“Netflix came to a similar conclusion for improvising its recommendation algorithm. Decoding movies’ traits to figure out what you like was very complex and less accurate than simply analogizing you to many other customers with similar viewing histories.” This quote resonated with me because I didn’t know creating different categories on Netflix was this complex. I thought it was just simply by genre. It is so weird to think that Netflix compares my watch history with other people to see what I would enjoy watching next.
“In the face of the unexpected, the range of available analogies helped determine who learned something new.” This quote resonates with me because it makes you think of different ways to think. This quote confuses me, and I want to know exactly what it means.
Quote: “Like Van Gogh in the coal country and Gauguin after the crash, she was ‘set free’ by failure to try work that better matched her talents and interests.” (Epstein 128)
Comment: I picked this quote because it summarized one of the most valuable lessons in this chapter. That lesson is that failure, although can be very frustrating, can always be turned into a positive outcome. I think having this mindset not just while trying to pick a major, but also throughout life, can really benefit us.
Question: Looking back at past experiences, have you ever failed and tried to forget that situation ever happened? If so, do you think that failed experience could have been a lesson learned and could have actually benefited you?
Quote: “A few years later, with more knowledge of their skills and preferences, choosing to pursue a different goal was no longer the gritless route; it was the smart one.” (Epstein 140)
Comment: This quote stood out to me because it is something that I want to remember. I have been told in many situations not to quit and to get through it. When in reality, that situation that I was in was not making me happy and was actually holding me back from pursuing different opportunities in my life.
Question: How should someone respond to the feedback they receive after quitting something?
Quote: “He wanted to make art that anyone could understand, not haughty works for those with privileged training. For years he has tried and failed to capture every proportion of a figure accurately. Now he let that go so entirely that he left figures walking among trees with faces left blank and hands like mittens (Epstein 126).
Comment: For so long he was consumed by societies standard of what he should create and how he should create it. He was unable to let his mind at ease and just paint what he was feeling. He always thought he had to do it the ‘right way’ but there is no ‘right way’ to do art. He was finally able to realize that the art he created was good because it was his own and he wasn’t following a specific set of rules to create it. He was able to let his mind at ease and just let the brush do the work. This is something that sparks my interest because today people are so concerned about doing things the ‘right way’ when there is no such thing. Society has brainwashed us into thinking that we have to create or live in certain ways when we don’t. The only way you can make it in life is on your own and painting your own path.
Question: Why is it a societal standard that if you fail you are frowned upon?
Quote: “’We fail,’ he wrote, when we stick with ‘tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.’ Godin clearly did not advocate quitting simply because a pursuit is difficult.” (Epstein 136).
Comment: Deciding to stop pursuing something isn’t failing that task. It is knowing that you are not happy or are unable to complete it. This is self-awareness and it takes guts in order to step down when you know you can’t do something or something is not making you happy. Godin’s perspective that we only fail when we try to continue something that makes us unhappy is enlightening. Society makes us believe that we need to stay on a strict path and do the right thing even if it’s not what we particularly want to do. We mindlessly go on to each day doing the same thing. This is what Godin sees as a failure because one is failing to do what they truly want to do. They don’t have the guts to pursue what they really love because they are afraid of backlash. It is sad to see that people are afraid to do what they love because of how some people might react.
Question: Why is it so frowned upon in society to quit when something isn’t meant for you?
Quote: “He likened himself to a caged bird in spring who feels deeply that it is time for him to do something important but cannot recall what it is, and so ‘bangs his head against the bars of his cage. And then the cage stays there and the bird is mad with suffering’” (Epstein 124).
Comment: I chose this quote because I thought it was interesting how van Gogh felt “trapped” even though he had done many different things throughout his life. It seemed he didn’t feel trapped in a particular job, but trapped in a sort of loop of failure. Everything he had tried didn’t work out the way he wanted it to, so he was “mad with suffering”, or he felt like he was going crazy because he couldn’t figure out what he was meant to do.
Question: If van Gogh hadn’t found painting, I wonder if he could have found another enjoyable career? How would things have been different if he hadn’t given up on art as a child?
Quote: “They all appear to have excelled in spite of their late starts. It would be easy enough to cherry-pick stories of exceptional late developers overcoming the odds. But they aren’t exceptions by virtue of their late starts, and those late starts did not stack the odds against them. Their late starts were integral to their eventual success” (Epstein 128).
Comment: I feel like this quote kind of relates to our class. Just because we are later than some of our peers in choosing a major doesn’t mean we are setting ourselves up for failure. In fact, it can give us an advantage because we are gaining different kinds of skills from different classes and activities that we wouldn’t necessarily participate in if we had chosen majors.
