Chess requires real focus from early in life to get really good (at least International Master or higher).
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
"Range". by David Esptein, argues that generalists can do very well in public life
If you’re going to be professional at something and get
public recognition for it, do you have to be a prodigy and start early and focus
on it from childhood?
According to a New York Times book review by Jim Holt, David
Epstein says, not necessarily, in his new book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph
in a Specialized World”, published by Riverhead Books.
The idea is that learning environments can be kind, or
brutal. Classical music performance
tends to be a kind environment that rewards starting early and sticking with
it. Composing may be more nuanced, and some modern composers are quite
versatile with their skills: Jaron
Lanier (“You Are Not a Gadget”, and “10 Arguments for Deleting your Social Media
Accounts Right Now”), well known for large, eclectic compositions (Plays blog,
June 19, 2013), is quite versatile with tech for its own sake (as are many other
musicians).
The review compares the careers of Tiger Woods (golf) with
Roger Federer (tennis), the latter of which is more compatible with
generalism. Medicine is said to be so,
despite the fact that interns and residents have to live such unifocal
existence.
My own case with piano was a narrow miss. It was not easy
for boys to consider this in the Cold War obsessed 1950s and early 1960s. I had
an audition in a ritzy NW Washington apartment building with a Dr. Hughes, who
was 72 at the time, when I was about 15, for a piano career. It was indeed close.
I wound up with a double life, where mainframe information technology rather dead-ended itself after 2000 as a real career field that creates a professional identity.
Chess requires real focus from early in life to get really good (at least International Master or higher).
Chess requires real focus from early in life to get really good (at least International Master or higher).
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