.508,0:03:56.330 I just started at the beginning. Did one thing at [br]a time, by the book, until I learn it and then I moved on. 0:03:56.330,0:04:01.207 Whenever I panicked,I remind myself that this[br]is not rocket science. This is basic math. 0:04:01.207,0:04:05.079 If I don't understand it, I must have skipped a step 0:04:05.079,0:04:11.525 and so I slowed down and do some research [br]and sure enough, within hours or sometimes [br]days I be right back on track. 0:04:11.525,0:04:15.022 cheerfully slogging 0:04:15.022,0:04:26.925 I found that I was balancing on a continuum [br]and that there was a sweet spot and that[br]sweet spot has nothing to do with math or physics 0:04:27.010,0:04:29.887 and it works like this: 0:04:29.889,0:04:34.953 You're asked to perform a particular [br]saxophone tune at 88 beats per minute. 0:04:34.953,0:04:42.038 This fall squarely within your capability so you [br]can perform this task effortlessly, confidently. 0:04:42.047,0:04:51.859 While you're doing so, you can think about[br]other things. for example, how to adjust your [br](tac?) based on what the drummer is doing. 0:04:51.859,0:04:59.757 You can react to something that happen in the [br]audience without fumbling or losing your place. 0:04:59.757,0:05:05.020 When you're asked to perform that same tune [br]at 105 beats per minute, 0:05:05.020,0:05:12.633 you can do this but it requires every bit of concentration that you can muster. 0:05:12.633,0:05:17.558 Your skill level is perfectly balanced against the challenge. 0:05:17.558,0:05:24.391 The difficulty of the exercise is barely met by your ability. 0:05:24.391,0:05:28.743 You're being stretched and being stretched is painful. 0:05:28.743,0:05:35.920 Remaining in that place, that painful place[br]that stretches you, requires a monumental effort. 0:05:35.920,0:05:48.289 It's exhausting. It's hard. It's not fun. It's also [br]satisfying. Empowering. Deeply rewarding. 0:05:48.289,0:05:54.750 When you're asked to play that tune at 120 beats per minute, you panic. You simply can't do it. 0:05:54.750,0:06:00.228 The challenge has no counterpart whatsoever in your skill. 0:06:00.228,0:06:11.202 You flail. Your executive function shuts down.[br]Your output becomes erratic. It's terrifying. 0:06:11.202,0:06:17.210 This continuum is a measure of effortlessly[br]you can perform a given task. 0:06:17.210,0:06:23.916 At one end of the continuum, you have your comfort zone where you can perform effortlessly. 0:06:23.916,0:06:30.287 You don't level up in your comfort zone [br]because you're doing stuff you already know how to do. 0:06:30.287,0:06:36.640 At the other end of the continuum, you have[br]your panic zone where you cone level up[br]because you're busy freaking out. 0:06:36.640,0:06:43.268 Between the two, there's a space where your [br]ability and the challenge barely overlap. 0:06:43.268,0:06:50.815 And this is where you level up. I'm not saying[br]you should never be in your comfort zone or[br]your panic zone, 0:06:50.815,0:06:57.848 not at all. Your comfort zone is where complex[br]skills become reflexive. 0:06:57.848,0:07:06.939 You have access to higher level of thinking. [br]You should absolutely spend time there, [br]especially when you need to be productive. 0:07:06.939,0:07:15.964 Your panic zone is an excellent place to[br]experiment. To play. To find your boundaries. 0:07:15.964,0:07:24.235 Because as long as you don't need to be [br]delivering values, your fear can be transform [br]into thrill and discovery. 0:07:24.312,0:07:32.848 you should absolutely spend time there, [br]but not when people are paying you money. 0:07:35.188,0:07:41.273 In other words, you should spend time in your[br]comfort zone and your panic zone. 0:07:41.273,0:07:48.618 You just shouldn't try to learn stuff there. 