Question: Why is it “wrong” societally to start things late? Why must we be “child prodigies” in something to be seen as talented or successful?
Quote -It should come as no surprise that more students in Scotland ultimately majored in subjects that did not exist in their high schools, like engineering. In England and Wales, students were expected to pick a path with knowledge only of the limited menu they had been exposed to early in high school.
Comment – I find this quote very interesting. Why would high school students be so inclined to major in something they are unfamiliar with? This reminds me of the growth mindset and maybe hope they were raised. If they were raised with this mindset they should ultimately be willing and ready to face challenges. In England and Wales, it seems more reasonable to me. The students were exposed to a subject and had some background knowledge in it, but it came down to what they were interested in and what they wanted to do. It seems ridiculous to me that some students go into college with no information about their major. I feel as if it is much different here than it is in Scotland and England. In high school, I was expected to be exploring different classes and seeing which ones I liked the most, and then taking more advanced classes, and then maybe majoring in that subject.
Question – Is it like that everywhere? Why just Scotland? Is it a culture thing or do they actually try to raise the kids with a growth mindset?
Quote – With less sampling opportunity, more students headed down a narrow path before figuring out if it was a good one.
Comment – I think this is a really interesting point. It’s funny how these students decided to narrow down what they wanted and what they liked and they then realized later that they might have missed some of the better aspects of what they are interested in. This is another quote that represents one of the main ideas we have been discussing and I think it’s really important. I think this quote also shows the importance of the sampling period. If those students sampled what they narrowed down into instead of just jumping right into it, I really think they could have realized sooner that maybe that aspect of the topic isn’t for them. If they sampled that aspect and realized maybe they didn’t like it, they definitely could have kept exploring and then they would eventually find the better part of the topic.
Question – Why is the sampling period neglected by so many people? What makes someone just decide that one thing is right for them?
Quote
“The young man loved books and worked from eight am until midnight. When the store flooded, he astounded his colleagues with his sheer physical endurance as he carried pile after pile of books to safety. His new goal was to get accepted to a university so that he could later train as a pastor. Again, he unleashed his tireless passion. He worked with a tutor, and copied by hand the text of entire books. ‘I must sit up as long as I can keep my eyes open,’ he told his brother. He reminded himself that ‘practice makes perfect'” (Epstein 123).
Comment
This quote spoke to me because it showed me the power of having a passion for something. When somebody has a passion for something it can give them extra motivation and make things like work enjoyable. When you are looking for a career path you should find something that you have a passion for. If you have a passion for it, going to work would be fun and it will give you the motivation to do a better job. The boy had a passion for reading and it gave him the extra motivation to do a great job and go over the top in what he was doing.
Question
How can you enjoy a job if you do not have a passion for what you are doing?
Quote
What artists do changed because of Vincent Van Gogh, artists and writer Steven Naifeh told me. (Naifeh, with Gregory White Smith, wrote “the definitive biography,” according to a curator of the Van Gogh museum. ) Van Gogh’s paintings served as a bridge to modern art it inspired a widespread devotion that no artist, perhaps no person, has equaled. Teenagers who have never visited a museum tape his art to their walls”
Comment
This quote spoke to me because it reminded me of the importance of having a famous figure to motivate you to do great things. In the sense of Range, Van Gogh is an idol for many teenagers around the world and while it talks about teenagers that have never visited an art museum, they still appreciate his work and he motivates them to pick up a brush and start painting. I related my personal “idol” to my motivation to play guitar. The person that motivated me to pick up and play the guitar was Eddie Van Halen. I was first introduced to Van Halen when I was very young and in the fourth grade, I wanted to be just like him, so I asked my mother to let me buy a guitar. I have been playing for nine years and it has changed my life. Having an idol can give you the motivation to be great in whatever it is you have a passion for.
Question
What other ways can you find the motivation to be great in something if you do not have an “idol” to relate to?
“The pattern reached such proportions that a high-ranking officer decided that West Point was actually creating quitters and declared that the military should reduce investment in an “institution that taught its cadets to get out of the Army.” (p. 138)
Comment:
When reading this chapter, I was immediately drawn to this quote. The word that really lured me into this quote was “quitters”. More times than not, when I hear this word, I draw negative connections to it. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have West Point, where I think of cadets who are tough as nails and will do whatever to succeed. It’s interesting to see my beliefs, and what I expect a lot of people’s beliefs to be, to be challenged by linking the two ideas. However, this is a situation very similar to the many that Van Gogh found himself in. Situations where put himself in new settings time after time and continued to quit shortly after. Epstein uses these examples to emulate that sticking too much to a plan can impede progress, that maybe quitting at times isn’t the worst thing in the world. This is a particularly interesting concept to me because my whole life I’ve tried to avoid quitting at all costs and thought it was always the worst possible thing to do.
