Hidden Potential

🔗Connect

🔼Topic:: Competence

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

1. Talent is distanced traveled, not destination - Success is not where you are, but how far you traveled to get there. It is precisely this ability to travel that represents growth and fulfillment of potential.
2. Character over personality - more than any other skill, it's important to develop character skills. discipline, prosocial, determination and proactiveness is helps us overcome our tendencies, embrace being uncomfortable as we work on improving ourselves by doing, being as a sponge that seeks information and filters only the most relevant, and knowing that we need to acknowledge our imperfections.
3. Scaffolding to kick-start your potential - It's difficult to fulfill our potential on our own. We often need mentors to show us the way, preferably someone who has recently been a novice like us. We need to incorporate fun, breaks and play to make it attractive and maintain motivation, and use our peers to compensate our weaknesses while also strengthening them.
4. Create systems of opportunities - To help others fulfill their potential we need to have systems in place to give them the opportunity to do so. By focusing not on the genius few but on the potential of the whole, of providing safe spaces for people to speak up, the freedom to explore and avoidance of group think we could see people rise to the occasion.

🗒️Relate

⛓ Life lessons, action items

🔍Critique

✅ by following this method, what will happen?

1. Better growth - when you develop character skills, have the right scaffolding and use opportunities, you can get much farther than previously believed.

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong...

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are...

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style... This book, similar to it's metaphor, is more of a compass rather than a map. We now know where to look but not necessarily what to do. The book's breath comes at the price of it's depth. But I do have to say that i like the personal story + in depth research combination which gives a good hook for the principle and than an explanation for it. If it was any other author it would probably be a 3, but Adam Grant manages to turn it into a 4.

📒 Notes

Preface

Talent is not a matter of where we start, but how far we travel. It's about fulfill our potential rather than relying on our initial traits, If there's even such a thing. Greatness is a matter of:

1. motivation - this is the scaffolding that holds the process of improvement together. It is usually the teacher's/mentor's responsibility to make it fun and attractive, since most motivation is taught before it is internalized
2. character skill - What contributes most to our ability to grow is not focusing on the material itself (like learning math or language at an early age), but rather the personality skills that determine our behavior and our capacity to learn such as:
   1. Proactiveness - taking initiative, learning on their own
   2. Pro social - collaborate with peers
   3. Discipline - paying attention and resisting temptations
   4. Determination - taking on challenging problems, persistent through obstacles
3. opportunity

Those three things together translates to the ability and will to push ourselves beyond our limits.

Prologue

• What look like differences in natural ability are often differences in opportunity and motivation. (Location 160)
• Potential is not a matter of where you start, but of how far you travel. We need to focus less on starting points and more on distance traveled. (Location 165)
• Stretching beyond our strengths is how we reach our potential and perform at our peak. (Location 173)

Skills of Character

Character is not our personality, it's more like Second order thinking, it is our ability to overcome our personality, which is like our tendencies, and stick with our values. It is measured by how much are we able to be true to ourselves when the times are hard. Authenticity

Since character skills are what determines our ability to overcome, it's not surprise why they are one of the most important skills to learn, they work as a multiplier for other skills. For example, having financial education is worthless if we don't have the courage to resist temptations.

Character skills gives us:

1. Courage to challenge ourselves
2. Absorb the right information
3. Accept our imperfections

Skills of Character

• The true test of character is whether you manage to stand by those values when the deck is stacked against you. If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day. (Location 365)
• If our cognitive skills are what separate us from animals, our character skills are what elevate us above machines. (Location 381)
• Traveling great distances requires the courage to seek out the right kinds of discomfort, the capacity to absorb the right information, and the will to accept the right imperfections. (Location 388)

Creatures of Discomfort

Embracing the unbearable awkwardness of learning

To learn something new we have to get out of our comfort zone learning should be hard. It requires us to let go of how we used to act or perceive something, to test out our knowledge while still learning, and accept that we will make many mistakes, especially at the beginning.

Sometimes we confuse comfort with "learning tendencies" such as "I learn better through videos" to avoid discomfort. We are making learning easy, and unfortunately less effective. Alternatively, we can push ourselves too much out of our comfort zone that we start to procrastinate. This is not a sign of laziness or time management, but rather motivational scheduling.

