Unknown Unknowns #20 - Fulfilling Your Potential
I started my second cohort of David Perell's Write of Passage yesterday. While ostensibly a writing course, the biggest thing I took from the first time I took it, six months ago, was permission. The permission to express my ideas. Write for yourself and the right people will find it. Not everyone will like it, but you're not writing in order to have people read it.
Writing helps you think, helps you reflect.
The more you write, the more insights you will have. As you write, ideas will start to connect. Analogies and metaphors will surface, allowing you to explain your ideas better. They'll also connect more to other ideas, supporting or tangential. New ideas are either combinations or fractals of ideas. Writing lets you explore them.
This Week:
I wrote an essay on how expertise is developed. My conclusion? Expertise isn't a clear cut skill level and there's only one way toward expertise.
Something Interesting: There’s Nothing More Real Than Your Potential
Lawrence Yeo writes about purpose. You feel a sense of purpose when you make progress and you feel progress when you feel you are fulfilling your potential. So his advice is to try things and if you feel that skill is empowering, you're on a purposeful path.
I don't agree 100% with this take. Do you feel a sense of accomplishment if you progress in something? Yes. But can you feel a sense of accomplishment without progress? Can you feel accomplished while relaxing, or not trying to fulfill a goal? I would say yes also. A daily routine can feel empowering and purposeful. Meditating can feel empowering and purposeful. Reading the same book again can feel empowering and purposeful. I think Lawrence's essay is a starting point for thinking about purpose and meaning.
I do like his idea that "there is nothing more real than your potential, even if it can’t be seen or touched." The abstract can be as real as a tangible object. But it can be dynamic and reflexive.
Questions, suggestions, complaints? Email me at [email protected]. Feedback welcome.
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Have a great week,
Chris
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