Question:
Have you found yourself quitting at some point where it actually ended up being the most beneficial option?
Quote:
“Responding to lived experience with a change of direction, like Van Gogh did habitually, like West Point graduates have been doing since the dawn of the knowledge economy, is less tidy but no less important. It involves a particular behavior that improves your chances of finding the best match but that at first blush sounds like a terrible life strategy: short-term planning.”
Comment:
This quote, in a way, is a direct piggyback off of the previous quote I used. It is explaining in more detail the thought process behind jumping ship and moving on to something else. I guess I consider myself lucky, lucky in a way where I haven’t found myself in too many situations where I’ve really felt the need to remove myself from one specific setting. I wouldn’t consider the “sampling period” as a time of quitting because I think that’s part of its purpose. However, it is, I think, the best way to find the best match for you. This chapter gave me a whole new outlook on the idea of “quitting”. I will no longer immediately think negatively when I hear about quitting because if someone is ultimately unhappy in the situation they find themselves in, a change of direction, like Van Gogh did many times, could be what’s most important to happiness and success.
Question:
What were your thoughts about quitting before and after reading this chapter? Have they changed?
Quote “When he was nearly thirty-three, he enrolled in art school alongside students a decade younger, but lasted only a few weeks. He entered the class drawing competition, and the judges harshly suggester that he revert to a beginner’s class with ten-year-olds”(Epstein 125).
Comment I think this shows that just because a couple of people don’t like what you are doing, doesn’t mean that you should stop doing it altogether. Van Gogh went to become an amazing artist and very well known and he, throughout his life was shut down many time by everyone close and not close. But he never stoped trying to do something he loved, he never gave up. He tried to do art in many different ways until he found a way that worked for him.
Question How many people have just given up on their dream just because some random person said so?
Quote “No one in their right mind would argue that passion and perseverance are unimportant, or that a bad day is a cue to quit. But the idea that a change of interest, or a recalibration of focus, is an imperfection and competitive disadvantage leads to a simple, one-size-fits-all Tiger story: pick and stick, as soon as possible”(Epstein 145).
Comment This is so true. No one would say to give up on the first day of trying something new, as why do we not support people when they need to change what they are doing because they don’t love it anymore. People just jobs and change where they live all the time. Yes, what Tiger did was amazing but I don’t think it was the right thing fir his parents to do, what if he never liked golf but just had to keep doing it because his parents said so. We should let people and kids choose what they want to do and let them change it many times if they want.
Question Why is changing such a negative thing in society?
Quote: “The young man confidently told his parents that he would never have to look for a job again. He was wrong.” pg. 122
Comment: Since he had loved creating art since he was 13, after selling it successfully he believed he could make enough money for his family. But just because he sold a few pieces of art and had a few customers and clients lined up, did not mean he could manage it full time. He was a country boy in the city who didn’t exactly know his way around and how to socialize correctly with his environment. Therefore, he disliked bargaining with his customers for prices which he felt were unfair to them. He also never got along with his boss, which made enjoying his job a lot harder.
Question: Why doesn’t the young man find a new environment that is right for him to sell his art?
Quote: “But they also found him odd; the children he taught did not listen. Soon, his makeshift ministry was finished. He was twenty-seven, and despondent. A decade after an exuberant start as an art dealer, he had no possessions, accomplishments, or directions.” pg 124
Comment: This man believed that he was destined for success with his art career when he was 13, but too quickly decided to be difficult and no change his ways to succeed. He then reached out to his parents for help, which gave him the idea of being a minister. But the locals did not trust him, listen, or appreciate anything about how he preached. A decade later, he now had nothing. No desire to work, no passion, nothing to be proud of. He became so desperate he asked his younger brother for help, who is now successful as an art dealer.
Question: Why did he stop trying for his real dream of selling art? Why couldn’t he change a few things in himself instead of trying to change everyone else?
Quote: “He obsessed over deeper and darker blacks in colorless works, and then dispensed with that in an instant and forever in favor of vibrant color…. He started piano lessons because he thought musical tones might teach him something about color tones” (126).
