This is certainly an interesting idea, but I’m skeptical. I’ve noticed that a few practices have that effect (exercise, for example), but it seems to me that it’s more a matter of habitually exercising willpower than getting the right mix of experiences. Lots of extremely successful people just spend all their time doing whatever it is that they do well.
For example, when I read this pleasant profile of Richard Posner, I don’t imagine that he’s a great jurist because he goes to the zoo or plays with his cat; I imagine that he’s a great jurist because, aside from playing with his cat, eating, sleeping, and commuting, he spends all his time obsessing over the law.
I’d agree that Richard Posner spends a great deal of time thinking about law, but for him, it’s probably not a matter of habitually exercising willpower.
Individuals who have the kind of self-discipline to get to to the top of their field on willpower alone simply don’t exist. The simplest explanation for why certain people devote their lives to their work is that they legitimately enjoy their work. In fact, there are cases of individuals finding success without having explicitly sought or expected success, only coming to fame and fortune after the fruits of their “hobbies” became recognized by others. Besides, if success was mainly a matter of self-control, then you’d expect most high achievers to prove resistant to not only sloth but also the entire spectrum of harmful temptations. Yet we often find that even those who have reached the apex of achievement have done so in spite of private failings with counterproductive habits and addictions. (or not-so-private, as the career of Bill Clinton might serve to inform.)
Those who succeed, do so because they put in more work than the rest. Those who work more than the rest, do so because they get more fulfillment out of their work.
(And why do people enjoy their work in the first place? Usually, because they are good at it.)
This is certainly an interesting idea, but I’m skeptical. I’ve noticed that a few practices have that effect (exercise, for example), but it seems to me that it’s more a matter of habitually exercising willpower than getting the right mix of experiences. Lots of extremely successful people just spend all their time doing whatever it is that they do well.
For example, when I read this pleasant profile of Richard Posner, I don’t imagine that he’s a great jurist because he goes to the zoo or plays with his cat; I imagine that he’s a great jurist because, aside from playing with his cat, eating, sleeping, and commuting, he spends all his time obsessing over the law.
I’d agree that Richard Posner spends a great deal of time thinking about law, but for him, it’s probably not a matter of habitually exercising willpower.
Individuals who have the kind of self-discipline to get to to the top of their field on willpower alone simply don’t exist. The simplest explanation for why certain people devote their lives to their work is that they legitimately enjoy their work. In fact, there are cases of individuals finding success without having explicitly sought or expected success, only coming to fame and fortune after the fruits of their “hobbies” became recognized by others. Besides, if success was mainly a matter of self-control, then you’d expect most high achievers to prove resistant to not only sloth but also the entire spectrum of harmful temptations. Yet we often find that even those who have reached the apex of achievement have done so in spite of private failings with counterproductive habits and addictions. (or not-so-private, as the career of Bill Clinton might serve to inform.)
Those who succeed, do so because they put in more work than the rest. Those who work more than the rest, do so because they get more fulfillment out of their work.
(And why do people enjoy their work in the first place? Usually, because they are good at it.)