Mundanity of motorcycle maintenance
By “excellence” I mean “consistent superiority of performance.”
The choice of the heading doesn’t fit well with the quote that follows, but that’s how we roll here. I forgot where I found this paper, but the person who shared it was under the impression that the message is: before people can get good, they must be shown how to.
Okay, the paper does say that, explicitly even, but upon reading it, that’s not the main message. I suppose I’d better whip out another quote:
- Excellence is a qualitative phenomenon. Doing more does not equal doing better. High performers focus on qualitative, not quantitative, improvements; it is qualitative improvements which produce significant changes in level of achievement; different levels of achievement really are distinct, and in fact reflect vastly different habits, values, and goals.
I suppose this is as good a time as any to say that I had a feeling this paper would be amazing and boi, oh boi, when I sank my teeth into it just to start and finish in the morning, I read it in one go. I kinda sorta forgot all the details from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but I do remember Jordan Peterson saying it’s a book about quality and reading that it’s not necessarily the effort that makes me good, but rather what I’m doing, puts everything into a different perspective.
Anyway, it’s not a long read, so I will simply suggest that everyone should read it, should they be interested in getting good, because I don’t wanna just rehash what was already well said. Today, we’re gonna end on a quote. You know how sometimes people say they are overqualified? Well, this is also covered in the paper. To understand the quote better, you should know that the author argues that different “levels” of a discipline are not progressively continuous (implying you can work your way up or go down), but rather discrete, as if not related at all. Alright, that’s all you need to know, until next time.
[note 18] “Indeed, prestige ladders in the various worlds are so different that a man who reaches the pinnacle of success in one may be completely unknown elsewhere.” — Shibutani in Rose, 1962.
Similarly in academia: one may be a successful professor at the national level and yet find it difficult to gain employment at a minor regional university. Professors at the regional school may suspect his/her motives, be jealous, feel that he/she “wouldn’t fit in,” “won’t stay anyway,” etc. Many top-school graduate students discover upon entering the markets that no-name colleges have no interest in them; indeed, by attending a Chicago or Harvard Ph.D. program one may limit oneself to the top ranks of employment opportunities.