Comment: I thought this quote about Vincent van Gogh was extremely interesting because his art process was almost an obsession. He obsessed for hours over the correct way to create his pieces and how to get the correct color tones. He van Gogh took up other hobbies in order to strengthen his artistic skills such as the piano. Although van Gogh could be described as a painting or artistic specialist, he also was a generalist in a sense because he explored other areas in order to strengthen his art. Van Gogh was self made and is known as one of the most famous artists there was. This shows that people do not need to have a lot of money to become successful with what they love to do.
“One day, he dragged an easel and oil paints- with which he had almost no experience- out to a sand dune in a storm. He ran in and out of cover, slapping and slathering paint on a canvas in staccato strokes between gusts of wind that peppered the paint with grains of sand. He squeezed color right from the tube onto the canvas when he had to. The viscous oil paint and the speed required to apply it in the storm freed his imagination and his hand from crippling deficiencies that plagued him when he strove for perfect realism. More than a century later, his definitive biographers would write of that day, “[He] made an astonishing discovery: he could paint.” And he felt it. “I enjoyed it tremendously,” he wrote his brother. “Painting has proved less difficult than I expected.” (125-126)
Comment: Since the boy has never successfully been good at one thing, he has listened to many people tell him new and different things to try. Once he didn’t put as much thought into something and just decided to try it, he found that he was very good at painting and actually enjoyed it. Opinions from other people can act as a block to someone when they are already confused in their mind. The boy was determined to find something he was good at and when he went out and tried something new without hesitation of whether he was going to fail or not he ended with a positive outcome. It becomes discouraging to people when peers put their opinion out there, it becomes discouraging and you are scared that if you try something new you will fail. This isnt always the case, if you don’t try it out you may never know if you’re good at it or not.
Question: If the majority of people didn’t listen to criticism would we be more likely to try new things and accept failure when they don’t work out?
“If the benefit of higher education was simply that it provided skills for work, then early specializing students would be less likely to career switch after college to a field unrelated to their studies: they have amassed more career-specific skills, so they have more to lose by switching. But if a critical benefit of college was that it provided information about match quality, then early specializers should end up switching to unrelated career fields more often, because they did not have time to sample different matches before choosing one that fit their skills and interests.” (129-130)
Comment: If the purpose of going to college and choosing a career based on what you would succeed in best, more people would end up switching since not all the time what you may do best in is the most interesting to you. If the choice of going to college and using a skills match idea people would be able to sample different interests and find the best fit for them. Since the idea of choosing a major when you go into college is so idealized, people end up choosing a major and switching since people change interests from the time, they are a freshman to junior in college.
Question: If the idea of being able to sample careers and majors before going to college was a method college used would more people use that, rather than going into college with a chosen major?
QUOTE 1
“In England and Wales, students were expected to pick a path with knowledge only of the limited menu they had been exposed to early in high school. That is sort of like being forced to choose at sixteen whether you want to marry your high school sweetheart.” –Page 130
COMMENT
I chose this quote because I always hear stories about people who marry their high school sweethearts fresh out of high school. Often times, it doesn’t work out for them. Being forced to choose from a very limited range of topics must be restricting to these students. Personally, I found the majors I am interested in by doing activities outside of school– visiting aquariums, going on whale watches, talking to people with similar interests as me. If I was forced to choose from the topics I was taught in high school alone, I don’t think I would have a very fulfilling career.
QUESTION
If we were able to interact with these students, I wonder if they could tell us how confident they feel with their future career paths? Do they have many opportunities to set themselves apart from their peers academically?
QUOTE 2
“Persevering through difficulty is a competitive advantage for any traveler of a long road, but he suggested that knowing when to quit is such a big strategic advantage that every single person, before undertaking an endeavor, should emmerate conditions under which they should quit.” –Page 136
COMMENT
This quote stood out to me, because I have encountered many points in my life where I felt like I needed to quit or walk away from what I was doing. In some cases, I was forced to stick it out by my parents. I remember playing dek hockey in middle school, and I liked it a lot, but I was one of the only girls on the team. I felt like I had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, and I wasn’t played very often in comparison to my other teammates. The games gave me so much anxiety that I’d feel sick to my stomach, and I wanted to quit but my mom was very eminent about me ‘sticking it out’. All in all, I’m glad I played for the whole season. I feel like it set me up for facing difficult times, but I wonder if I’d be any different if she had let me quit when I wanted to.
QUESTION
If we were able to try new things and be able to quit without consequences, would it create a society of flakey people, or would it generate a society of more open-minded people?
