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[personaldev] The virtue of jockishness
Sep. 17th, 2010 11:44 amThis is fascinating:
As a child I very much shied away from and often ridiculed the "jock" approach to things. "Jock" was often synonymous with "dumb". This probably was aided by the fact that the cool kids in my school were not the jocks but the academic overachievers. (I went to a well-funded public school that was full of Stanford professors' kids). However, it's interesting to come around and realize that the jock approach can often have a lot of value. It should be seen not as an antithesis to the "nerd" approach, but as a separate skill that's worth using when appropriate.
Back to the video... The weightlifter, Kirk Karwoski, has spent years building up his strength via a variety of exercises and fine-tuning his proprioception so that he knows exactly how far he can push himself. It's not the most intellectually demanding work, but it involves an incredible amount of willpower, perseverance, and an ability to be extremely in tune with his body. When it comes time to do the record-setting lift, the movement sequences and possible contingencies are all completely mapped out into muscle memory and learned procedures, requiring little to no deliberative conscious input. When there's 1000 pounds of weight on his back, he has to know exactly what he's doing. He also has to set aside any doubt, minor pains, or other mental obstacles in his way. All the animal grunting serves a purpose -- it gets him purely focused on the task and ready to push his abilities to the limit. Nike understood this when their marketing department, after I'm sure was a long and extensive deliberation, chose the slogan of "just do it".
What can "nerds" learn from the jock approach? When is it applicable outside scenarios where large amounts of mass must be moved using human muscle power alone? I've noticed a lot of objectively highly intelligent people suffer from indecisiveness, hyper-rationality, procrastination, getting lost in details, timidity, lack of focus, poor body awareness, and poor body care (lack of exercise, poor diet). Often these issues are over-expressions of a trait that is good in moderation; indecisiveness is overactive comparative analytical skill, procrastination is overactive perfectionism, etc, However, these issues prevent their intelligence from translating into making a significant impact in the real world. I believe that having some fluency in the "jock" approach, and knowing when to apply it, can go a long way toward correcting hyperactive "nerd" abilities.
As a child I very much shied away from and often ridiculed the "jock" approach to things. "Jock" was often synonymous with "dumb". This probably was aided by the fact that the cool kids in my school were not the jocks but the academic overachievers. (I went to a well-funded public school that was full of Stanford professors' kids). However, it's interesting to come around and realize that the jock approach can often have a lot of value. It should be seen not as an antithesis to the "nerd" approach, but as a separate skill that's worth using when appropriate.
Back to the video... The weightlifter, Kirk Karwoski, has spent years building up his strength via a variety of exercises and fine-tuning his proprioception so that he knows exactly how far he can push himself. It's not the most intellectually demanding work, but it involves an incredible amount of willpower, perseverance, and an ability to be extremely in tune with his body. When it comes time to do the record-setting lift, the movement sequences and possible contingencies are all completely mapped out into muscle memory and learned procedures, requiring little to no deliberative conscious input. When there's 1000 pounds of weight on his back, he has to know exactly what he's doing. He also has to set aside any doubt, minor pains, or other mental obstacles in his way. All the animal grunting serves a purpose -- it gets him purely focused on the task and ready to push his abilities to the limit. Nike understood this when their marketing department, after I'm sure was a long and extensive deliberation, chose the slogan of "just do it".
What can "nerds" learn from the jock approach? When is it applicable outside scenarios where large amounts of mass must be moved using human muscle power alone? I've noticed a lot of objectively highly intelligent people suffer from indecisiveness, hyper-rationality, procrastination, getting lost in details, timidity, lack of focus, poor body awareness, and poor body care (lack of exercise, poor diet). Often these issues are over-expressions of a trait that is good in moderation; indecisiveness is overactive comparative analytical skill, procrastination is overactive perfectionism, etc, However, these issues prevent their intelligence from translating into making a significant impact in the real world. I believe that having some fluency in the "jock" approach, and knowing when to apply it, can go a long way toward correcting hyperactive "nerd" abilities.
