Developing range versus early specialisation, and the art of breathing
Here are a few interesting books/stories that I came across last week:
Just finished reading Range by David Epstein. It contrasts Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers’ mastery hypothesis with the claim that early specialisation (encapsulated, for instance, in the principle of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice) is not the sole master key to success as is often touted. Rather it’s gaining breath across multiple fields, and mixing experiences from different domains that define a surer way to success. Deliberate practice helps but only when the conditions are repeatable, and where tactics (like in chess) are more important than strategy. But the world has no fixed rules; it’s more a Martian tennis than golf, and oft-repeated tactics may not work. That’s why AI systems excel when there are stable structures and predictability. No wonder that autonomous cars haven’t progressed as much as they were supposed to. There is another factor at play here: our personalities change as we grow and therefore finding a domain to specialise in early on leads often to what Epstein calls ‘finding a fit for a person who doesn’t exist yet’. On learning, Epstein proposes that struggle (to remember from memory, to solve a tedious problem from making connections) is often more important than repetition. Frustration at inability to solve a problem is therefore not a sign that you are not learning, and learning deeply is often learning slowly. The main idea of the book revolves around thinking in terms of analogies while solving problems, and that’s where a focus on hyper-specialisation may be limiting our abilities to borrow from other fields. Good problem solvers are able to classify the problems as per deep structures before selecting the strategy to solve them. That is, they are more of ‘visionary birds’ than ‘focused frogs’. I also found the part where Epstein wrote about the concept of ‘congruence’. He dissects NASA’s Challenger disaster as a case example, and the book is worth reading just for that part. His key message on expanding organisational range is that by promoting incongruence you build cross-checks that balance the risk of mindless conformity. The big hairy topic of how to achieve incongruence practically was still unanswered in the book.
We all know the importance of breathing: we don’t breathe and we die. However, could breathing be seen as a tool that can be leveraged to serve specific functions rather than just being an oxygen carrier? Last week, I stumbled across this story in Scientific American that talks about how controlled breathing can help in stress reduction, insomnia, emotion control, improved attention. A lot of this was not new to me, for I practice breathing techniques and meditation. But I realised that I bucket my practices for a specific hour of the day instead of applying the tools and principles on a regular basis especially in stressful situations. What I took away from reading this story and other reflections is that while shifting tasks, or in a midst of an especially demanding job, stepping back, distancing from the task at hand, and taking a few deep breaths would help. The challenge is how to remind myself to do so when the intensity is so high. Well, I believe the short answer is with practice. So that’s what I will be practicing in coming weeks. This article is a good primer to understand the basics, and at the end of the story you can find links to additional stories on the same topic.
Two of my favourite writers — James Clear and Cal Newport — came together for a podcast! They spoke about habits, deep work and digital minimalism. An interesting takeaway for me was that there is cognitive load when we are switching tasks. If you are doing any task that require deep work, then diluting that concentration with checking emails or social media in between will require considerable effort to go back to the same level of depth on the task. Another interesting note I made was how habits are only an entry point. For instance, if you want to go to the gym regularly, then the habit you need to cultivate is wearing gym clothes and stepping inside. That initial hurdle when overcome, makes the rest of the task easier. Habit must be established before optimising. The key is therefore to show up, to master the art of first move. Here you can listen to the episode.
A quote that I came across last week:
The fact that you go to the gym even though you don’t “need” to... is why you don’t need to.
The fact that you save when you could spend... is why you have money to spend.
Your habits create your strength.- James Clear
