What you are wired for
I’ve been thinking about these 3 bits lately:
- One was a blog post titled “On Talent”, which links to statestarcodex’s post about talent and skill being things one is pre-disposed for, as opposed to “you can learn anything”
- Another post about how to notice what you are talented at, things that you find easy to do, that you notice others find surprisingly hard to do. For example, my boyfriend can whip up a beautiful space in what feels like minutes to me, without even buying new furniture or objects. Things aren’t even ordered or aligned, and there is a lot of stuff and yet the space just feels alive and electric. And at work, I would look at a user interface and see all the things were amiss especially when it would come to how a human might use it, and it would surprise me that I would have to point it out to people, wasn’t it obvious.
- And the third idea is about positive and negative compounding loops from Donella Meadows Leverage points. About how things just compound for higher and higher gains and other things dwindle to nothing depending on the kind of feedback loops in the system.
So if you are pre-disposed for certain talents and skill, a positive compounding loops happens when you pursue them – higher motivation, “success”, increased skilfulness. Whereas a negative compounding loop might trigger when you make yourself do things you are not pre-disposed for – procrastination, feelings of failure.
Which also begets the question, what about the scenarios where you have no choice. Where you have to do things you “have” to, and not just thing you “get” to? Be really mindful of how the compounding loop is playing out.
Which brings me to the fourth bit that I got reminded of as I write this.
Energy yes, quality no. https://www.thomashirschhorn.com/workshop-energy-yes-quality-no/
Energy: Yes! Quality: No!” is one of my guidelines as an artist. It is an affirmation, it is something constitutive for my work and I have always been faithful to it. “Energy: Yes!” is the assertion that things which have their own energy are important. Energy is what counts, Energy is what I can grasp, Energy is what I can share and Energy is what is Universal. “Energy: Yes!” is a statement for movement, for the dynamic, for invention, for activity, for the activity of thinking. I want to say “Yes” to Energy as such, Energy as the idea of a possible accumulation, as a battery. It is about saying “Yes” to something without establishing an exclusive criterion. I use the term ‘energy’ as a positive term because it includes the other, it is beyond good and bad – even bad energy is Energy – and Energy is situated beyond cultural, political, aesthetical habits.
Quality is the luxury reflex to keep a distance with everything which doesn’t have Quality. I don’t know what has Quality, nor where there is Quality. As an artist I refuse to adopt the term ‘quality’ for my work and I don’t want to apply it to the work of others. Quality is always a try to establish a scale, to distinguish ‘high quality’ or ‘low quality’, but I don’t know, myself – today – what kind of work has Quality. I use the term ‘quality’ as a negative term, because it excludes others, because it’s only an ‘international thing’ and because it makes the distinction between good and bad. Quality is exclusive, luxurious and based on tradition, identity and particularism. I need another criterion – today. Therefore I propose to follow, as a guideline, “Energy: Yes! Quality: No!”.
Which then reminds me of Seinfeld’s “Will is temporary, love is forever.”
Anything that drains your energy, you can only do for a limited time, anything that you can do for “free” or better that gives you energy, you can do repeatedly.