3min chapter

Deep Questions with Cal Newport cover image

Ep. 39: DAVID EPSTEIN on Skills, Practice, and the Subtle Art of Cultivating a Meaningful Career

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

CHAPTER

How to Sharpen a Skill

"Sharpening is non trivial, like for a lot of people, there's a, it's a revelation to learn about," he says. "You should not be too worried about the idea that you need to be figuring out right now and committing to a single skill." He suggests taking advantage of early part of learning by overlapping multiple things in unique way.

00:00
Speaker 2
A, so, like, if you were talking to some onf you're twenties, you would, you would say, it's important that at the moment you're trying to sharpen a skill, you know, you don't want to not be trying to sharpen skills. A, but you also should not be too worried about the idea that you need to be figuring out right now and committing to a single skill that you will continue to sharpen for the rest of your career. And so the key is sharpening, is we talk about, i we've talk this before. You know, i just just want on one, like, sharpening is non trivial, like for a lot of people, there's a, it's a revelation to learn about. Like, oh, what is it? How do i learn something hard? How do i learn it quick, even if i don't want to be world expert, but just to get, you know, good at environmental science like you did. A, what is that takeo, it takes some focus. It takes some deliberate practice. It takes some, some discipline. And so nowm, my condensation is now longer than your original answeri this is not quite well, but basically, ah, a, b s you always want to be sharpening something. Like you alwys want to be trying to learn something, and something that your environment is telling you might be useful or interesting. But also be ready that if those environmental conditions changed, that you might put that sharpened stick into your, your your belt and pick up another one to sharpen totally.
Speaker 1
And you might. And i'm a big fan of taking advantage of the early part of the learning curven in multiple things, and sort of overlapping them in a unique way. Where, right, where as, like, again, when i came from science, suddenly the people i knew in science viewed me as the ultimate generalist, whereas the journalists viewed me as a specialist because i was comin on t science background. So i think you put it, i think you put it, ah, really well. A, and i an end, like you said, that sharpening is is non trivial, cause most people aren't, just aren't doing it most of the time. I think, i think the question, and your condensation makes me think of the dark horse project that i write about at a certain point in range, where these people who have a broad array of skills, but they didn't set out to say, oh, i'm going to be, i'm going to be a polymath, or i'm goingto be a generalist, or whatever. They basically set out in search of, you know, finding exploring their talents and their opportunities. And so they would frequently say, here's hereswhat i'm good at right now. Here's what i'm weak at but need to learn. Here the opportunities in front of me. I going to take this one right now, and maye and maybe a year from now i will change, because i will have lerned something about myself or about the opportunities in front of me. And so its really that focus on short term improvement, as opposed to asking those questions about, what should i do now, four or twenty years down the road, which you really cannot predict where you'll be anyway. So that focus on short term improvement, even though it sounds bad to say, like, focus on the short term, because i think that kind of focusing on the short term is actually focusing on the on the long term. Yes.

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