[...] work offers us three things—autonomy, competence, and relatedness. And the path to those riches, Newport writes, is to first “master a skill that’s rare and valuable” in the [...]

One concept that would help clarify some points in the article and in the various comments is the clear distinction across knowledge, skills and personality traits. This is explained in Marcus Buckingham’s book, “Now Discover Your Strengths”.

Database design, Latin, medicine etc. all involve a base of knowledge that can be acquired through various formal and self-study methods. The word skill is best suited to describe something that can be codified into a series of proven steps to achieve an objective. Skills can be acquired but need to be practised constantly. Our personality traits are natural mental tendencies and preferences that are partly inherited and get fairly set in the early years.

Knowledge is domain- or subject-specific, skills could translate across related domains whereas our traits are generic and influence all the millions of auto-pilot reactions and decisions we make throughout the day.

This is why it is silly to make simplistic connections between a personality profile and career avenues. Look at the top performers in any profession and you will find immense variety in personality traits. Sure it is easier to relate some personality traits to certain types of jobs but the exceptions are too many to make the link prescriptive.

Discovering our traits helps channelize them to activities that we are more easily passionate about, in almost any industry or job we are in. Sadly some people fail to make this connection, especially due to the mixed way in which knowledge, skills and traits are discussed. Such people often find hobbies that give play to their natural traits.

Achieving excellence even in one or two activities in any profession requires a combination of knowledge elements, one or more skills and some traits. It is the natural trait that fuels the discipline and repetitive practice needed to attain the higher levels of competence. Yes, willpower and motivational factors can help somebody get very good in what they aim for but that final level of magical, passionate, effortless, play-not-work comes when there is some natural inexhaustible fuel arising from our brain patterns.

Finally, this means, yes, one can choose any major and get into any industry based on practical economic considerations (rare and valuable abilities, emerging industry with high growth prospects and so on) but self-awareness can help them tune their career growth path to reach higher levels of competence.

[...] by Cal Newport  Posted by saxon at 17:37  Tagged with: explain plan, [...]

[...] but I can already begin to feel new habits solidifying. I’m also a strong believer that passion can grow from competence, so I’ll eventually phase out rewards for certain ongoing, long-term quests because the [...]

Nonetheless, one must figure that some human inclination, some kind of human desire, the very root of human conditioning, encouraged one to pursue a certain field. Indeed, your tendency toward logical, structured mathematical thinking (As a physics major, I possess this trait) and your writing ability helped in shaping your life’s path. In addition, living a remarkable life is a bit loaded, don’t you think? Part of being human is our emotional range and being happy with our lives is more like a passing emotional state than a standing love affair. I like to think while “passion” is bull, having a “purpose” that can take you forward, is more to the point. It’s that thing that leaves you raw and angry for it’s an original thought or agenda, or at least, it seems to be. It’s what happens when the question “Why do I exist?/Why should I bother existing?” becomes “How can I serve myself and others?” It’s damn hard to change (deliberate practice, indeed), so most of us are just using what we have to the best of our “ability.”

Ignore my blubbering, the article and the site are awesome. I suppose I’m saying the same thing you are – you can’t know what you haven’t tried, reality and “being” are interwoven; success happens in the real world, not in our minds.

Kudos.

Thanks for the great work Cal! This deliberate practice idea is a game-changer.

[...] judgment for now, since I’ve also read cases (specifically from Cal Newport), arguing that passion often comes from competence. Therefore, it’s also possible that using external motivators to push you to build expertise more [...]

[...] Newport of StudyHacks has the best approach to finding work you love I have found. Newport quotes Edward Deci and Richard Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT) : [...]