How to be good at anything
There are only 4 steps:
Do it
Get feedback on how you suck
Study how to improve at where you suck
Repeat
People tell me this is obvious. But it’s ok to be obvious. Knowing and doing are different. Many people know many obvious things they completely fail to do, despite their knowledge.
If someone tells me they want to write, I ask “how much do you write now?” If they say, I don’t really, I say “Go write something. Anything.” There’s often a look of great fear. They’re afraid to even try. Their ego has made just trying something very expensive, when it should be very cheap given how little they’ve done it.
If they tell me they’ve written, I ask them how they suck. If they don’t know, I tell them to get feedback from someone who sucks less than they do. None of this is complicated. It’s not even expensive. The problem is everyone wants to skip steps 1 through 4. No one in history has ever become good at something by skipping these steps, yet everyone wants to try.
Another good question: is how many hours are you willing to spend to become good? It won’t necessarily take 10,000 hours, as that number is mostly just satisfying to say. But it will take many hours. How many? Depends on how good you want to be, and how lucky you are.
For most skills you can do #2 and #3 on your own. Read you own writing. Watch a video of yourself speaking. If you have read good writing, and watched good speakers, you can easily identify your bad habits. A coach or a teacher can help you move through these steps faster, but you can do them on your own, for free, with enough courage and persistence, two things everyone knows about, but few people have.
(This post partially inspired by a chat with Eric Barker and an email from Maria Brody)
Related posts:
Nothing is obvious to everyone
How hard to immigrate into the U.S.? Awesome flowchart
Ideas vs. Time: how long does an idea take to develop?
Need a new writing tool: help?
From the mailbag: Best request ever for writing advice