To learn, we can't allow ourselves to procrastinate, to start only once we reach "sufficient knowledge", it is both a lie to ourselves, because perfectionism is a standard that keeps getting away from us, so we will never be content with our knowledge, but also because it's an inefficient method. A better approach is learning by doing. Through trying and making mistakes we learn. Failure are not just an inherit part of learning, they are learning. We need exposure therapy to become true masters, which can only be achieved through pushing ourselves to the limit while practicing our skills. Comfort is the result of knowledge, not the prerequisite of it.

Creatures of Discomfort

• Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, (Location 394)
• Becoming a creature of discomfort can unlock hidden potential in many different types of learning. Summoning the nerve to face discomfort is a character skill—an especially important form of determination. It takes three kinds of courage: to abandon your tried-and-true methods, to put yourself in the ring before you feel ready, and to make more mistakes than others make attempts. The best way to accelerate growth is to embrace, seek, and amplify discomfort. (Location 441)
• playing only to your strengths deprives you of the opportunity to improve on your weaknesses. The way you like to learn is what makes you comfortable, but it isn’t necessarily how you learn best. (Location 468)
• procrastination is not a time management problem—it’s an emotion management problem. When you procrastinate, you’re not avoiding effort. You’re avoiding the unpleasant feelings that the activity stirs up. (Location 487)
• Whereas listening promotes intuitive thinking, reading activates more analytical processing. (Location 521)
• When discomfort is a signal of progress, you don’t want to run away from it. You want to keep stumbling toward it to continue growing. (Location 555)
• You don’t have to wait until you’ve acquired an entire library of knowledge to start to communicate. Your mental library expands as you communicate. (Location 567)
• You don’t need to get comfortable before you can practice your skills. Your comfort grows as you practice your skills. (Location 639)

Human Sponges

Building the capacity to absorb and adapt

Learning is like being a sponge. While we think it means to absorb everything around us, it's far from the truth. Actual living sponges are a highly sophisticated filtering machines, controlling exactly what goes in and out imitation Mastery. Even their structure while seems flexible on the outside, also has a rigid skeleton to be able to withstand hardships.

In this metaphor, we need to be wary of the information around us. We need to be capable of recognize, evaluate, assimilate and apply good information while denying bad information. We need to be both proactive in our search for information, to seek feedback for improvement, and also to have a growth mindset, to use the feedback as a way to grow, and let go of our ego that can only get in our way or cause us to behave differently just to support our image rather than our skills.

To gain helpful feedback, it's better to be future oriented than past oriented. Instead of asking "how did I do", ask "what can I do better" Constructive Criticism, this will turn hurtful criticism to actionable advices.

Also, we have to pay attention to who we pain attention to. Not everyone can be our mentor. It depends on:

1. credibility - They are knowledgeable at the relevant skill
2. caring - They really wish for you to improve
3. familiarity - They can identify your strength and weaknesses and connect the abstract knowledge to actionable steps.

Human Sponges

• Being a sponge is more than a metaphor. It’s a character skill—a form of proactivity that’s vital to realizing hidden potential. Improving depends not on the quantity of information you seek out, but the quality of the information you take in. (Location 672)
• Absorptive capacity is the ability to recognize, value, assimilate, and apply new information. It hinges on two key habits. The first is how you acquire information: Do you react to what enters your field of vision, or are you proactive in seeking new knowledge, skills, and perspectives? The second is the goal you’re pursuing when you filter information: Do you focus on feeding your ego or fueling your growth? (Location 735)
• The sweet spot is when people are proactive and growth oriented. That’s when they become sponges. They consistently take the initiative to expand themselves and adapt. (Location 758)
• We’re confusing politeness with kindness. Being polite is withholding feedback to make someone feel good today. Being kind is being candid about how they can get better tomorrow. (Location 810)
• Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice. Feedback tends to focus on how well you did last time. Advice shifts attention to how you can do better next time. (Location 825)

The Imperfectionist

Finding the sweet spot between flawed and flawless

Perfectionism is a trap, it causes to focus on unimportant small details, which causes us to miss the big picture, but even worse it causes us to treat failures as a sign of incompetence so we narrow which fields we focus on "because we aren't talented enough" fixed mindset.

We should embrace some imperfections, knowing that everything in life is a tradeoff, and that there's beauty in doing things just "good enough" like kintsugi and wabi sabi.

