Why Prescriptions don't Work?
The Source of greatness is a murky affair. It is nonlinear. It is unpredictable.
1.1. Why Prescriptions don't Work?
Prescriptions are how-tos, they are hacks/techniques/methods to get somewhere. Prescriptions are useful in certain conditions like riding a bicycle and assembling a furniture. The problem is that whenever you venture into the realm of art, in any form, be it in business/sports or even in the setting of finding peace in your life or freedom or arriving at enlightenment, those things cannot be prescriptionized. If you attempt to prescriptionize them, that prescription becomes the new god, and you begin to try to live up to the prescription.
When you follow the prescription “How you get to x”, then what will happen is that your mind will begin to focus on the intermediary. You will attempt to satisfy the intermediary. Business biographies are useless for building a great business. They are good for inspiration. You can read Steve Jobs biography, but you can’t become Steve Jobs. When you're trying to operate at the top of a field, or when you're trying to do something creative, how-tos don't work beyond the most extreme basics.
When you're first starting something, it is actually a mechanical endeavor. You're just figuring out how to drive a car. But when you're trying to figure out how to race around a track faster than anyone else, then all coaches/techniques/prescriptions have to fall by the wayside, and you are at the edge of the art. The right things to do can’t be taught because it’s a moving target. Prescriptions only give very vague principles that inspire people to hit in the right direction.
Our societies are deeply embedded in prescriptions so much that the idea of omitting or challenging its existence is completely off the wall. It is so otherworldly and antithetical that it takes years to even get to the point where the idea of prescriptions being an impediment to whatever you seek begins to dawn.
One does not have to want to be the greatest in the world. If you look at the lives of human beings, there is an intense struggle. The guy who worked three jobs, doesn't want to work three jobs, he may not want to become Tiger Woods, but he wants to be beyond being forced to work three jobs. What keeps him working three jobs is prescriptions. Prescriptions don’t just harm one who wants to become world class, it gravely harms the one who simply doesn't want to struggle.
People who ask for stock tips are not serious about investing. People who ask for book recommendations are not serious about reading. People who ask what career path they should choose are not serious about their careers.
If you are truly serious about something, you’d figure it out.
1.2. How to figure it out?
Take a person who is world class in whatever field. If they went back and retraced their steps and did everything again the same way by mimicking themselves, they would fail. So the question is where the greatness comes from? It's a very murky affair. It is nonlinear. It is unpredictable.
Once you jump in the soup, and you're being bombarded through all sides, and you live in confusion, and you have no idea which way is up. If the obsession is there, then what happens is through some messy process, you find a way you see light at the end of the tunnel, you forge a path through the jungle. When you come out through the tunnel, and someone asks you how you did it, you have no idea.
You can ask Warren Buffet why he is investing in a company and try to reconstruct how he thinks/chooses a company. But there are just as many details to Warren Buffett's activities when he decides what to invest in and how he lives his life and how he thinks. The details are not transmissible, they're not copyable and they are not even knowable. Even Warren Buffet doesn’t know himself. You can be inspired to try it yourself. But without that sincerity, that obsession, you won't get there.
Recommended Reading:
Reference:
Summary of conversation between Naval Ravikant and Kapil Gupta MD (Link)
Naval Ravikant on Twitter (Link)
Kapil Gupta MD on Twitter (Link)
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