I was at the climbing gym this one time, working on a route. There were two copies of it side-by-side, as though for a race – ooh, fun! By this point I'd been climbing occasionally for about a decade and considered myself a beginner plus. I was never very good, being both overweight and lacking strength, but I did spend dozens of hours practicing.
My first time trying this route, I got halfway up but missed a jump. After a few more tries, I got past that part but got stuck further up, not having enough skill and strength to finish. Each attempt took me probably 5-7 minutes, and altogether I was on that route for about half an hour.
Then this thirteen year-old girl walked up and tied in next to me. She surveyed the route and checked her harness. Then, in one practiced motion, she leapt off the ground, reached for a hold above her head with one hand, and slapped the route timer start button with the other. I didn't even know there was a timer, so I was watching it curiously. It stopped at 8 second something. I was confused. I looked up, but she was already being lowered. I wondered to myself, wait, did she get pulled up by the auto-belay...? How does that work...?
Then she did it again. This time I watched. She flew up the course, jumping from hold to hold faster than I could even think, and beat her previous time by a few tenths of a second. It was like this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktxxI_IPXjA) (that's not her, but similar route... maybe even the same route? not sure if it's a standard).
Despite a decade of climbing (mix of gym and outdoors, usually in small towns), it was my first time seeing a speed climber. I didn't even know that was a thing. Moreover, I didn't know the human body could even move that fast. Granted, I was never very fit, but I don't think I realized until that moment just how much fitter another person could actually be. In less than 10 seconds she easily finished what I couldn't do even in 400+ seconds – even though I'd been climbing longer than she'd been alive, lol.
It was humbling, astonishing, inspiring, and comedic to me all at once. It was very much one of those "wtf have I been doing with my whole life" moments. I'd always been the kind of person who was OK at a lot of things, never very good at any one thing, and to bear witness to such raw ability was... beautiful, if a bit discouraging, lol. I hope that by the time I die, I can become that good at SOMETHING in my life.
> I hope that by the time I die, I can become that good at SOMETHING in my life.
In my mid 30s now, i've transitioned to still having this goal, but instead of it being status or career or money or skill oriented, it's about how i interface with the world. my goal in life is to be kind to myself and others, to lessen suffering for myself and others, and to continuously work on my life in ways that help me attain this goal.
this works really well for me as someone with some historically pretty bad anxiety, self esteem, and ADHD issues. it doesn't require intense focus and study and sitting still for hours. it just requires being introspective, being willing to push through mental discomfort, and swallowing my ego. it also makes the world around me feel like a better place.
of course i'm not perfect at this - my biggest issue is still occasionally being less than perfectly kind when anonymously commenting on the internet sometimes. but i'm working on it :)
>I'd always been the kind of person who was OK at a lot of things, never very good at any one thing, and to bear witness to such raw ability was... beautiful, if a bit discouraging, lol. I hope that by the time I die, I can become that good at SOMETHING in my life.
I want to his this really hard. Being good at a lot of things, but not being the best at any one thing, is sort of a super power on its own.
I always say that I'm never THE expert at any one thing, but if you give me three days and an open internet connection, I can become AN expert at anything at all.
Learning is hard for a lot of people. If you excel at learning, that could be the thing that you're the best at. Never forget that.
That's a pretty interesting topic on its own, this idea that being a quick learner is itself a skill or talent (whether acquired or innate). Probably like many others on this forum, I'm generally considered to be pretty intelligent, and can quickly pick up new information without much effort.
However – I don't know if there's a term for this – but in my life, I've found that to be a double-edged sword. Some things that others struggle with (like mechanical, visual, or logical problem solving) are nearly effortless for me, where answers more or less just appear "intuitively". That works for simpler/shallower systems, but not "deeper" systems that can require years of learning and practice, like math. The double-edged part of it is that if it's not something I immediately grasp, I typically give up on it after a few days. Not really out of frustration, just losing interest and wanting to move onto something else. I guess I never needed to learn how to sit still and learn deeper topics (K-12 and college were always way too easy, full of a bunch of shallow topics that didn't require much thought).
That's even more the case when it involves physical skill too, not just intellectual, in things like rock climbing or playing an instrument or martial arts or mountain biking. Whatever kind of intelligence and learning ability I have in intellectual pursuits don't seem to translate over to mixed activities like that, and I learn those much slower than normal.
Not complaining or anything, just think it's interesting! I don't know whether that's because people are just different (and if they are, is it nature/nurture?), or maybe I have some undiagnosed ADD or whatever, lol.
I can become an expert beginner in anything in a few days/weeks at the most. Then it plateaus, and for the next decade I'll remain an expert beginner and never move past that, lol.
My first time trying this route, I got halfway up but missed a jump. After a few more tries, I got past that part but got stuck further up, not having enough skill and strength to finish. Each attempt took me probably 5-7 minutes, and altogether I was on that route for about half an hour.
Then this thirteen year-old girl walked up and tied in next to me. She surveyed the route and checked her harness. Then, in one practiced motion, she leapt off the ground, reached for a hold above her head with one hand, and slapped the route timer start button with the other. I didn't even know there was a timer, so I was watching it curiously. It stopped at 8 second something. I was confused. I looked up, but she was already being lowered. I wondered to myself, wait, did she get pulled up by the auto-belay...? How does that work...?
Then she did it again. This time I watched. She flew up the course, jumping from hold to hold faster than I could even think, and beat her previous time by a few tenths of a second. It was like this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktxxI_IPXjA) (that's not her, but similar route... maybe even the same route? not sure if it's a standard).
Despite a decade of climbing (mix of gym and outdoors, usually in small towns), it was my first time seeing a speed climber. I didn't even know that was a thing. Moreover, I didn't know the human body could even move that fast. Granted, I was never very fit, but I don't think I realized until that moment just how much fitter another person could actually be. In less than 10 seconds she easily finished what I couldn't do even in 400+ seconds – even though I'd been climbing longer than she'd been alive, lol.
It was humbling, astonishing, inspiring, and comedic to me all at once. It was very much one of those "wtf have I been doing with my whole life" moments. I'd always been the kind of person who was OK at a lot of things, never very good at any one thing, and to bear witness to such raw ability was... beautiful, if a bit discouraging, lol. I hope that by the time I die, I can become that good at SOMETHING in my life.