Giving up on “Good”: An Ode to the Basics

I was talking to a former teammate today and he told me that he’s “trying to get good at storytelling” because it doesn’t come naturally to him.

I told him it was a huge mistake to think that way. “Never try to get good at something you’re not talented in.“

Trying to “get good” at something, in my opinion, is in fact downright dangerous.

When you try to “get good” at something, you’re inadvertently buying into several destructive beliefs:

1. That you are “bad” at the thing compared to others
2. That you have to “reach” some kind of advanced level of proficiency (which you vaguely describe as “good” or “no longer bad”)
3. That you will “suck” at it for an indefinite period of time

This is way too much pressure to actually make any kind of meaningful progress.

Counter-intuitively, by following the above advice, you can become world-class at that very thing, sometimes outclassing even those who are talented at it.

And that brings us to today’s topic: the Basics.

I’ve learned that it’s way better to reframe your perspective to this instead:

“I’m not talented at this. I shall give up on being good at it. Hence, I will only learn the bare basics — and then simply practice those basics endlessly until the end of my life.“

In any domain you can think of — whether it’s mechanical engineering, music, public speaking, marriage, sex, basketball, or customer service — there is always a list of “basics” or “fundamentals.”

The key quality of basics is that anyone can learn them, practice them, and become great at them. And therein lies the deceptive power.

I’m a firm believer that simply by mastering the basics, you can do better than most of the so-called “experts” and “advanced practitioners” in any domain you can think of.

In fact, you could become the best in the world.

Like Kobe Bryant

Or like Hokusai (the great Japanese artist) whose quote went like this:

…until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 years I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reach 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at 90 to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at 100 years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine are not false.

So I’ve personally given up on ever getting “good” at anything.

Here are some things that I’m not good at, where I’ve managed to come FAR by simply learning the basics:

1. Judo (struggled to get “good” for 3 years; suddenly had a breakthrough when I refocused on the fundamentals)
2. Interpersonal relationships (the first few chapters of ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie are alone enough for a lifetime of success)
3. Programming / Software engineering
4. Japanese
5. Business strategy

Either I’m already good at something (which means? you guessed it, time to do more practice), or I’m gonna master the basics. Now back to the dojo.