Socrates said that there is no happier thing in the world than to strive for an ideal.
When we were students, the inspirational words we heard most spoken by teachers were about "dreams". Every year during the graduation season, there are always countless seniors, sisters, teachers and celebrities who inspire graduates and tell them: Don't give up on your dreams and stick to it.
But what I'm going to say today is that it's not a good way to encourage. The content of the following article may be completely different from the meaning of words such as "persistence, hard work, and dreams" that you usually recognize.
An inspiring expression like a graduation speech, it's actually a hint to you that you must complete the plan you set long ago.
In the computer world, there is a special word to describe this situation, called "premature optimization".
If we follow the idea of the graduation speech, we have decided what kind of person we want to be in 20 years, and then ask ourselves: What should I do to achieve my dreams?
Now we can think differently: don't rush into the future, but only focus on the options that are possible in the present, and choose those that can give you a future.
This view comes from the new book "The Borders of Growth" by David Epstein, a best-selling author praised by former US President Barack Obama.
The Frontiers of Growth was rated as "a good book that debunks the myth of specialization." In this rapidly changing era of AI, can the 10,000-hour rule really create super talents? Have you ever become a puppet of deliberate practice? Are your expectations and education for your children caught in the strange circle of "meritocracy"?
The book will use the cases of various successful people in different industries and fields around the world to tell us what kind of educational concept we need to hold for our children in this era, and how we should change our concepts to make their children's growth more likely.
Below I explain the following authors' views in the book from the three aspects of "Why the 10,000-hour rule is not worth advocating, the case of celebrities who have changed careers in the middle of the way, and why should we change the mentality of education".
First, the 10,000-hour law of the pit daddy
There is a best-selling book called "Genius Comes from Deliberate Practice", which gives many celebrity examples to illustrate: deliberate practice is the key to success, deliberate practice is to follow the law of 10,000 hours, start technical practice as early as possible, the sooner the better. As long as you work hard, you can progress.
However, if you read the book carefully, you will find that the examples given in the book are more competitive and sports, such as: Go, chess, golf and so on.
In the case of chess, in 2007 the International Geography Channel invited Susan Polga, known as a "chess genius", who had been practicing chess since childhood, to take a test. The program team let Polgar sit at a table on the side of the road with a blank chessboard in front of him, and then let a large truck with a huge chessboard map pass by the side of the road. With just a quick glance, Polga reviewed the 28 pieces on the board.
The same experiment has been done many times on different "chess masters", no matter how complicated the chess game, the chess master seems to have the ability to never forget, and can quickly restore the chessboard.
But are they really unforgettable? Not. In the later test, the program team placed the chessboard on the truck randomly, in a disorderly manner. As a result, chess masters simply could not restore the chess game they saw, even if there were fewer pieces than before.
It can be seen that the grandmasters do not have any superpowers that they can never forget, but they have mastered the various "block rules" of chess by repeatedly practicing various chess game modes. If chess is not arranged in small groups, they have no way.
So, the chess program "Alpha Meta" can easily win over any top chess player. Alpha elements themselves practice countless times to record which footwork works and which ones don't, and use those records to improve themselves.
Seeing this, you may say that "deliberate practice" is not very useful, at least you can become a master.
But deliberate practice does not mean learning, nor does it mean that you can become a master in the field.
Professional practitioners can indeed excel in their field, but it takes decades of practice to achieve.
Ellen Wenner, one of the most authoritative psychologists on gifted children, has found that no professional practitioner can be a "change-maker" in his field.
That is, those professional practitioners lack creativity and innovation.
In the case of Nobel laureates, Nobel laureates are at least 22 times more likely to be amateur actors, dancers, magicians, or other types of performers than other scientists. That is to say, they have not only become successful experts and scholars in their own fields, but also have their own broader world.
Therefore, if you practice professionally and deliberately with your child from an early age in order to keep your child from the starting line, such as endless brushing and all extracurricular time spent practicing an instrument, then your child is likely to miss other opportunities and possibilities for growth.
We should let him step out and discover the new world.