0:07:48.618,0:08:00.416 I spent months working through math and[br]physic problems and during that time, I [br]learned as much about practice as I did about [br]calculus and mechanic. 0:08:00.416,0:08:07.450 Practice is a strange beast. It's not play.[br]It's not intended to be fun 0:08:07.450,0:08:16.912 It's also not work. It's not intended to produce [br]anything. Practice is thing entirely unto itself. 0:08:16.912,0:08:26.883 What a lot of people commonly think as [br]practice is futzing around, kinda doing stuff [br]but seem relevant to what you think you might [br]want to kind of get better at. 0:08:26.883,0:08:36.540 This sometimes kinda works.For practice to [br]be truly effective, it need to be focus and deliberate. 0:08:36.540,0:08:39.898 The most basic form of practice is the drill. 0:08:39.898,0:08:47.389 Now, a good drill boils down to three [br]elements: focus, repetitions and continuous feedback. 0:08:47.389,0:09:00.508 A drill work in activities until you're focusing [br]on a narrow slice of that skill in[br]a way that's repeatable and which provide[br]immediate and continuous feedback. 0:09:00.508,0:09:04.424 How narrow a slice depends on your capabilities 0:09:04.424,0:09:08.939 If you're in your comfort zone, you need to ratchet up drilling a notch. 0:09:08.939,0:09:21.731 If you're in your panic zone, your adaptation[br]will be random and accidental and [br]you'll find yourself practicing doing it wrong [br]more than you're practicing doing it right. 0:09:21.731,0:09:28.576 Practice doesn't make perfect. It makes permanent. 0:09:28.576,0:09:34.500 If you're practicing in your panic zone, you'll wind up being permanently wrong. 0:09:34.500,0:09:41.387 You want to find that sweet spot. That space [br]where ability and challenge barely overlap. 0:09:41.387,0:09:47.019 So, find something that you can kind of almost do. 0:09:47.019,0:09:52.161 Warp it until you're focusing on a particular [br]aspect of that skill. 0:09:52.161,0:09:56.435 Make it repeatable so you can do it over and over and over 0:09:56.435,0:09:59.913 And it make the feedback loop as short as possible 0:09:59.913,0:10:07.943 And then go do it. [br]And then take a nap. 0:10:07.943,0:10:12.092 Not all focus (inaudible) practice activities are drilled 0:10:12.092,0:10:16.190 Take simulations, for example. 0:10:16.190,0:10:21.218 Athletes have scrimmages. In therapy it's call role play. 0:10:21.218,0:10:27.579 In programming, we do weekend projects, [br]hack fest, and code retreats. 0:10:27.579,0:10:33.907 In a simulation, you improvise as though it were the real thing 0:10:33.907,0:10:39.899 When you make a mistake, nobody dies. 0:10:39.899,0:10:48.682 You don't lose. You don't fail.[br]you also don't stop, go back and immediately [br]do it over again correctly because that's what [br]thrills are for. 0:10:48.682,0:10:52.726 In a simulation, you keep going. 0:10:52.726,0:11:00.529 A simulation doesn't warp activities. it[br]intensify them. You provide a more [br]concentrated learning experience. 0:11:00.529,0:11:07.474 by putting together implausible combinations [br]of unlikely occurrences. 0:11:07.474,0:11:13.239 Another interesting type of practices is the case study. 0:11:13.239,0:11:17.006 Athletes watch videos of practice sessions and performances. 0:11:17.006,0:11:22.899 Chess players study games played by grand masters and try to determine what the [br]next move would be 0:11:22.899,0:11:27.971 and then when they're wrong, they analyze why. 0:11:27.971,0:11:36.799 In programming, reading code is a case [br]study. What were they thinking? 