[...] elite conferences and journals in the field of computer science. The lesson Rachid offered — which I’ve since strongly embraced — is that in the end, hard results are all that [...]

Right now I am in a job that I just dont care much about. Ideally I want to be great – the best even – but I dislike my work, and I logically cannot quit due to debts, and promotion or transfer will not occur due to the structure of the job. So I dilute my work experiences with other things that make life bearable. Doing so will never make me the best, but it will preserve my sanity. Mediocrity is an asset.

[...] “If you’re itching to make your life something amazing, consider spending less time daydreaming about defying the status quo and answering the critics of your decision, and spending more time gearing yourself up for the challenge of becoming so good that they can’t ignore you.” [...]

[...] demand, otherwise known as the “be so good they can’t ignore you” method, or the Steve Martin method. Yeah, yeah, education is not about achievement but about blah blah fluffy patronizing words. Guess [...]

[...] who got me thinking about redirecting my focus towards a few things that I can do really well, and “to be so good that they can’t ignore you”. In my case, it is the mastery of Chinese traditional harp with a western, modern [...]

[...] — for both students and graduates — about the psychological complexity of the quest to become so good they can’t ignore you… The people who fail to graduate from MIT, fail because they come in, encounter problems that are [...]

[...] act after 5 – 10 years of taking up the instrument. But his resolution reflects a deeper truth: getting good at something is not to be taken lightly, and skill is to be developed over the course … Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin share via Reddit [...]

[...] — for both students and graduates — about the psychological complexity of the quest to become so good they can’t ignore you…The people who fail to graduate from MIT, fail because they come in, encounter problems that are [...]

[...] the blog Study Hacks, blogger and computer scientist Cal Newport dissects what makes Steve Martin successful. [...]

[...] your focus to a point where becoming outstanding becomes out of reach.The rest of the article is here.He’s probably right, but I think these types of discussions are not complete without at least [...]