Category Archives: Expertise

What of the Prodigy?

“Interested, valued, encouraged, supported, trained.” In the case of “prodigies,” this usually ends with “bored. quits.” Or leveled out–regressing to the mean. #Expertise It seems that when someone wants to argue Expertise, they bring the prodigy to the table. What of the prodigy? They argue. The Prodigy did not practice for all these hours. The Prodigy […]

Deliberately on purpose

Deliberate. Purposive. On purpose. On accident. Our first mentors and coaches are our parents. They determine, from our first days, our exposure to the world. They curate our experiences. They vary our inputs. Our caretakers ensure our stimulation and absence of stimulation. All of this activity rushes to the senses unmitigated and without preference by […]

Value added Interest

Every parent wants their kids to be something. Right? When I was younger I asked my mother what will I be. Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? In my post about Athletic Expertise, I covered interest and its effect on activity and thinking. Where there is interest, there comes some pleasure and some […]

Dancing about Architecture

Long before Martin Mull was featured in beer ads he was a stand up comedian. You know the kind. He went on tour, made live albums, and probably even appeared on the Merv Griffin show. It was way back then when he gave us this oft-misquoted insight: Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. […]