0:11:36.799,0:11:44.551 What pressure cause them to choose this[br]approach? What are the trade offs? 0:11:44.551,0:11:49.897 Case studies are about observations and [br]analysis and critical thinking 0:11:49.897,0:11:51.950 and then you have direct practice. 0:11:51.950,0:12:01.003 Those precise notes and perfect pauses of a [br]violinist playing a concert piece while nobody's listening 0:12:01.013,0:12:09.496 Direct practice when done deliberately and [br]with focus hones clockwork precisions, [br]making it reflexive. 0:12:09.496,0:12:12.702 You can shift your attention away from the[br]mechanics of your performance. 0:12:12.702,0:12:23.521 You can focus all of your creativity on the[br]subtle details that lift your performance from [br]the subtle and mundane to the exquisite. 0:12:23.521,0:12:26.488 And typically, we associate direct practice with musicians[br] 0:12:26.488,0:12:36.185 but it's just as much the domain of stand up [br]comedians and trial lawyers and [br]complementary French circus acrobats. 0:12:36.185,0:12:44.997 And then there's intimations. Overlooked and undervalued. 0:12:44.997,0:12:47.749 When you're a beginner, you don't know what you don't know. 0:12:47.749,0:12:52.723 Intimating masters will teach you things that you don't know you need to know 0:12:52.723,0:12:58.913 and often things that the master themselves are unable to articulate. 0:12:58.913,0:13:07.268 In our culture, we tend to hide individuality[br]and creative self expressions and it's really [br]hard to be creative. 0:13:07.268,0:13:13.496 Without having internalized a vast store of techniques and _____. 0:13:13.496,0:13:21.072 Don't be a snowflake. Go copy someone who[br]know that they're doing. 0:13:21.072,0:13:26.772 No matter what type of practice activity [br]you're doing, no matter how good you are, [br]practice is grueling. 0:13:26.772,0:13:38.138 Drills, simulations, case studies, direct [br]practice, imitations. These are all ways of[br]stretching you to the edge of your ability. 0:13:38.138,0:13:44.457 That's equally as difficult for expert as it is beginners. 0:13:44.457,0:13:49.735 That said, practice is particularly challenging [br]when grossly incompetent. 0:13:49.735,0:13:56.442 Not so much because you suck, per se. But[br]because feeling stupid is so powerfully unpleasant. 0:13:56.442,0:14:00.332 It's one of the important driver behind procrastinations. 0:14:00.332,0:14:08.201 When you're feeling overwhelm by your own[br]ineptitude, it's easy to become fatalistic. 0:14:08.201,0:14:15.131 Another disadvantage of being a beginner is [br]that so many practice activity lack inherent [br]feedback. 0:14:15.131,0:14:21.661 When you're vastly unskilled, your judgement [br]is completely unreliable. 0:14:21.661,0:14:27.737 Everything, including the right thing, feels wrong. 0:14:27.737,0:14:36.384 It's easy to consistently make the wrong [br]adjustment, leaving you with deeply ingrain [br]bad habit. 0:14:39.784,0:14:47.247 It took me 18 months to pass all the [br]prerequisite exams and I was ready to apply [br]to universities. 0:14:47.247,0:14:55.492 I was accepted to two study programs. One in [br]aerospace engineering and one in molecular [br]biology. 0:14:55.492,0:15:00.280 When people around me realize I was serious[br]about this university thing, I got a bit of a push [br]back. 0:15:00.280,0:15:07.981 They were like "holy crap, you're gonna be[br]like thirty two by the time you finish". 0:15:07.981,0:15:16.065 If we were gonna be realistic about it though, I[br]was going to be thirty two anyway. 0:15:16.065,0:15:18.349 I picked molecular biology. 0:15:18.349,0:15:25.840 University was completely uneventful. I wrote [br]papers. I did lab work. I read books. I took exams. 0:15:25.840,0:15:31.531 It changed my life. Not so much because of[br]the papers and the exams, but because I was [br]learning. 