by Malcolm Gladwell
This book surprised me. I think I had some idea that it would tell us about certain outliers and why they became outliers, but the reasons were completely different from what I had expected. I thought outliers were formed because people had an extraordinary ability or talent, but what Gladwell is saying is that Outliers are often ordinary people or situations that, through a series of lucky coincidences, become extraordinary. Often the only additional attribute they have is that they are willing to work hard. What matters much more than our individual personality is our family and cultural background: when we were born, who our parents are, what country and community we were raised in.
One of my immediate thoughts was how easy it would be for people to point to this book and say, "Aha! That's why I wasn't successful-- I wasn't lucky enough to be born in the right circumstances!" But Gladwell wants us to use this information to improve our lives. If we understand where and who we came from, and look at the forces on our thinking and decision-making, we can take more control of our lives. Most mistakes are made by not understanding the source of a problem, and Gladwell is pointing out the source of problems or advantages. For example, I am wired to desire security and a nice house and plenty of money for a nice comfortable lifestyle in exchange for some kind of career chosen for its salary, because that is what most of the families and adults I know cultivate. I always thought that this lifestyle was the "right" one. However, once someone pointed that out to me and I began reading about and exploring all the different ways people live, I realized that I wanted to do something else. I still have times when I feel that what I'm doing is wrong and worthless, but knowing that these feelings come from my background help me work through them.
The other main idea that this book impressed upon me was the 10,000 hour rule, the idea that to become an expert on something requires about 10,000 hours of practice. That's equivalent to a 40-hr/wk job for 5 years. Ray and I calculated up the hours I have spent doing ceramics, and came to only about 1,000 hours. No wonder I feel like an amateur! I have been expecting myself to do great and fantastic things, when I have only accomplished 10% of the practice I need. Also, with ceramics encompassing so many completely different skills (throwing, handbuilding, glaze and clay chemistry and mixing and testing, firing the different types of kilns, tons of decorative materials and techniques, and running a business, to name a few), I probably need about twice the normal amount of hours to become an expert. So I have been expecting far too much of my skills, which has led to frustration at my lack of wonderfulness, which has made me less likely to practice. What I need to do is get back to basics and simply keep doing it and not expecting world-class art for another 5 years. What a relief!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Vagabonding
An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
by Rolf Potts
As I expected, this book awakened in me a yearning for travel, for freeing myself from the constraints, expectations, and routines of this civilized, cushioned world. The best thing about the book for me was its wealth of inspiring quotes that speckled the pages, but the most incisive quote for me was:
"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves." -Pico Iyer, Why We Travel
Vagabonding focused not on the nuts and bolts of how to travel for less, but on the philosophy and mental attitudes that allow vagabonding to occur. It is purely an inspirational book, and as such grew a little repetitive-- how many different ways can you say "Leave your expectations at home, be adaptable, and you will grow within your own soul"? It didn't tell me anything new, but it reminded me of important things that get smothered in daily concerns. I preferred the small details that Potts and other travelers shared, about adventures small, large, annoying, trivial, or life-changing. These stories make me want to go out and find life for myself, to experience all these little things and find out what and how I think. Almost like throwing grains of sand at myself to figure out how I'm shaped.
One of the things I realized, however, is that I differ greatly from the author in an important aspect: I don't want to spend my whole life traveling. The author belongs to a sect whose overarching ambition is to grow spiritually in ways that traveling encourages, to learn about the world and themselves by experiencing as much of it as they can. I, on the other hand, have dreams of building an art studio, of developing certain specific skills that require learning my materials and tools and aesthetics. This would be incredibly difficult if not impossible on the road, because I want to develop depth instead of breadth. Vagabonders travel and find out about the people who stay rooted, but what if you want to have some of those roots? Roots allow trees to grow tall and strong and healthy. Both ways have value, and I think my challenge will be in combining the two aspects of life, since I want to incorporate certain lessons from each way into my own life.
Raising a family is also a dream, and although the author commented vaguely about families traveling together, I have doubts about the wisdom of vagabonding with children in tow. It is often not their choice to travel, since they have friends and a life at home, so unless they are on board you are forcing someone else to live your own dream. Traveling cheaply can be done only through the acceptance of hardship and sacrifice, and someone forced into that has reason to be angry and resentful. On the other hand, I can definitely see reasons to take older children along on shorter trips (i.e. one to three months) if you are prepared to provide for a few more creature comforts than you would if you were on your own.
Overall, I would like to put some of the principles of vagabonding into effect: live simply and save money, and then just GO. We think too much about the ramifications of such a trip on the rest of our lives, and so we talk ourselves out of going every time. I would like to simply decide to take a trip when our lease runs out, pick a preliminary destination and a budget, and then go vagabond for as long as our money holds and our travels enliven us. Let our futures figure themselves out-- I have absolutely no fears about what we will do when we get back. We are smart and adaptable, and that will stand us in good stead no matter where and what we do.
by Rolf Potts
As I expected, this book awakened in me a yearning for travel, for freeing myself from the constraints, expectations, and routines of this civilized, cushioned world. The best thing about the book for me was its wealth of inspiring quotes that speckled the pages, but the most incisive quote for me was:
"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves." -Pico Iyer, Why We Travel
Vagabonding focused not on the nuts and bolts of how to travel for less, but on the philosophy and mental attitudes that allow vagabonding to occur. It is purely an inspirational book, and as such grew a little repetitive-- how many different ways can you say "Leave your expectations at home, be adaptable, and you will grow within your own soul"? It didn't tell me anything new, but it reminded me of important things that get smothered in daily concerns. I preferred the small details that Potts and other travelers shared, about adventures small, large, annoying, trivial, or life-changing. These stories make me want to go out and find life for myself, to experience all these little things and find out what and how I think. Almost like throwing grains of sand at myself to figure out how I'm shaped.
One of the things I realized, however, is that I differ greatly from the author in an important aspect: I don't want to spend my whole life traveling. The author belongs to a sect whose overarching ambition is to grow spiritually in ways that traveling encourages, to learn about the world and themselves by experiencing as much of it as they can. I, on the other hand, have dreams of building an art studio, of developing certain specific skills that require learning my materials and tools and aesthetics. This would be incredibly difficult if not impossible on the road, because I want to develop depth instead of breadth. Vagabonders travel and find out about the people who stay rooted, but what if you want to have some of those roots? Roots allow trees to grow tall and strong and healthy. Both ways have value, and I think my challenge will be in combining the two aspects of life, since I want to incorporate certain lessons from each way into my own life.
Raising a family is also a dream, and although the author commented vaguely about families traveling together, I have doubts about the wisdom of vagabonding with children in tow. It is often not their choice to travel, since they have friends and a life at home, so unless they are on board you are forcing someone else to live your own dream. Traveling cheaply can be done only through the acceptance of hardship and sacrifice, and someone forced into that has reason to be angry and resentful. On the other hand, I can definitely see reasons to take older children along on shorter trips (i.e. one to three months) if you are prepared to provide for a few more creature comforts than you would if you were on your own.
Overall, I would like to put some of the principles of vagabonding into effect: live simply and save money, and then just GO. We think too much about the ramifications of such a trip on the rest of our lives, and so we talk ourselves out of going every time. I would like to simply decide to take a trip when our lease runs out, pick a preliminary destination and a budget, and then go vagabond for as long as our money holds and our travels enliven us. Let our futures figure themselves out-- I have absolutely no fears about what we will do when we get back. We are smart and adaptable, and that will stand us in good stead no matter where and what we do.
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