To get rid of perfectionism, focus on living up to your own standards, rather than everybody else's, and remember that all you need is to focus on making big changes rather than delicate tweaks, that you have to be pleased with how far you've come, not your distance from perfection. While hard to accept, this is the only way to improve while also being content with your actions. Expectations

The Imperfectionists

• The more you grow, the better you know which flaws are acceptable. (Location 937)
• Perfectionism traps us in a spiral of tunnel vision and error avoidance: it prevents us from seeing larger problems and limits us to mastering increasingly narrow skills. (Location 976)
• Beating yourself up doesn’t make you stronger—it leaves you bruised. Being kind to yourself isn’t about ignoring your weaknesses. It’s about giving yourself permission to learn from your disappointments. We grow by embracing our shortcomings, not by punishing them. (Location 1067)
• People judge your potential from your best moments, not your worst. What if you gave yourself the same grace? (Location 1077)
• success is not so much how close you come to perfection as how much you overcome along the way. (Location 1080)
• excellence is more than meeting other people’s expectations. It’s also about living up to your own standards. (Location 1146)

Structure for Motivation

Scaffoldings are temporary structure that allows us to maintain our motivation in the long run and transform how we think about obstacles. Like training wheels that help you learn how to ride a bike, essential at the start but redundant later on. Good scaffolding, if done right at the right time, can help us turn obstacles to stepping stones and see solutions that were hidden beforehand.

Transforming the Daily Grind

Infusing passion into practice

While deliberate practice is a famous way of improving at something, it usually caused burnout and even Boreout since it is so repetitive and difficult. To prevent those and maintain our Intrinsic Motivation in the long run, we need to add Play and limits to our practice, like trying to do it in a different way, to compete against ourselves in time or other unique challenges. Only if it's enjoyable we would be able to stick with it in the long run.

To make sure play doesn't turn into "work", we need to take breaks Empty Space, not only it allows us to recharge, but also the skill is further developed by our downtime brain that keeps on processing in the background.

Getting Unstuck

The roundabout path to forward progress

Progressing is not a linear process. When we get stuck it's not a sign of reaching out peak, just that we have to change direction. Therefore, it's not likely that we can map in advance all the points we have to travel through to reach mastery, as it is highly affected by our weaknesses and strengths, and what happens along the way. The best we can do is to have a compass showing a general direction to the next point, and we can reevaluate once we get there. Experimentation

This compass can be given by a mentor, but against popular belief, having an expert is not necessarily helpful due to the Curse of Knowledge. Being an expert means that they have forgotten what it's like to be a beginner, and most of their skills are also part of their intuition so they might forget making them a part of the curriculum, or teach things at a much higher level than you are able to comprehend. Also, since they face different challenges than you in the field, they might focus on aspects that are irrelevant to you. Also, don't stick to just one mentor, as their path might vary from yours due to your differences. Therefore to get a good understanding you need diversity of mentors, from each you will pick and choose what to embrace. Multitrack

Getting stuck can be really discouraging, so in order to get back up we need to generate small wins, this could be taking a break, practicing hobbies, playing a game, whatever it is it can be completely unrelated to what you're trying to do, as long as you can get a small sense of satisfaction and victory that will bounce back your self confidence.

Getting Unstuck

• A rut is not a sign that you’ve tanked. A plateau is not a cue that you’ve peaked. They’re signals that it may be time to turn around and find a new route. (Location 1502)
• to start moving, we don’t actually need a map. All we need is a compass to gauge whether we’re heading in the right direction. (Location 1549)
• A great deal of expert knowledge is tacit—it’s implicit, not explicit. The further you progress toward mastery, the less conscious awareness you often have of the fundamentals. (Location 1613)
• Just as it’s unwise to seek rudimentary instruction from the most eminent experts, it’s a mistake to rely on a single guide. No one else knows your exact journey. But if you collect directions from multiple guides, they can sometimes combine to reveal routes you didn’t see. (Location 1633)
• What looks like a big breakthrough is usually the accumulation of small wins. (Location 1756)
• Progress is rarely noticeable at a snapshot in time—it unfolds over extended periods of time. If you focus your attention on a specific difficult moment, it’s easy to feel stuck. It’s only when you look at your trajectory over the course of weeks, months, or years that you appreciate the distance you’ve traveled. (Location 1760)

Defying Gravity

They are of flying by our bootstraps

When we lack internal motivation or having self doubts, we can use others as support.