Second, celebrities used to be very "not doing business"
1. Darwin
Darwin first studied medicine at the request of his father; later he was a dogmatist who followed the Bible, and Darwin felt that he should be a priest; on the way to class Darwin found himself interested in botany, so he followed the ship "Berger" that changed his fate to sail far away, and then we all know the story. Darwin became a famous biologist, and his theory of "evolution" continues to this day.
Darwin later said: I wanted to be a priest, which was simply ridiculous.
2. Michael Clayton
You may not be familiar with this name, but when it comes to "The Story of the Emergency Room", you will definitely be familiar with it. Clayton graduated from Harvard Medical School, but several years of working as a doctor dashed his interest in practicing medicine.
So he began writing novels, and his medical education led him to create the most popular stories in the world, the Jurassic Park series of novels, and the TV series "The Story of the Emergency Room" and the TV series "The Story of the Emergency Room".
3. Michelangelo
Regarding the sculptor Michelangelo, there is a legend that he can see the image he wants to carve through a whole piece of marble without touching, and then simply chisel off the useless part, and the carved image will be naturally revealed.
But in fact, when carving, Michelangelo often changed his mind and modified his carving plan.
Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter, master architect, and engineer of the Florentine fortifications. When he was almost 30 years old, he completely threw the visual arts aside and wandered through the ocean of poetry, including a poem that he increasingly hated painting.
You see, which of these celebrities' preferences and successes is not achieved in constant change?
When we know more about ourselves, we can look back at career goals that we once felt safe and stable. Once a stable job was described by Darwin as "ridiculous and stupid", our preferences for work and life will not remain the same forever, because we ourselves are always changing.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert calls this phenomenon the "ultimate illusion of history."
Gilbert and colleagues documented the preferences, values and personalities of more than 19,990 adults aged 18-68. Some of them were asked to predict how they would change in the next decade, while others were asked to look back at how different they were from the previous decade.
Forecasters feel that they will hardly change in the next decade, while reviewers find themselves to have indeed changed significantly from the previous decade. Core values, friends, hobbies, and more have all changed.
What's more interesting is that forecasters are willing to spend an average of $120 to see a band they like now performing in ten years' time; reviewers are now only willing to spend $80 to see a band they liked a decade ago.
You see, you are fleeting in this moment, just like you in every moment before.
The most significant changes in our personality occur before the age of 18-30, so to say that starting to specialize early, paving the way for the child early, and advising his life is actually predicting the matching quality for a personality that does not yet exist.
This may be useful, but it may also be worse.
The way we can improve the quality of matching to the highest level in our lifetime is to try different activities, social groups, environments, positions, and industries, and then look back and adjust ourselves, and repeat them all the time.
Only in this way can you match the life that suits you best. On the contrary, you will be imprisoned by life.
Third, parents change their mentality and reinterpret the word "parenting"
When it comes to today's education, everyone thinks of this year's popular vocabulary - inner volume. In fact, after reading this book, what I thought about the most was: Is the route we plan for children according to our own cognition really a good road for children?
Many parents like to convey such a message to their children: if you don't study well, you won't be anything in the future; if you can't get into a good university, your life will be over; your task now is to study well, and nothing else matters...
If we regard "going to college" as the only way out and "learning" as the only important thing, in the long run, we will ignore the other shining points of children.
In a sense, the "premature specialization" mentioned in the book "The Boundaries of Growth" is the same as our current "meritocracy" for children.
Premature specialization will make people lose the courage and opportunity to try new things; meritocracy will invisibly cut off the child's other interests and hobbies, and lose his other and more possibilities.
We should diversify our development, learn more broadly, let ourselves have diverse experiences, and force ourselves to constantly step out of our comfort zone to try new things. The same is true for educating children, and we should support and guide children to have hobbies and interests other than "learning".
The Boundaries of Growth is the book I've read this year and brought me the most thoughts. It not only improved my anxiety in the face of my children's education, but also gave me the courage and strength to try more when I was middle-aged.
Whether it is a child or an adult, you should cross the boundaries of growth. Each of us is made up of a myriad of possibilities, and we need to find new role models through practice – trying new activities – building new networks – and then discover those possibilities and finally grow.
If you can still stick to the dreams of your youth now, it is good, but if you find other more interesting things, you must be brave enough to try, pursue and practice.