You’re only barely dedicated enough to do it in the first place, so if they weren’t more dedicated than you, they probably wouldn’t be doing it at all.
It takes time to catch up. This reminds me why I’m starting to believe it is useful to hack the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Being slightly overconfident as a beginner, believing you have a noticeable but not overwhelming natural advantage or talent. Like if it on average takes people 3 years to become a good snowboarder, believing you can manage it in 2.5, probably will make you more enthused and dedicated.
I don’t expect it to become an accurate self-fulfilling prophecy. But it will make you stick with it at all, it will make you persevere even as your expectations become revised by reality.
Stanley Kubrick said he was motivated to go into filmmaking simply because he saw the films in cinemas and felt “I can’t do any worse than these”. By all accounts his first two feature films were stinkers. Larry David’s first time as a standup has a similar flavour, he simply asked if he could go on because he saw what standups were doing and thought “I can do that.” Gilbert Gottfried’s entry to standup was similar—but he would say years later that it was “crazy” that he ever considered turning it into a career. “Even collecting cans for the deposit makes more sense!”
Orson Welles attributes all the innovations in Citizen Kane to the confidence of ignorance—he didn’t know what couldn’t be done—nor did he know the proper hierarchy on a film set. And graciously his cinematographer Gregg Toland allowed his crew to listen directly to Welles, and follow his orders, just to see what Welles would do. Bringing his knowledge of theater lighting to cinema.
So maybe, rather than guess you’re in the top 10% for participating at all. Just lie to yourself and say you’re destined to be in the top 4% - because what’s the worst that can happen? You stick with it and then revise your expectations back to top-10%? But you stuck with it, so now you’ve actually developed the skill.
It takes time to catch up.
This reminds me why I’m starting to believe it is useful to hack the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Being slightly overconfident as a beginner, believing you have a noticeable but not overwhelming natural advantage or talent. Like if it on average takes people 3 years to become a good snowboarder, believing you can manage it in 2.5, probably will make you more enthused and dedicated.
I don’t expect it to become an accurate self-fulfilling prophecy. But it will make you stick with it at all, it will make you persevere even as your expectations become revised by reality.
Stanley Kubrick said he was motivated to go into filmmaking simply because he saw the films in cinemas and felt “I can’t do any worse than these”. By all accounts his first two feature films were stinkers. Larry David’s first time as a standup has a similar flavour, he simply asked if he could go on because he saw what standups were doing and thought “I can do that.” Gilbert Gottfried’s entry to standup was similar—but he would say years later that it was “crazy” that he ever considered turning it into a career. “Even collecting cans for the deposit makes more sense!”
Orson Welles attributes all the innovations in Citizen Kane to the confidence of ignorance—he didn’t know what couldn’t be done—nor did he know the proper hierarchy on a film set. And graciously his cinematographer Gregg Toland allowed his crew to listen directly to Welles, and follow his orders, just to see what Welles would do. Bringing his knowledge of theater lighting to cinema.
So maybe, rather than guess you’re in the top 10% for participating at all. Just lie to yourself and say you’re destined to be in the top 4% - because what’s the worst that can happen? You stick with it and then revise your expectations back to top-10%? But you stuck with it, so now you’ve actually developed the skill.