I’ve been reading about expertise lately, and Ericsson (of Florida State University) says that expertise is developed in 10,000 hours of effort at something. I was wondering, what have I spent the most time on training myself to do?
What I’ve Spent Most Time On:
* Eating… I am very good at eating and at sleeping too. Other than those…
* Reading
* Debating Ideas… on my own and with others
* Talking with friends and with colleagues
* Writing Business Plans
* Speaking with People about Specific Products
* Rock Climbing
* Ballroom Dancing
* ASKING QUESTIONS!
* Running… I used to run a lot
* Laughing… I laugh a lot with friends
Before, I wrote these out, I thought that it would be a list of my skills – like speaking French (which I studied in high school), but it’s much less a bragging list, and much more a do-it-a-lot list, and those are pretty different it turns out. But that makes sense since I was going for time spent, not necessarily braggingest activities (I know that’s not a word!). :)
Q: What actions/activities have you spent the most TIME developing?
Here’s a fun, silly, playful question for today as well!
Q#2: What’s the most fun thing you’re going to do this weekend?
I’m going to have a small picnic in the park with this great gal with whom I used to be roommates.
Hey, maybe you should join the IFOCE — The International Federation of Competitive Eaters!!! :-) They have eating contests, like who can eat the most hot dogs. Strangely, it’s always the very thin people who seem to eat the most, easily trouncing the really big guys.
Things I Do A Lot
* Observe Differences, Contexts, Patterns, and Unusual Details
* Introspect
* Distill
* Clarify
* Communicate
* Align and group things
* Overcomplicate things, usually for fun, sometimes by accident :-)
* Listen to People
* Dispense “Words of Wisdom” (maybe :-)
* Research & Read on the Internet
* Integrate ideas and people into working contexts
* Look for the weird-but-true connections
* Critique
* Nap
* Take moments to reflect
* Expand my behavior and skillset, when I notice something that might be interesting to change
My head is an information processing plant, perhaps. Hm, maybe this is the outline for some blurbage or a new way to pitch myself to people :-)
Oh, I also like “pouncing”, which is like looking for opportunities with high-yield results relative to the effort, or an interesection of time and skill and resources. Hitting the nexus points! That’s really what all the above stuff I listed feeds into, this pouncing impulse: insight, opportunity, and action!
Yo Dave! Cool beans…. was the last one an answer to what you’ll be doing this weekend?! You and your cats pouncing. :)
Especially cool about noticing weird-but-true connections. That reminds me – I want to start a section of the blog called “mistaken notions!” About unexpectedly incorrect common knowledge.
Some of the very cool parts of your blog are that you align and organize patterns. True that, double true.
The last one was a sort of answer to fun things in general, so OK :-) Looking forward to seeing the new section! Debunking things like so-called “common knowledge” is one of my favorite things to do when first learning something.