How to Become the Best in the World at Something • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#111

Post by RivieraKid » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:46 PM UTC

This seems kind of pointless, most people already are the best in the world at some specific combination of skills - knowledge of local geography, ability to cook a certain set of meals, etc.

Anyway, a related thought that I find interesting: Becoming a "polymath" i.e. learning a wide range of topics to reasonable depth requires less effort than most people expect. For example, let's say you want to learn mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and economics. I think that achieving 80% of undergrad knowledge would take much less than 80% of the time that people need to complete an undergrad degree. So let's say it could take a year to acquire a good foundation in each of these topics if you try to optimize the process by focusing on fundamentals and core principles, choosing the best books, etc.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#112

Post by markus_zhang » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:47 PM UTC

mindgam3 wrote: post #80

markus_zhang wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. My parents also pushed very hard for me playing piano and I gained skills quickly. However I never really had a lot of interest in it so forgot most of it in recent years. I don't have the mental power to be crazy, but you are right.

> I don’t have the mental power to be crazy Wait, what? I was clearly using crazy in the Steve Jobs “here’s to the crazy ones” sense. You appear to be implying that unlike you, I do have the mental power to be crazy in the mentally ill sense. That seems slightly unwarranted.

No I mean the good kind of crazy hah

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#113

Post by TurkishPoptart » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:49 PM UTC

spacedog11 wrote: post #97

Author of the article gives one TedX talk, then goes on to proclaim that he's an "expert" at public speaking and ranks himself in the "90" percentile for public speaking. What a joke!

Yep, I wish this clickbait wasn't posted on HN...

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#114

Post by 4ntonius8lock » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

forgotmypw wrote: post #87

Why is it acceptable to submit an article which is selectively inaccessible to the majority of users? All I see is: How to Become the Best in the World at Something With skill stacking, you don’t need to be at the top to be extraordinary Tomas Pueyo Oct 17 · 7 min read It’s better to have three okay tools than a single, perfect one. The axe is great at breaking obstacles, but not that useful to jump over pits. The gr…

I rarely get caught up on pay walls.

Firefox with Ublock origin + Decentraleyes + NoScrypt + Cookie AutoDelete

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#115

Post by anon1m0us » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

mindgam3 wrote: post #42

> You will not be the world’s greatest writer, nor the top chess player, nor the most masterful public speaker. > It’s not about being great at any one thing — you just need to be pretty good at an array of useful skills that, when combined, make you truly one of a kind. As somebody who was the world’s #2 chess player for my age as a kid (okay, not the “top” but close enough) - I’d like to say that the advice in this…

Can you even force something like that on yourself? From what I saw in the documentary about Magnus, he just loved it. He seemed uncontrollably driven toward it.

What you're saying sounds like you'd have to force yourself to endure the training, but you'd have to force Magnus to stop playing chess.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#116

Post by chadcmulligan » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

I'm a fan of tennis, I'm not a very good player though, and never will be - I don't want to play 12 hours a day. I've watched Federer many times and a couple of take aways I've seen from watching him - practice every day, if you're losing, just keep going, the other guy will eventually give up or make a mistake, or you'll lose today, the other guy will eventually give up.

I really think this is the only way to be the best at something - do it every day, some days you'll fail, but if you keep going, eventually you'll have so much expertise you'll wake up one day and be the best, or close enough.

The trouble is no one really wants to do this, all Federer does is tennis, he must love it, every day he gets up and plays tennis. Most people will stop at good enough though.

If Federer played basketball, would he be the best? probably not, so thats the other thing - pick something your body and brain is built for, and do it every day.

If there were any short cuts then the best would use them any way and add them to their arsenal, so any short cuts will be short lived.

I think PG said something the same about start ups - they don't fail the founders just stop.

I think this ties in with why so many start ups are made by rich kids, they can afford not to stop, everyone else has to stop at some point and get a job.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#117

Post by Kaveren » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:58 PM UTC

QueridoGuy wrote: post #100

That’s one of the questions i always wanted to ask the top people such as Bill Gates or someone like Dennis Ritchie. Being the top isn’t something easy, but i feel like people overestimate it quite a lot, to the point that they quit thinking they want to be the best. I can say , the world is much smaller than the concept we draw on our minds. So many stuff that i looked into, especially in the programming world, is s…

> "The only difference between you and the other top 1 is that he had more interest."

Wishful thinking. The most important component is genetic ability, which must be enabled by an environment allowing you to put in the required effort (i.e. developed or developing country, food and housing, minimal education). Interest and discipline is a tertiary concern.

It's way easier to be interested in something if you have natural aptitude.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#118

Post by mindgam3 » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 9:59 PM UTC

anon1m0us wrote: post #115

mindgam3 wrote: post #42

> You will not be the world’s greatest writer, nor the top chess player, nor the most masterful public speaker. > It’s not about being great at any one thing — you just need to be pretty good at an array of useful skills that, when combined, make you truly one of a kind. As somebody who was the world’s #2 chess player for my age as a kid (okay, not the “top” but close enough) - I’d like to say that the advice in this…

Can you even force something like that on yourself? From what I saw in the documentary about Magnus, he just loved it. He seemed uncontrollably driven toward it. What you're saying sounds like you'd have to force yourself to endure the training, but you'd have to force Magnus to stop playing chess.

No, you can’t force it. I genuinely loved chess, and it was still grueling. If I didn’t love it there’s no way I would have put myself through that.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#119

Post by markthien » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 10:02 PM UTC

most women don't like pornstar as most of them very good at banging only like a machine. women like a man with a stack of skills like good at foreplay, banging, kissing, romantic, playing and etc. this is considered as skill stacking too.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#120

Post by Kaveren » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #43

Quick example of skill stacking: You won't be the world's best chess player or boxer, but, hey, being the world champion in chess boxing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing )? That may well be within you reach.

This is gimmicky. Everyone knows they can be the best in the world at some random and obscure task nobody cares about. This sort of thing is a complete waste of your time. Better to focus on improving at one or the other.