[...] Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Dangerous Ideas: People Respect Hard Work, But Idolize Magic [...]

Your observation of what it takes to paw one’s way to “magic” is on-point.

Far too often, people assume that to become great, they just need to imitate those who have achieved greatness.

However, the “magic” that some many of us get to observe and admire is normally a result of a lifetime pursuit of passion, skill-accumulation, and practiced application.

Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for the comment. This is a common problem with writers. You get so caught up in the idea of writing something great that you never start writing. In reality, of course, good writing comes from draft after draft of editing (plus experience).

There’s a famous story of a young writer who hated Tom Wolfe, as he assumed he was just a genius who poured forth brilliant writing. Then, one day, he walked into the offices of Rolling Stone and saw Tom sweating over a type writer, looking pained, and realized that, yes, even for the best it wasn’t inspiration.

I always used to put off working on my essays until the last moment, largely because I didn’t yet feel as utterly inspired as I felt I needed for an excellent essay. Naturally this resulted in less good work; as I worked hard on an essay I would frequently discover sources of inspiration, but not before.

The nice addage of exceptional work being 1% inspiration and 99% hard work sums up the point quite well for me.

I hope that having largely demystified the process of writing a great essay for myself I will now be able to motivate myself to work more consistently, and let the magic grow from that.