Greatness
exploring the foundations of quality and the currents that fight against mediocrity
sari and
Greatness
I asked Kelly about the tradeoffs of focusing on a single thing if you want to be great (which is what I had been getting at before). “Greatness is overrated,” he said, and I perked up. “It’s a form of extremism, and it comes with extreme vices that I have no interest in. Steve Jobs was a jerk. Bob Dylan is a jerk.”
Brie Wolfson • Flounder Mode
obsessing over quality often demands that you slow down, as the focus required to get better is simply not compatible with busyness.
Cal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Rick Rubin on turning Metallica around
It’s always better to think and work backwards from great than it is to work forward from good
Reaching 95%-ile isn't very impressive because it's not that hard to do. I think this is one of my most ridiculable ideas. It doesn't help that, when stated nakedly, that sounds elitist. But I think it's just the opposite: most people can become (relatively) good at most things.
Atul Gawande • 95%-Ile Isn't That Good
A great lil story from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.
His procedure was
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