Archive for April, 2010

more on expertise

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

one thing that i’ve felt slipping away from me is my ability to write. it is literally as though i am forgetting words, and forgetting them in such a way that i know that i once knew certain words but can no longer remember them: typical ‘tip of my tongue’ syndrome. i blame it on my brain cells dying. well, that and the fact that life outside of college is really a life in which writing and writing well are entirely unnecessary.

blogging once filled the void, but let’s get serious here and call a spade a spade; blogging is hardly writing. (or rather, it is hardly necessarily writing, since there are tons of people who are rigorous and structured in their blogging, and yeah yeah, kudos to them)

anyways, in the interest of not forgetting the english language entirely, i am going to try in earnest to write more again. and hopefully write thoughtfully.

Expertise

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

A friend was talking to me about the idea that all that is required to gain expertise in a particular subject is approximately 10,000 hours of requisite practice. The idea, whatever its actual merits are, has gotten stuck in my head.

I guess I’ve begun to wonder whether I’ve managed to gain expertise in anything. Day to day, i feel proficient at what I do, for sure. And yet I have difficulty shaking the feeling that expertise is constantly moving away from me, and that, day to day, I don’t allow myself to focus in on particular tasks in such a way that I am improving myself in any substantive or lasting way.

I’m reminded of the fact that they say you can’t forget how to ride a bike, and yet I have managed to do exactly that.