How to be the best in the world
How do you become the best in the world? This is a question that I grapple with a lot. This question is the main idea behind Seth Godin's The Dip, which I have reviewed in a previous post here.
In the book, Imagine, Jonah Lehrer talks to Clay Marzo, a professional surfer who has Asperger's syndrome, a neurological disorder that falls under the autism umbrella. And although it makes him withdraw from social situations, it also comes with a remarkable ability, the capability to have intense focus. He has a natural love for water, and so for him surfing is everything. There is no plan B. He learns everything he can about surfing and then he invents the rest. That is an artist, if I have ever seen one!
However, some of us (me), have the opposite! I love social situations, and have a very hard time focusing on one thing only, especially forever. Maybe some of you are the same way. It could be due to an addiction to learning new things, or a fear of commitment. But there is hope! I know of a guy that from the outside looks like he has attention deficit, but is extremely successful. And so he puts the single focus strategy on its head.
His name is Tim Ferriss. As you guys may or may not know, I am obsessed with his work! This is because I see so much of myself, and others like me, in him. He loves science, business, and art. And that is essentially me. So if he can do it, so can I, and so can you!
One could see Tim on the outside and ask, how is he possibly successful? He is fluent in five languages (probably more now), knows about business, knows about exercise, fitness and nutrition, cooking, etc. He knows a little about a lot. Compare that to the Picasso’s and Clay Marzo's of the world that focus on one topic for their entire career and are probably the most knowledgeable/accomplished people in their field. How then did he do it?
He uses regular life problems as the subject of his work. He is essentially a scientist that for answers to everyday problems. For example, his two books share the same premise, can you have equal or increased output by simultaneously reducing the volume and increasing the quality of the input.
He found a method to decrease work hours and achieve the same or increased pay. He found a method to decrease workout volume and achieve the same or increased muscle production and fat loss. He also found a method to decrease the volume of language learned to create the same or increased level of fluency. He brought about possibilities that were not widely known before, and only a few used or knew how.
He tests assumptions in whatever subject. Perhaps he is not as scatterbrained as he seems. Maybe his specialty is to find better solutions to problems he is interested in. Then, he approaches the solution like a scientist. Except that he looks for alternative methods, if not entirely opposite methods. He is not interested in the end result, but in a better way to achieve the result. For example, the most common approach for making more money is working more. What if instead you work less? Is there a way to work less and make more? The most common approach to build more muscle is to workout more. What if there is a way to workout less and make more muscle?
What is most interesting about this work is that they are not problems that no one has ever solved before. This is in stark contrast to a traditional academic scientist who works on questions that no one has ever had an answer to, like 'what are the biological underpinnings behind major depressive disorder'. Tim Ferriss is not looking for a new answer but for a new method to the answer. A new method to those answers that most people desperately seek, like how to make more money, how to get abs, how to work less, how to travel more.
The overarching theme of these questions is lifestyle design, which most people don’t get to experience since their lifestyle designs them instead. Perhaps by reducing volume, and working smarter, he lowers the barrier for achievement. He tried to help himself, and in the meantime found a way to help millions of people. So then, why is he so successful? Because he helped millions of people. Maybe Tim focuses intensely on finding better methods for living life. I mean who doesn't want to live a better life? I do.
This brings me back to the question. To focus or not to focus? Well, what we've learned is that focus doesn't have to be in the same thing. The thing is just a substrate for a question. The question however, gets all the focus. The substrates are just the ends to a mean. So, yes! We do need to focus!
This answer effectuates a new question! Is art, for some artists, just an experimental model for underlying questions about creativity, or the brain? Picasso, for sure, was very interested in the creative process. One could ague that he was more interested in the creative process than the creation itself.
"...it isn't enough to know an artist's work. You also have to know when he made them, why, how, and under what circumstances, There will undoubtedly be a science one day- maybe they will call it 'the science of man'- that will seek to understand man through the man-creator... I often think about this science, and I intend to as much information as possible for posterity."
-Picasso
Hope this was helpful!
John