12 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 12”
“Netflix came to a similar conclusion for improvising its recommendation algorithm. Decoding movies’ traits to figure out what you like was very complex and less accurate than simply analogizing you to many other customers with similar viewing histories.” This quote resonated with me because I didn’t know creating different categories on Netflix was this complex. I thought it was just simply by genre. It is so weird to think that Netflix compares my watch history with other people to see what I would enjoy watching next.
“In the face of the unexpected, the range of available analogies helped determine who learned something new.” This quote resonates with me because it makes you think of different ways to think. This quote confuses me, and I want to know exactly what it means.
Quote: “Like Van Gogh in the coal country and Gauguin after the crash, she was ‘set free’ by failure to try work that better matched her talents and interests.” (Epstein 128)
Comment: I picked this quote because it summarized one of the most valuable lessons in this chapter. That lesson is that failure, although can be very frustrating, can always be turned into a positive outcome. I think having this mindset not just while trying to pick a major, but also throughout life, can really benefit us.
Question: Looking back at past experiences, have you ever failed and tried to forget that situation ever happened? If so, do you think that failed experience could have been a lesson learned and could have actually benefited you?
Quote: “A few years later, with more knowledge of their skills and preferences, choosing to pursue a different goal was no longer the gritless route; it was the smart one.” (Epstein 140)
Comment: This quote stood out to me because it is something that I want to remember. I have been told in many situations not to quit and to get through it. When in reality, that situation that I was in was not making me happy and was actually holding me back from pursuing different opportunities in my life.
Question: How should someone respond to the feedback they receive after quitting something?
Quote: “He wanted to make art that anyone could understand, not haughty works for those with privileged training. For years he has tried and failed to capture every proportion of a figure accurately. Now he let that go so entirely that he left figures walking among trees with faces left blank and hands like mittens (Epstein 126).
Comment: For so long he was consumed by societies standard of what he should create and how he should create it. He was unable to let his mind at ease and just paint what he was feeling. He always thought he had to do it the ‘right way’ but there is no ‘right way’ to do art. He was finally able to realize that the art he created was good because it was his own and he wasn’t following a specific set of rules to create it. He was able to let his mind at ease and just let the brush do the work. This is something that sparks my interest because today people are so concerned about doing things the ‘right way’ when there is no such thing. Society has brainwashed us into thinking that we have to create or live in certain ways when we don’t. The only way you can make it in life is on your own and painting your own path.
Question: Why is it a societal standard that if you fail you are frowned upon?
Quote: “’We fail,’ he wrote, when we stick with ‘tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.’ Godin clearly did not advocate quitting simply because a pursuit is difficult.” (Epstein 136).
Comment: Deciding to stop pursuing something isn’t failing that task. It is knowing that you are not happy or are unable to complete it. This is self-awareness and it takes guts in order to step down when you know you can’t do something or something is not making you happy. Godin’s perspective that we only fail when we try to continue something that makes us unhappy is enlightening. Society makes us believe that we need to stay on a strict path and do the right thing even if it’s not what we particularly want to do. We mindlessly go on to each day doing the same thing. This is what Godin sees as a failure because one is failing to do what they truly want to do. They don’t have the guts to pursue what they really love because they are afraid of backlash. It is sad to see that people are afraid to do what they love because of how some people might react.
Question: Why is it so frowned upon in society to quit when something isn’t meant for you?
Quote: “He likened himself to a caged bird in spring who feels deeply that it is time for him to do something important but cannot recall what it is, and so ‘bangs his head against the bars of his cage. And then the cage stays there and the bird is mad with suffering’” (Epstein 124).
Comment: I chose this quote because I thought it was interesting how van Gogh felt “trapped” even though he had done many different things throughout his life. It seemed he didn’t feel trapped in a particular job, but trapped in a sort of loop of failure. Everything he had tried didn’t work out the way he wanted it to, so he was “mad with suffering”, or he felt like he was going crazy because he couldn’t figure out what he was meant to do.
Question: If van Gogh hadn’t found painting, I wonder if he could have found another enjoyable career? How would things have been different if he hadn’t given up on art as a child?
Quote: “They all appear to have excelled in spite of their late starts. It would be easy enough to cherry-pick stories of exceptional late developers overcoming the odds. But they aren’t exceptions by virtue of their late starts, and those late starts did not stack the odds against them. Their late starts were integral to their eventual success” (Epstein 128).
Comment: I feel like this quote kind of relates to our class. Just because we are later than some of our peers in choosing a major doesn’t mean we are setting ourselves up for failure. In fact, it can give us an advantage because we are gaining different kinds of skills from different classes and activities that we wouldn’t necessarily participate in if we had chosen majors.