0:15:31.531,0:15:37.200 I was practicing and I was introduce to the (--------) 0:15:37.200,0:15:47.330 Now before university, I occasionally [br]experienced (flow?). Mostly when solving [br]truss problems and mechanics. 0:15:47.330,0:15:55.203 Telling the computer what to do was like truss [br]problems except better. 0:15:55.203,0:16:00.455 I kept coming back to and exploring [br]programming. Exploring. Not learning. 0:16:00.455,0:16:09.020 Learning is what I did with math and physics. [br]That was a study, tedious, rewarding, diet, [br]deliberate, focus practice. 0:16:09.020,0:16:14.464 It took a really long time before I [br]transition from exploring to learning programing. 0:16:14.464,0:16:18.339 Even when I did make the transition, it was [br]hit or miss. 0:16:18.339,0:16:28.257 A lot of the research I found were confusing, [br]outdated or just hopelessly advanced. 0:16:28.257,0:16:33.802 After three years, I had a bachelor degree in [br]molecular biology, 0:16:33.802,0:16:37.368 some basic ability to write control structures 0:16:37.368,0:16:42.174 and far more importantly, I've come to accept that talent is not ebullient* 0:16:42.174,0:16:49.842 It's not some innate genetic trait that you have[br]to go and look for and may or may not find 0:16:49.842,0:16:54.740 The truth is, talent is bullshit. 0:16:54.740,0:16:58.506 Skill can be develop systematically and [br]the system is awesome. 0:16:58.506,0:17:05.434 A system you can understand.[br]A system you can hack. 0:17:05.434,0:17:11.152 The technical term for skill development is[br]leveling up. 0:17:11.152,0:17:15.169 Now, a pair of researchers, a couple of [br]brothers by the name of Dreyfus 0:17:15.169,0:17:23.542 created a model of how leveling up works and [br]their scale goes like this 0:17:23.542,0:17:25.713 Novice, where you know nothing. 0:17:25.713,0:17:30.143 Advanced beginner, where you still suck but[br]you kind of see what this is about. 0:17:30.143,0:17:33.223 Competent, where you can start getting shit done. 0:17:33.223,0:17:35.530 Proficient, where you get shit done really well. 0:17:35.530,0:17:42.504 And expert, where the shit you get done[br]seems like magic to pretty much everyone else. 0:17:45.204,0:17:57.511 When we're novices, we can be in one of two[br]state: mindless obedience or overwhelm 0:17:59.511,0:18:08.843 As novices, we're in the (inaudible) position of[br]being only millimeters away from our panic [br]zone at all times. 0:18:08.843,0:18:11.143 If a rule was clear, we're stuck. 0:18:11.143,0:18:13.192 If we accidentally skip a step, we're stuck. 0:18:13.192,0:18:20.837 If we...I get a result that deviate even slightly[br]from what we expected, we're stuck. 0:18:20.837,0:18:24.712 We have no frame of reference. 0:18:24.712,0:18:36.449 When we're advanced beginner, we see [br]1,000 disconnected details and we give every[br]single one of those details equal consideration. 0:18:36.449,0:18:45.106 There's no cohesion where I'm able to[br]distinguish between relevant and irrelevant [br]and incidental. 0:18:45.106,0:18:50.959 We can look things up, but we can't troubleshoot. 0:18:50.959,0:18:58.135 When we're competent, we gain the ability [br]to evaluate relevance within a context. 0:18:58.135,0:19:02.389 We also gain the ability to perform routine[br]procedures and do basic troubleshooting. 0:19:02.389,0:19:06.945 Here, we can be productive without[br]something stepping outside of our comfort zone. 0:19:06.945,0:19:12.390 Which may be why so many people stagnated[br]this skill level indefinitely. 0:19:12.390,0:19:17.819 When we're proficient, we can make much [br]finer discrimination. 0:19:17.819,0:19:23.063 We can evaluate the significance of subtle indicators. 0:19:23.063,0:19:28.137 We look further ahead. We make predictions.