There is something here along the lines of “becoming skilled at a thing helps you better understand the appeal (and costs) of being skilled at other things”. It’s definitely not the only thing you need because I’ve been highly skilled at improv piano, but still desired these other things.
What I want to point out in the post is the disconnect between becoming highly skilled and what you actually value. It’s like eating food because it’s popular as opposed to actually tasting it and seeing if you like that taste (there was an old story here on LW about this, I think).
Making the cost explicit does help (“it would take decades to become a grandmaster”), but there can be a lack of feedback on why becoming a national master sounds appealing to you. Like the idea of being [cool title] sounds appealing, but is the actual, visceral, moment-to-moment experience of it undeniably enjoyable to you? (in this case, you can only give an educated guess until you become it, but an educated guess can be good enough!)
There is something here along the lines of “becoming skilled at a thing helps you better understand the appeal (and costs) of being skilled at other things”. It’s definitely not the only thing you need because I’ve been highly skilled at improv piano, but still desired these other things.
What I want to point out in the post is the disconnect between becoming highly skilled and what you actually value. It’s like eating food because it’s popular as opposed to actually tasting it and seeing if you like that taste (there was an old story here on LW about this, I think).
Making the cost explicit does help (“it would take decades to become a grandmaster”), but there can be a lack of feedback on why becoming a national master sounds appealing to you. Like the idea of being [cool title] sounds appealing, but is the actual, visceral, moment-to-moment experience of it undeniably enjoyable to you? (in this case, you can only give an educated guess until you become it, but an educated guess can be good enough!)