Question: Why is it “wrong” societally to start things late? Why must we be “child prodigies” in something to be seen as talented or successful?
Quote -It should come as no surprise that more students in Scotland ultimately majored in subjects that did not exist in their high schools, like engineering. In England and Wales, students were expected to pick a path with knowledge only of the limited menu they had been exposed to early in high school.
Comment – I find this quote very interesting. Why would high school students be so inclined to major in something they are unfamiliar with? This reminds me of the growth mindset and maybe hope they were raised. If they were raised with this mindset they should ultimately be willing and ready to face challenges. In England and Wales, it seems more reasonable to me. The students were exposed to a subject and had some background knowledge in it, but it came down to what they were interested in and what they wanted to do. It seems ridiculous to me that some students go into college with no information about their major. I feel as if it is much different here than it is in Scotland and England. In high school, I was expected to be exploring different classes and seeing which ones I liked the most, and then taking more advanced classes, and then maybe majoring in that subject.
Question – Is it like that everywhere? Why just Scotland? Is it a culture thing or do they actually try to raise the kids with a growth mindset?
Quote – With less sampling opportunity, more students headed down a narrow path before figuring out if it was a good one.
Comment – I think this is a really interesting point. It’s funny how these students decided to narrow down what they wanted and what they liked and they then realized later that they might have missed some of the better aspects of what they are interested in. This is another quote that represents one of the main ideas we have been discussing and I think it’s really important. I think this quote also shows the importance of the sampling period. If those students sampled what they narrowed down into instead of just jumping right into it, I really think they could have realized sooner that maybe that aspect of the topic isn’t for them. If they sampled that aspect and realized maybe they didn’t like it, they definitely could have kept exploring and then they would eventually find the better part of the topic.
Question – Why is the sampling period neglected by so many people? What makes someone just decide that one thing is right for them?
Quote
“The young man loved books and worked from eight am until midnight. When the store flooded, he astounded his colleagues with his sheer physical endurance as he carried pile after pile of books to safety. His new goal was to get accepted to a university so that he could later train as a pastor. Again, he unleashed his tireless passion. He worked with a tutor, and copied by hand the text of entire books. ‘I must sit up as long as I can keep my eyes open,’ he told his brother. He reminded himself that ‘practice makes perfect'” (Epstein 123).
Comment
This quote spoke to me because it showed me the power of having a passion for something. When somebody has a passion for something it can give them extra motivation and make things like work enjoyable. When you are looking for a career path you should find something that you have a passion for. If you have a passion for it, going to work would be fun and it will give you the motivation to do a better job. The boy had a passion for reading and it gave him the extra motivation to do a great job and go over the top in what he was doing.
Question
How can you enjoy a job if you do not have a passion for what you are doing?
Quote
What artists do changed because of Vincent Van Gogh, artists and writer Steven Naifeh told me. (Naifeh, with Gregory White Smith, wrote “the definitive biography,” according to a curator of the Van Gogh museum. ) Van Gogh’s paintings served as a bridge to modern art it inspired a widespread devotion that no artist, perhaps no person, has equaled. Teenagers who have never visited a museum tape his art to their walls”
Comment
This quote spoke to me because it reminded me of the importance of having a famous figure to motivate you to do great things. In the sense of Range, Van Gogh is an idol for many teenagers around the world and while it talks about teenagers that have never visited an art museum, they still appreciate his work and he motivates them to pick up a brush and start painting. I related my personal “idol” to my motivation to play guitar. The person that motivated me to pick up and play the guitar was Eddie Van Halen. I was first introduced to Van Halen when I was very young and in the fourth grade, I wanted to be just like him, so I asked my mother to let me buy a guitar. I have been playing for nine years and it has changed my life. Having an idol can give you the motivation to be great in whatever it is you have a passion for.
Question
What other ways can you find the motivation to be great in something if you do not have an “idol” to relate to?
Quote:
“The pattern reached such proportions that a high-ranking officer decided that West Point was actually creating quitters and declared that the military should reduce investment in an “institution that taught its cadets to get out of the Army.” (p. 138)
Comment:
When reading this chapter, I was immediately drawn to this quote. The word that really lured me into this quote was “quitters”. More times than not, when I hear this word, I draw negative connections to it. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have West Point, where I think of cadets who are tough as nails and will do whatever to succeed. It’s interesting to see my beliefs, and what I expect a lot of people’s beliefs to be, to be challenged by linking the two ideas. However, this is a situation very similar to the many that Van Gogh found himself in. Situations where put himself in new settings time after time and continued to quit shortly after. Epstein uses these examples to emulate that sticking too much to a plan can impede progress, that maybe quitting at times isn’t the worst thing in the world. This is a particularly interesting concept to me because my whole life I’ve tried to avoid quitting at all costs and thought it was always the worst possible thing to do.
