I find it remarkable that a statement about what it takes to be "great" in Fortune Magazine, uses mostly sport and a few musical examples... and relatively few business examples.
Any expert will tell you that practice and dilligence is required to make yourself the best you can be -- but a lot depends on what you are given with at the beginning. For example, to be really "great" requires: a) natural ability, b) very hard work to hone that ability, and c) the luck to have the opportunity to exercise that ability. (It's not popular to claim that luck is part of the process, but think of it of (a) and (b) as readying yourself for when opportunity knocks.)
In the field of science, individuals like Newton, Einstein, and Feynman are great because they were "magicians" -- as the famous physicist Hans Bethe called Feynman. While they got there via very intense concentration and hard work, without the initial abilities the concentration and hard work need not make you "great".
A very good discussion of where are all the "greats" today (it seems that "back when" there were many more "greats"), can be found in the excellent book: _Genius_ by Gleick.
Still, this Fortune article is superior to the latest craze in Hollywood: "The Secret" which amounts of wishing upon a star.
US Culture has devolved into from the "hard work will get you there" ethic to "winning the lottery" get rich quick. It's a sad comment and doesn't bode well for us -- especially when issues of peak oil become more publicly discussed. (Sorry, "they" aren't close to a breakthrough on replacing energy.)
That "The Secret" has recently knocked off the last Harry Potter book (essentially a fairy tale) from the Amazon #1 slot says a lot about this country.
Thanks for reminding people of the other side of the coin.
This article badly misquotes a metastudy of "talent" research in which it was determined that the mean number of hours of practice to reach the top of the field for a specific talent is 10,000 hours. I quoted this in class last week and a student forwarded this article to me.
The point is correct, regardless of how much natural talent you have, it still takes hard work to reach the top of your field. Natural talent really only comes in to play at the extreme ends of the spectrum, beginners and masters. In between, it's all hard work.
Even then, lightning still has to strike, particularly in Hollywood, where there are so many talents (and untalented) people fighting for very, very few good jobs.
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I find it remarkable that a statement about what it takes to be "great" in Fortune Magazine, uses mostly sport and a few musical examples... and relatively few business examples.
Any expert will tell you that practice and dilligence is required to make yourself the best you can be -- but a lot depends on what you are given with at the beginning. For example, to be really "great" requires: a) natural ability, b) very hard work to hone that ability, and c) the luck to have the opportunity to exercise that ability. (It's not popular to claim that luck is part of the process, but think of it of (a) and (b) as readying yourself for when opportunity knocks.)
In the field of science, individuals like Newton, Einstein, and Feynman are great because they were "magicians" -- as the famous physicist Hans Bethe called Feynman. While they got there via very intense concentration and hard work, without the initial abilities the concentration and hard work need not make you "great".
A very good discussion of where are all the "greats" today (it seems that "back when" there were many more "greats"), can be found in the excellent book: _Genius_ by Gleick.
Still, this Fortune article is superior to the latest craze in Hollywood: "The Secret" which amounts of wishing upon a star.
US Culture has devolved into from the "hard work will get you there" ethic to "winning the lottery" get rich quick. It's a sad comment and doesn't bode well for us -- especially when issues of peak oil become more publicly discussed. (Sorry, "they" aren't close to a breakthrough on replacing energy.)
That "The Secret" has recently knocked off the last Harry Potter book (essentially a fairy tale) from the Amazon #1 slot says a lot about this country.
Thanks for reminding people of the other side of the coin.
This article badly misquotes a metastudy of "talent" research in which it was determined that the mean number of hours of practice to reach the top of the field for a specific talent is 10,000 hours. I quoted this in class last week and a student forwarded this article to me.
The point is correct, regardless of how much natural talent you have, it still takes hard work to reach the top of your field. Natural talent really only comes in to play at the extreme ends of the spectrum, beginners and masters. In between, it's all hard work.
Even then, lightning still has to strike, particularly in Hollywood, where there are so many talents (and untalented) people fighting for very, very few good jobs.
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