[br]We prognosticate. 0:19:28.137,0:19:31.869 We recognize underline patterns. [br]We apply overarching principles. 0:19:31.869,0:19:40.743 All of the intricacies of the subject matter [br]come together in a vast and fascinating web. 0:19:40.743,0:19:47.023 When we're expert, you see 1,000 details and[br]immediately disregard 999 of them. 0:19:47.023,0:19:51.753 We focus in on the one that matters. How do we do it? No idea. 0:19:51.753,0:19:55.495 We don't know how we know, what we know. [br] 0:19:55.495,0:20:00.397 A lot of people talk about instinct or intuition [br]as though it's some sort of super power. 0:20:00.397,0:20:02.391 But it's not magic. [br] 0:20:02.391,0:20:13.495 It's powerful processing that happens very[br]very quickly and it's based on a gargantuan [br]store of knowledge and experience. 0:20:13.495,0:20:23.059 Described in this way, skill development[br]sounds so sequential and regular and inevitable 0:20:23.059,0:20:31.476 leveling up in a series of climaxes win after [br]win after win as though life was a television commercial. 0:20:31.476,0:20:38.531 This is a scientific model. A scientific model is [br]like a uml diagram but for science. 0:20:38.531,0:20:48.134 It's a simplification about the world. It's useful[br]lie that you tell yourself in order to navigate a [br]messy reality. 0:20:50.344,0:21:03.228 So maybe sequential, but regular? hardly. [br]Inevitable. We should be so lucky. Life is messy. 0:21:03.228,0:21:10.764 Leveling happens in spurts and sudden [br]surges and there are plateaus. 0:21:10.764,0:21:13.680 A lot of people seem to dread the plateaus. 0:21:13.680,0:21:18.908 Hurrying past them as best as they can and [br]always with their eye on the goal. 0:21:18.908,0:21:26.261 Am I there yet? Am I done yet? Am I good yet? 0:21:26.261,0:21:32.092 Plateaus are neurologically important. [br]The way sleep is neurologically important. 0:21:32.092,0:21:40.971 It injects time into your practice. It allows[br]complex skills to become deeply embedded. 0:21:40.971,0:21:44.904 Plateaus are where your skills being [br]refactored so that you can scale. 0:21:44.904,0:21:51.912 If you're in a rush, you're going to end up with [br]brittle and fragile skills. 0:21:51.912,0:21:59.136 Focus on what you're doing. [br]Not how you're doing. 0:21:59.136,0:22:04.031 There's a saying "immature practice until they [br]get it right. 0:22:04.031,0:22:07.946 Professional practice until they can't get it wrong." 0:22:07.946,0:22:14.973 That's what plateaus are about. [br]They put the level in level up. 0:22:16.273,0:22:23.666 I used my university degree exactly once. For the first programming job that I got. 0:22:23.666,0:22:26.631 The CTO of a start up looked at my resume and said 0:22:26.631,0:22:34.346 "huh, a degree in molecular biology in biological chemistry. You must be pretty smart." 0:22:34.346,0:22:37.436 And she gave me the job. 0:22:37.436,0:22:48.186 It was the combination of a lot of hard work, [br]practice and it was a start of a lot more [br]hard work and practice. 0:22:48.186,0:22:51.492 I thought I wanted to be extraordinary, 0:22:51.492,0:22:59.978 but what I really craved was passion and that[br]deep sense of satisfaction that comes with [br]focus and accomplishment. 0:22:59.978,0:23:09.355 Mastery isn't about perfection. Skills grows by [br]focusing intently on the things that stretch you 0:23:09.355,0:23:18.177 and passion grows by giving your attention to [br]something long enough to gain depth and [br]understand nuances. 0:23:18.177,0:23:28.227 Talent is bullshit. Skill is cultivated. Passion is [br]curated ad hacking skills is hacking passion. 0:23:28.227,0:23:32.375 Don't do what you love. Do [br]something well enough to love what you do. 0:23:32.375,0:23:34.723 Thank You.