understanding how bad you are

[Olaf]

@Asayake Of course, that is just laziness, hard work is fundamental. Maybe it was too obvious for me, but for some they might be in this durp state where they are not proactive and not practicing with discipline. 

[Asayake]

49 minutes ago, Olaf said:

@Asayake Of course, that is just laziness, hard work is fundamental. Maybe it was too obvious for me, but for some they might be in this durp state where they are not proactive and not practicing with discipline. 

Yeah that's a blunt way to capture it but there's something to it. I'd say most people are stuck in that state which is why meeting someone who's genuinely really good at something is pretty rare. I had some insight into this once when I talked with a guy who's a really skilled musician. When he told me that he doesn't practice endlessly all day because that would create a bunch of bad habits but that he was thoughtful with his practice, such as stopping when he noticed he was starting to make too many mistakes as to not ingrain them into his playing it make me reconsider my career as a musician and as a gamer. I basically practiced being a mediocre gamer lol.

[Olaf]

@Asayake yep smart plus hard work, actually it is harder work, because you are using your brain, just repeating something endlessly anyone can do. Maybe you can even say it is being conscious, as most people are unconscious and durping and therefor almost never seem to use their brain. If you work a job for a while, you probably have no need to use your brain in the first place, because you can do everything drunk, that is how easy most jobs are, with exceptions. 

[LordFall]

I like this mindset. It hurts to see yourself as unskilled and not good enough but if you have a victim mindset and blame the world for your shortcomings then it's even harder to fix. 

Personally I'm not that great at content creation and work ethic, I need to level up on both to accomplish my dreams. 

[Olaf]

@LordFall I have had a couple of times seen people much further ahead of me in specific areas and talked or befriended them and everytime the same thought came up `I am bad at this`. You realise what real excellence looks like. It is humbling and makes you not be blaming everything and everyone else, thinking someone was `lucky`, what the hell does luck even mean? Imagine Messi just relied only on luck, we wouldn't have known his name, because talent and luck without hard work is nothing at all. 

[Joseph Maynor]

22 hours ago, Asayake said:

This is correct, you need deliberate practice. Which is easier said than done! I played a ton of video games and I never got good at them, 

But this begs the question as to what deliberate practice means.  I never wanted to play music to please anyone else.  I decided early on that I would only play what I enjoyed and I took the attitude that if others like it, that is a bonus.  I play music for myself, so this is the difference between doing something for yourself primarily or doing it to make money -- where you are doing it to impress or please others because you are trying to make money doing it.  However, I still want to improve even if I am doing it for myself because I hear myself and I listen to a lot of music, so I want to sound better for me.  But that is a different motivation and not the same sort of pressure of trying to make money or a career as a Jazz musician.  For me deliberate practice is whatever I want to do, but I do see how if you want to improve, it is good to find a way to attain another level: otherwise you're not really pushing yourself, you are just looping on what you always do.  That is not really practicing.  Practicing is when you are isolating something to try to become better at mastering an artform.

Edited 2 hours ago by Joseph Maynor

[Yimpa]

@Joseph Maynor Have you ever considered uploading yourself playing music, not for money but just to put it out there for someone else to stumble upon? 

[Joseph Maynor]

18 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

@Joseph Maynor Have you ever considered uploading yourself playing music, not for money but just to put it out there for someone else to stumble upon? 

No I prefer to play live.  I have made videos that were tutorials but I took them down because I realize my approach to playing Jazz is so different from what is commonly taught that they might even be harmful to Jazz students who are trying to make a career out of being a Jazz musician.  

This is one of the performances of me playing live on YouTube.  It is very old.
 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Joseph Maynor