Question:
Have you found yourself quitting at some point where it actually ended up being the most beneficial option?
Quote:
“Responding to lived experience with a change of direction, like Van Gogh did habitually, like West Point graduates have been doing since the dawn of the knowledge economy, is less tidy but no less important. It involves a particular behavior that improves your chances of finding the best match but that at first blush sounds like a terrible life strategy: short-term planning.”
Comment:
This quote, in a way, is a direct piggyback off of the previous quote I used. It is explaining in more detail the thought process behind jumping ship and moving on to something else. I guess I consider myself lucky, lucky in a way where I haven’t found myself in too many situations where I’ve really felt the need to remove myself from one specific setting. I wouldn’t consider the “sampling period” as a time of quitting because I think that’s part of its purpose. However, it is, I think, the best way to find the best match for you. This chapter gave me a whole new outlook on the idea of “quitting”. I will no longer immediately think negatively when I hear about quitting because if someone is ultimately unhappy in the situation they find themselves in, a change of direction, like Van Gogh did many times, could be what’s most important to happiness and success.
Question:
What were your thoughts about quitting before and after reading this chapter? Have they changed?
Quote “When he was nearly thirty-three, he enrolled in art school alongside students a decade younger, but lasted only a few weeks. He entered the class drawing competition, and the judges harshly suggester that he revert to a beginner’s class with ten-year-olds”(Epstein 125).
Comment I think this shows that just because a couple of people don’t like what you are doing, doesn’t mean that you should stop doing it altogether. Van Gogh went to become an amazing artist and very well known and he, throughout his life was shut down many time by everyone close and not close. But he never stoped trying to do something he loved, he never gave up. He tried to do art in many different ways until he found a way that worked for him.
Question How many people have just given up on their dream just because some random person said so?
Quote “No one in their right mind would argue that passion and perseverance are unimportant, or that a bad day is a cue to quit. But the idea that a change of interest, or a recalibration of focus, is an imperfection and competitive disadvantage leads to a simple, one-size-fits-all Tiger story: pick and stick, as soon as possible”(Epstein 145).
Comment This is so true. No one would say to give up on the first day of trying something new, as why do we not support people when they need to change what they are doing because they don’t love it anymore. People just jobs and change where they live all the time. Yes, what Tiger did was amazing but I don’t think it was the right thing fir his parents to do, what if he never liked golf but just had to keep doing it because his parents said so. We should let people and kids choose what they want to do and let them change it many times if they want.
Question Why is changing such a negative thing in society?
Quote: “The young man confidently told his parents that he would never have to look for a job again. He was wrong.” pg. 122
Comment: Since he had loved creating art since he was 13, after selling it successfully he believed he could make enough money for his family. But just because he sold a few pieces of art and had a few customers and clients lined up, did not mean he could manage it full time. He was a country boy in the city who didn’t exactly know his way around and how to socialize correctly with his environment. Therefore, he disliked bargaining with his customers for prices which he felt were unfair to them. He also never got along with his boss, which made enjoying his job a lot harder.
Question: Why doesn’t the young man find a new environment that is right for him to sell his art?
Quote: “But they also found him odd; the children he taught did not listen. Soon, his makeshift ministry was finished. He was twenty-seven, and despondent. A decade after an exuberant start as an art dealer, he had no possessions, accomplishments, or directions.” pg 124
Comment: This man believed that he was destined for success with his art career when he was 13, but too quickly decided to be difficult and no change his ways to succeed. He then reached out to his parents for help, which gave him the idea of being a minister. But the locals did not trust him, listen, or appreciate anything about how he preached. A decade later, he now had nothing. No desire to work, no passion, nothing to be proud of. He became so desperate he asked his younger brother for help, who is now successful as an art dealer.
Question: Why did he stop trying for his real dream of selling art? Why couldn’t he change a few things in himself instead of trying to change everyone else?
Quote: “He obsessed over deeper and darker blacks in colorless works, and then dispensed with that in an instant and forever in favor of vibrant color…. He started piano lessons because he thought musical tones might teach him something about color tones” (126).
