One Proven Way to Build Confidence

True confidence comes from accepting your total and ever-present failure to be like anybody else, and from building your life from there.

1. Specialize. But don't specialize out of fear of competition. The competition will find its way into your home turf anyway.
   
2. Feel free to compare. It is both natural and good for learning.
   
3. Accept that you have already failed and that you will never do things the way the stars in your chosen field have done or are doing.

You don't play football like Maradona?

No problem.

Do you make that 10-meter pass today better than you did yesterday?

Will you make it better tomorrow?

You may not be a second Maradona, but you may make bigger contributions to football than the first and only Maradona!

Good luck!

One More Way Not to Build Confidence

Another common advice to build confidence goes, 'Stop comparing with others. Just work hard.' This advice is both impossible to follow and also harmful to do so.

Impossible

How can we stop comparing?

1. We do not live alone, in total isolation, in the universe.
2. We do not live in sensory deprivation chambers, with eyes seeing nothing, with ears hearing nothing, and so on.

Harmful

Why should we stop comparing? In matters of learning, comparison comes even before imitation and copycatting!

Say, I am a young swimmer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Thorpe , Phelps and other greats.

Say, I am a young golfer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player and other greats.

Say, I am a young footballer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Ronaldo (Brazil), Romario, Maradona and other greats.

There must be a better way. Let's see.

One Way Not to Build Confidence

Looking for your core competence, sticking to your strengths, staying true to your essence are commendable life strategies. But they will never build you true confidence. They encourage you to live inside a cocoon, to avoid real threats and real opportunities.

 Orcas cannot climb trees. Monkeys cannot fly. Eagles cannot swim.

So orcas should keep themselves to seas, monkeys to trees, and eagles to the sky?

1. So a budding poet should not study math because he will never be able to do math as well as his classmates? 
2. So a budding mathematician should not touch literature and arts because he will never do them as well as his classmates? 
3. So a promising engineer should never dabble in enterprise because he will never do business as well as her classmates?

All sound and sensible and sham and fake and lame!


If you avoid competition and comparison, the universe is never wide enough for you.


If you choose math out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous mathematicians in history?

If you choose poetry out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous poets in history?

If you choose business and enterprise out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous entrepreneurs in history?

There is a better way. See the next post.

World Cup, Science Creativity and Singapore

Creativity and inspiration are as important in Science as in football. Commentators on the current World Cup matches have given us excellent revelations about  creativity and inspiration in football.

Profession	Individual	Source of Inspiration	Remark
Science	Any pretender	God	einfall (German, meaning "falling in", or "falling from above")
Science	Henri Poincaré	Conscious works sandwiching unconscious work	There is another remark to be made about the conditions of this unconscious work: it is possible, and of a certainty it is only fruitful, if it is on the one hand preceded and on the other hand followed by a period of conscious work. These sudden inspirations (and the examples already cited sufficiently prove this) never happen except after some days of voluntary effort which has appeared absolutely fruitless and whence nothing good seems to have come, where the way taken seems totally astray. These efforts then have not been as sterile as one thinks; they have set agoing the unconscious machine and without them it would not have moved and would have produced nothing. (source)
Football	Gerd Mueller	voices in his head	"A voice inside my head says Gerd go this way, Gerd go that..." (source)
Football	Gary Lineker	hard work	"It's all those little runs you make,again and again,hoping the ball will come."

Now, young would-be scientists, watch World Cup! And see what "running off the ball" or "movement off the ball" means, instead of waiting for inspirations.

Innovation, Arts and Singapore, Sarah Lewis

Sarah Lewis points out why and how art is important to innovation in MIT Technology Review, of May/June 2014 issue.

What the arts allow us to do is to develop the muscle required for discernment, and also strengthen our sense of agency to determine for ourselves how we're going to tackle a given problem.

In my paraphrase and in elaboration (with me adding a bit) :

1. Arts develop discernment muscles.
2. Arts strengthen initiative, independence and tolerance of ambiguity.  
3. Arts help you learn to stay "hopeful" even when you feel "helpless".

These days, countries  talk a lot about "soft skills," "liberal arts,", "innovation," "high value add," "going higher up on value chain," etc. Many (including Singapore) even include Literature in their school curriculum.

May they be able to go

beyond Metaphor and Metonymy,
beyond Simile and Synecdoche,
beyond Prosody and Personification,

to developing discernment muscles,
to developing initiative,
to developing courage,
to developing creativity.

Entrepreneurship and Singapore, Richard Hartung

Richard Hartung  points out what to emphasize and what to de-emphasize in teaching Entrepreneurship to Singapore's youths in Today newspaper, of June 18, 2014.

What to Emphasize

Brainstorming
Creating ideas

Help students become entrepreneurs
Developing an entrepreneurial  spirit

Coming up with new ideas that solve problems
Guiding students to come up with and design solutions that work
Analyze, uncover people's real problems, and brainstorm solutions
Creatively meeting real needs

Overcoming difficulties
Creative intelligence

What to De-emphasize

Help students become  shopkeepers
Business skills needed for managing a company
Workplace skills
Just running a business better


Well, it's hard to say this better.