Quotes About Development

Man has developed consciousness slowly and laboriously, in a process that took untold ages to reach the civilized state (which is arbitrarily dated from the invention of script in about 4000 B.C.). And this evolution is far from complete, for large areas of the human mind are still shrouded in darkness. What we call the "psyche" is by no means identical with our consciousness and its contents.

Every place in West, it seemed, was always for sale.

Men are what their mothers made them. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON, The Conduct of Life

Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.

Progress means movement in a desired direction, and we do not all desire the same things for our species.

If you can't learn, you can't thrive.

If you're not uncomfortable, then you're probably stuck at an "acceptable level.

Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands….

Ericsson notes that for a novice, somewhere around an hour a day of intense concentration seems to be a limit, while for experts this number can expand to as many as four hours—but rarely more.

This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of "good." If you're not uncomfortable, then you're probably stuck at an "acceptable level.

We like to think of innovation as striking us in a stunning eureka moment, where you all at once change the way people see the world, leaping far ahead of our current understanding. I'm arguing that in reality, innovation is more systematic.

the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain." American

Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands…. Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it "deliberate," as distinct from the mindless playing of scales or hitting of tennis balls that most people engage in.

continuous and harsh feedback he received accelerated the growth of his ability.

Deliberate practice is often the opposite of enjoyable. I like the term "stretch" for describing what deliberate practice feels like,

You have to get good before you can expect good work. As

I keep a tally of the total number of hours I've spent that month in a state of deliberate practice.

Pushing past what is comfortable, however is only one part of the deliberate-practice story; the other part is embracing honest feedback — even if it destroys what you thought was good.

Getting to the cutting edge of a field can be understood in these terms: This process builds up rare and valuable skills and therefore builds up your store of career capital. Similarly, identifying a compelling mission once you get to the cutting edge can be seen as investing your career capital to acquire a desirable trait in your career. In other words, mission is yet another example of career capital theory in action. If you want a mission, you need to first acquire capital.

Stop focusing on these little details," it told me. "Focus instead on becoming better.

1) your attention is focused tightly on a specific skill you're trying to improve or an idea you're trying to master; (2) you receive feedback so you can correct your approach to keep your attention exactly where it's most productive.

skills, be they intellectual or physical, eventually reduce down to brain circuits.

By focusing intensely on a specific skill, you're forcing the specific relevant circuit to fire, again and again, in isolation. This repetitive use of a specific circuit triggers cells called oligodendrocytes to begin wrapping layers of myelin around the neurons in the circuits—effectively cementing the skill.

work on contributing a clever piece of computer code to an Open Source project.