Comment: I thought this quote about Vincent van Gogh was extremely interesting because his art process was almost an obsession. He obsessed for hours over the correct way to create his pieces and how to get the correct color tones. He van Gogh took up other hobbies in order to strengthen his artistic skills such as the piano. Although van Gogh could be described as a painting or artistic specialist, he also was a generalist in a sense because he explored other areas in order to strengthen his art. Van Gogh was self made and is known as one of the most famous artists there was. This shows that people do not need to have a lot of money to become successful with what they love to do.
Question: How did Vincent van Gogh die?
“One day, he dragged an easel and oil paints- with which he had almost no experience- out to a sand dune in a storm. He ran in and out of cover, slapping and slathering paint on a canvas in staccato strokes between gusts of wind that peppered the paint with grains of sand. He squeezed color right from the tube onto the canvas when he had to. The viscous oil paint and the speed required to apply it in the storm freed his imagination and his hand from crippling deficiencies that plagued him when he strove for perfect realism. More than a century later, his definitive biographers would write of that day, “[He] made an astonishing discovery: he could paint.” And he felt it. “I enjoyed it tremendously,” he wrote his brother. “Painting has proved less difficult than I expected.” (125-126)
Comment: Since the boy has never successfully been good at one thing, he has listened to many people tell him new and different things to try. Once he didn’t put as much thought into something and just decided to try it, he found that he was very good at painting and actually enjoyed it. Opinions from other people can act as a block to someone when they are already confused in their mind. The boy was determined to find something he was good at and when he went out and tried something new without hesitation of whether he was going to fail or not he ended with a positive outcome. It becomes discouraging to people when peers put their opinion out there, it becomes discouraging and you are scared that if you try something new you will fail. This isnt always the case, if you don’t try it out you may never know if you’re good at it or not.
Question: If the majority of people didn’t listen to criticism would we be more likely to try new things and accept failure when they don’t work out?
“If the benefit of higher education was simply that it provided skills for work, then early specializing students would be less likely to career switch after college to a field unrelated to their studies: they have amassed more career-specific skills, so they have more to lose by switching. But if a critical benefit of college was that it provided information about match quality, then early specializers should end up switching to unrelated career fields more often, because they did not have time to sample different matches before choosing one that fit their skills and interests.” (129-130)
Comment: If the purpose of going to college and choosing a career based on what you would succeed in best, more people would end up switching since not all the time what you may do best in is the most interesting to you. If the choice of going to college and using a skills match idea people would be able to sample different interests and find the best fit for them. Since the idea of choosing a major when you go into college is so idealized, people end up choosing a major and switching since people change interests from the time, they are a freshman to junior in college.
Question: If the idea of being able to sample careers and majors before going to college was a method college used would more people use that, rather than going into college with a chosen major?
QUOTE 1
“In England and Wales, students were expected to pick a path with knowledge only of the limited menu they had been exposed to early in high school. That is sort of like being forced to choose at sixteen whether you want to marry your high school sweetheart.” –Page 130
COMMENT
I chose this quote because I always hear stories about people who marry their high school sweethearts fresh out of high school. Often times, it doesn’t work out for them. Being forced to choose from a very limited range of topics must be restricting to these students. Personally, I found the majors I am interested in by doing activities outside of school– visiting aquariums, going on whale watches, talking to people with similar interests as me. If I was forced to choose from the topics I was taught in high school alone, I don’t think I would have a very fulfilling career.
QUESTION
If we were able to interact with these students, I wonder if they could tell us how confident they feel with their future career paths? Do they have many opportunities to set themselves apart from their peers academically?
QUOTE 2
“Persevering through difficulty is a competitive advantage for any traveler of a long road, but he suggested that knowing when to quit is such a big strategic advantage that every single person, before undertaking an endeavor, should emmerate conditions under which they should quit.” –Page 136
COMMENT
This quote stood out to me, because I have encountered many points in my life where I felt like I needed to quit or walk away from what I was doing. In some cases, I was forced to stick it out by my parents. I remember playing dek hockey in middle school, and I liked it a lot, but I was one of the only girls on the team. I felt like I had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, and I wasn’t played very often in comparison to my other teammates. The games gave me so much anxiety that I’d feel sick to my stomach, and I wanted to quit but my mom was very eminent about me ‘sticking it out’. All in all, I’m glad I played for the whole season. I feel like it set me up for facing difficult times, but I wonder if I’d be any different if she had let me quit when I wanted to.
QUESTION
If we were able to try new things and be able to quit without consequences, would it create a society of flakey people, or would it generate a society of more open-minded people?