Before you decide to master a medium, it’s worth considering the pitfalls that come with this commitment.
It’s not free. It’s going to cost you something.
Are you willing to pay the price? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
Does being good at this medium, or the thing, help you achieve your objective beyond being good at the medium?
Or are you simply deciding to become good at it for the sake of saying you are good at it…
If you are in pursuit of something, you must know what it is building toward. Whether it is making a greater contribution. Because it will require a lot of work. In Malcom Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he posits that to gain mastery of something, you must commit 10,000 hours to its practice.
It’s going to require sacrifices in other areas of your life. It will require that you give up other things that you enjoy doing. That you sit down and do the work, rather than going out with friends. That you get up early and stay up late.
At times, it will be uncomfortable.
Yet, to gain mastery of something is also a testament to your willingness and commitment. You are building a deep body of work that will (hopefully) be useful.
And that is the question: will this skill/ body of work/ tool be useful, to myself or to others.
If yes, stay in the pursuit.
If no, back to the drawing board.
Simon G. Cooper 