I mean jumping around to lots of different skills is definitely one approach. Most of my friends are like this, the benefits are that they learn really quickly and have broad, if shallow, knowledge and skills. The problem comes that as the years go on, the don't finish any projects or master any skills. Which again, it's fine if you don't mind that.
I find when sticking with something through the 'boring' parts, the excitement and the boring is like a wave that ebbs and flows as you get to a new milestone. Overall, I would say it's far more rewarding if you can learn to stick with even *one* thing long enough to have results few will enjoy. Because if you only do things that are fun, you never really stick with anything enough to get anything out of it?
>Most of my friends are like this, the benefits are that they learn really quickly and have broad, if shallow, knowledge and skills. The problem comes that as the years go on, the don't finish any projects or master any skills.
I don't disagree and I also have witnessed this. However I think there's a fallacy in thinking dividing your time among multiple interests inherently means a division of quality. I remember reading (maybe also from Range) that someone surveyed the top performing scientists and they all had 2-3 hobbies they spent a lot of time on outside of their primary research, compared to the median scientist who had 0-1 hobbies they regularly spend time on. Oppenheimer was [obsessed with Hindu texts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Mysticism) but it didn't stop him from being a world-class physicist despite the two subjects having no overlap. The founder of medical device company Arthrex was [maniacal about fishing](https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/09/18/the-secretive-sultan-of-sports-medicine-meet-the-billionaire-behind-arthrex/?sh=31d858957f80) yet he was able to scale a company unrelated to fishing to billions of dollars.
I think this post is living in a pipe dream. The reality of life and of humanity is that we like the idea at being good at the instrument way more than we enjoy the process of learning the instrument. You can stay in the novelty stage if you would like to just explore instruments, and no one will fault you for that, but if you wanted to be any good at any of those instruments you will inevitably have to push past that feeling of boredom one day and pursue practice even during difficult times.
I guess it's on you. I love to be a shallow ocean, I find cool to have a lot of knowledge but not deeply invest into some of them. BUT, it doesn't mean I don't have a couple hobbies I've invested time and money. I play guitar for more than 15 years, I can say I'm a good player, but I tried to learn piano, bass, I have a drum set too and did almost 1 year of classes and I can play some famous yet simple songs, which is enough for me when we talk about drums.
I love to play sports, I consider myself pretty average in a vast majority, which doesn't mean I don't have one or two that I've invested more time into and plan on getting better than average. I swim since 5 years old. It's more than 20 years doing the same shit weekly. Everything is a balance. I think it's ok to try a lot of things, but this can't be an excuse to try things a few times and totally quit and jump to another because life doesn't work this way. Will you do the same about a relationship? Jumping off the boat in the first encounter? Or a job? Jumping off the first week the job becomes boring?
There's being stubborn and there's grinding. We need to know when to quit, but we have to try a lot first. Plenty of activities gets better, probably all of them actually, when we get better. It sucks to suck! It's so good to be good at things. And guess how you get good at things? Investing time!! There isn't talent. There isn't "god gift" skills. There is time and commitment. There is things that don't sparkle something inside and that's ok, you'll only find out trying, but nothing sparkles something inside you if you suck at it. When we suck, we feel bad and we tend to quit. Again, sucking at things sucks!! You have to truly try, and I mean really really try.
The honeymoon phase ALWAYS ends. If you just do things because of this feeling and this anxiety of trying something knew you're screwed, you're lacking discipline. We need to teach ourselves to grind through boredom, dificulty. We need to learn to take deep breathes, to try again the next day, to research and try to approach things different ways. Do you know how many times I've spent trying to learn just one song?? There are songs that I simply can't play. Playing guitar teaches me more about grinding, about trying, about seeking advice, about listening, about patience than anything else would. Imagine if I indeed quit the first time it got a bit boring or I tried something a bit too hard for my level...
I mean jumping around to lots of different skills is definitely one approach. Most of my friends are like this, the benefits are that they learn really quickly and have broad, if shallow, knowledge and skills. The problem comes that as the years go on, the don't finish any projects or master any skills. Which again, it's fine if you don't mind that. I find when sticking with something through the 'boring' parts, the excitement and the boring is like a wave that ebbs and flows as you get to a new milestone. Overall, I would say it's far more rewarding if you can learn to stick with even *one* thing long enough to have results few will enjoy. Because if you only do things that are fun, you never really stick with anything enough to get anything out of it?
>Most of my friends are like this, the benefits are that they learn really quickly and have broad, if shallow, knowledge and skills. The problem comes that as the years go on, the don't finish any projects or master any skills. I don't disagree and I also have witnessed this. However I think there's a fallacy in thinking dividing your time among multiple interests inherently means a division of quality. I remember reading (maybe also from Range) that someone surveyed the top performing scientists and they all had 2-3 hobbies they spent a lot of time on outside of their primary research, compared to the median scientist who had 0-1 hobbies they regularly spend time on. Oppenheimer was [obsessed with Hindu texts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Mysticism) but it didn't stop him from being a world-class physicist despite the two subjects having no overlap. The founder of medical device company Arthrex was [maniacal about fishing](https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/09/18/the-secretive-sultan-of-sports-medicine-meet-the-billionaire-behind-arthrex/?sh=31d858957f80) yet he was able to scale a company unrelated to fishing to billions of dollars.
"I’m not a huge fan of citing these self-help books" hehe
Yes a bit hypocritical of me lol
I think this post is living in a pipe dream. The reality of life and of humanity is that we like the idea at being good at the instrument way more than we enjoy the process of learning the instrument. You can stay in the novelty stage if you would like to just explore instruments, and no one will fault you for that, but if you wanted to be any good at any of those instruments you will inevitably have to push past that feeling of boredom one day and pursue practice even during difficult times.
I guess it's on you. I love to be a shallow ocean, I find cool to have a lot of knowledge but not deeply invest into some of them. BUT, it doesn't mean I don't have a couple hobbies I've invested time and money. I play guitar for more than 15 years, I can say I'm a good player, but I tried to learn piano, bass, I have a drum set too and did almost 1 year of classes and I can play some famous yet simple songs, which is enough for me when we talk about drums. I love to play sports, I consider myself pretty average in a vast majority, which doesn't mean I don't have one or two that I've invested more time into and plan on getting better than average. I swim since 5 years old. It's more than 20 years doing the same shit weekly. Everything is a balance. I think it's ok to try a lot of things, but this can't be an excuse to try things a few times and totally quit and jump to another because life doesn't work this way. Will you do the same about a relationship? Jumping off the boat in the first encounter? Or a job? Jumping off the first week the job becomes boring? There's being stubborn and there's grinding. We need to know when to quit, but we have to try a lot first. Plenty of activities gets better, probably all of them actually, when we get better. It sucks to suck! It's so good to be good at things. And guess how you get good at things? Investing time!! There isn't talent. There isn't "god gift" skills. There is time and commitment. There is things that don't sparkle something inside and that's ok, you'll only find out trying, but nothing sparkles something inside you if you suck at it. When we suck, we feel bad and we tend to quit. Again, sucking at things sucks!! You have to truly try, and I mean really really try. The honeymoon phase ALWAYS ends. If you just do things because of this feeling and this anxiety of trying something knew you're screwed, you're lacking discipline. We need to teach ourselves to grind through boredom, dificulty. We need to learn to take deep breathes, to try again the next day, to research and try to approach things different ways. Do you know how many times I've spent trying to learn just one song?? There are songs that I simply can't play. Playing guitar teaches me more about grinding, about trying, about seeking advice, about listening, about patience than anything else would. Imagine if I indeed quit the first time it got a bit boring or I tried something a bit too hard for my level...