Tuesday, January 19, 2010

200

Being a professional..

We see that today, we have alot of professionals in many areas. We see them all around us. Football professionals, professional gamers, master chess players, competitive grade athletes, world class artists and top grade chefs.

How do these people become good at what they're doing? They practise, and they do it countless times. But ever wondered what happens if these activities that they are good at never existed? They're good at what they're doing now because they found an interest in what they are doing (not talking about being forced) and got thought that they'd like to be good at it. It's because these activities existed in the first place for them to be good at. But what happens if these activities were never around?

What if long ago, there was no such game as football or soccer? What would be of our modern day professional football players? Would they have been the ones who invented football because they realised they were good at kicking balls around the field? Or would they never have thought about it and gone into another profession instead? Does the skill required come first, or does the activity that require the skills come first?

Many claim that people can be born professionals but what happens when someone was born a natural computer programmer a century before the computer was being invented? Will he have been the one to pioneer computer programming without any applications? Or will he have just lost that skill, that talent? It's possible that this guy born with a mindset optimal for computer programming to have came up with it before the computer was invented. He realised he liked something, he just didn't know what. He couldn't relate to it. He showed his friends and the people around him at that time and they called him crazy for thinking that way. He didn't know that there would ever be such a thing called a computer, which is something he's be good at and he shook of the idea and probably moved on to something else since it wasn't beneficial to him.

What about professional gamers? If someone was born with the body of a professional gamer, quick strategic thinking, insane keyboard precision and accuracy and a mind able to plan several stages in advance but never knew that video games existed, would that person be the first one to invent a video game? Would he be the first to design strategic entertainment products? Or will he not even find out that he was born to be a gamer and move on to something else and do something else like music instead?

We live in good times, where there're many things going on around us now and most of us can find something we can be good in. However, there will be the unfortunate few who realise that what they're good in isn't even in existence now. Will they ever find out what they're good in and get the ball rolling so others like them can be good at it too? Or will they just shake it off, saying that they're good at nothing we have to offer, or what they're good at doesn't match us? Would professional Baseball players find out that they're good at hitting balls with a bat? Will they even think about trying to hit balls with a bat with their friends during their free time to see that they're subconsciously good at it? Or will they not try at all and move on to something else?

I'd say we're very fortunate, even if there're some things we wished we could do but can't. There's something for the majority of us, unlike centuries ago where people who were meant to be good at stuff never found out what they were good at because it never existed at that time. Maybe for things like chess and music, the dates go back even further because they've been around for a long time. However, this does not mean to say that there is something for everyone in today's living. To say that we cannot develop further would be arrogant and a hindrance to progress. That why, when we find something we like to do, or love doing, even when people think you're silly or it makes no sense, it's still good to pursue it, for you never know. You might just be developing something that you can be good at, even when nobody follows you, you'll be able to show them that one day, they would've wished they were on your side.

What do you think?

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200? Why 200?

Hm.. my 200th post. The first 2 days of school were good. It's good to be in school again. No more long boring days of lazing around. I do feel quite tired though, from the lack of sleep most likely. It's time to revert back to the normal sleeping patterns.

Sometimes when I look back at the posts I've written down the blog, I remember and all the images of what I was writing about come back to me. Some of the ambiguous ones don't make sense to me anymore, while others still do. I still choose to leave them there though, as a reminder of what I was going through, and maybe I'll someday remember them and laugh at my own silliness for thinking that way last time. Reading back my older posts has also made me realise the way I've been typing and how it's been changing. I read back and realised that I've used certain vocabulary then that I don't now, and it kinda surprises me that I actually did use those choice of words then compared to if I were to write about the same topic now, of which those worlds would probably have never popped to my head. I realise that the style I type in is different from the way I speak, or write too. I read my own posts and sometimes wonder if I really wrote that, which is a little silly because I know I really did write in that style with those choice of words and strange vocabulary and idioms etc.

It's somewhat weird to read yourself and think that that isn't you. I guess I've probably changed. Or maybe it just comes out when I'm typing. Maybe the content plays a part too, no denying on that one here.

Enough said..

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