The combination of peer support and the Feynman technique allows us to group together resources, to think together and use each individual's advantage to solve together a task that was impossible for each person on their own cooperation. Even if we are not experts in the field, the fact that we have the responsibility to teach others what we know or assigned to know is a great tool and source of motivation for learning. Additionally, living up to our close one's positive expectations, or smashing nay-sayers negative expectations can also be a great source of motivation.

Defying Gravity

• the best way to learn something is to teach it. You remember it better after you recall it—and you understand it better after you explain it. (Location 1846)
• We should listen to the advice we give to others—it’s usually the advice we need to take for ourselves. (Location 1905)
• If multiple credible supporters believe in us, it’s probably time to believe them. If ignorant naysayers don’t believe in us, it might be time to prove them wrong. And when our faith falters, it’s worth remembering what we’re fighting for. (Location 2077)

Systems of Opportunity

While scaffolding and character skills help us achieve our potential, we are still limited by circumstances. It is good systems that provides opportunities to growth for those less fortunate or discriminated against. systematical thinking

Systems of Opportunity

• Good systems provide the opportunity for people to travel great distances. They open doors for people who don’t grow up with means, offer windows to those who get turned away at the door, and shatter glass ceilings for those who are all too often denied a shot to break through. (Location 2108)

Every Child Gets ahead

Designing schools to bring out the best in students

The Finnish has amazing education system, one that has allowed them to travel a great distance from bottom to top. Instead of "selecting the genius few" in America's competitive environment, they chose to "not waste a brain", a focus on helping everyone grow, with:

1. Personalization - each teacher knows his students well, especially strength and weaknesses and match the method accordingly. It gets easier when they do looping, i.e the same teacher advances with the students from one year to the next.
2. Safety net - if you start falling behind, you get more support, not less
3. Make it fun - they have longer and more frequent breaks, and also the teachers focus on making learning fun and engaging

Every Child Gets Ahead

• In Finnish schools, a popular mantra is “We can’t afford to waste a brain.” (Location 2163)

Mining for Gold

Unearthing collective intelligence in teams

Leading a team and have good collective decisions is not a matter of finding a genius and it's definitely not just go along with the boss's idea. Team efficiency is a matter of creating an environment of cooperation, of psychological safety, to help one another for the betterment of the common cause. This requires firstly that the leader would be a good listener. Leading is about maximizing potential and allowing voices to be heard, not to micromanage your workers. Second, we have to combat Group Thinking. In order to maintain the benefits of brainstorming without causing voices to be shut down, we first need that everyone would brainstorm on their own, developing their ideas by themselves and only then regroup to discuss those ideas. Unbiased brainstorming To make sure fairness and psychological safety is kept, those ideas have to be submitted anonymously and each one reviews them first before discussing together.

Developing creativity is also a matter of giving free time for exploration, letting workers work on personal projects or ideas that they are interested in. While those are risky bets, they are also a way to have great payoffs, especially if the workers are motivated to work on it.

Mining for Gold

• The best teams aren’t the ones with the best thinkers. They’re the teams that unearth and use the best thinking from everyone. (Location 2461)
• With a team of sponges, the best leader is not the person who talks the most, but the one who listens best. (Location 2560)

Diamonds in the Rough

Discovering uncut gems in job interviews and college admissions

The problem with screening is that it's hard to understand the context of the candidate. We focus on observable achievements, while missing out obstacles they faced and how the overcome them, or the amount of growth they had over time. We take the students with the better grades, not the one who picked the hardest classes. Selection Bias. Aside from asking about obstacles, one good way of showing capabilities is to do challenges throughout the interview instead of questions.

Diamonds in the Rough

• The test of a diamond in the rough is not whether it shines from the start, but how it responds to heat or pressure. (Location 2772)
• If natural talent determines where people start, learned character affects how far they go. But character skills aren’t always immediately apparent. If we don’t look beyond the surface, we risk missing the potential for brilliance beneath. (Location 2825)

Epilogue

Imposter Syndrome is probably a sign for hidden potential. It's more likely that it's not that others are over valuing you, but rather you under valuing yourself. They see your potential and can't wait for you to fulfill it.

Epilogue

• Impostor syndrome says, “I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s only a matter of time until everyone finds out.” Growth mindset says, “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s only a matter of time until I figure it out.” Scaffolding gives you the support you need to figure it out. (Location 3142)