Persistence and curiosity

1 minute read

img

Curiosity

Can you think of an activity that you’re good at and you enjoy? Can you remember what got you hooked? It may be by accident but in most cases, people start doing it by free will from a light nudge from the outside world. The nudge can be a recommendation from a friend, an advertisement etc. These stimulating agents activate your curiosity. So curiosity is the thing that started a fire in you.

Curiosity may seem like a simple thing to most people because we hear about it all our lives but it’s not as simple as it may seem. Curiosity is what moves scientific progress forward. Note that scientific progress started blossoming only with Scientific Revolution when people began questioning all the knowledge.

Persistence

We found what makes you interested in a specific activity. But what makes you good at it? The first thing that comes to mind is aptitude to this activity. Maybe you have physique so you’re good at sport or you’re a brainy type so you enjoy math. That’s only part of the story. When you see a person that good at what he/she’s doing don’t attribute it talent/aptitude, attribute it to hard work.

There is a book called “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book, the ‘10,000-Hour Rule’ is introduced. The rule claims that you have to spend 10,000 hours to achieve world-class expertise in any skill. For example, practising a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years. I believe that’s true so persistence is what makes you good at something. So keep in mind the learning process is a marathon, not a race.

Curiosity and Persistence

The more you do something, the better you become at it. People tend to enjoy doing what they do well. So we came to the useful sequence:

  1. Curiosity makes you interested in something.
  2. Persistence makes you good at it
  3. You enjoy activity if you’re good at it.
  4. Profit!

Categories:

Updated:

Comments