8 Comments

"When I started wrestling at the tail end of my freshman year of high school, I was a fish."

It's quite fortunate that you're a human now. I can't imagine how long it'd take you to write articles with fins.

Silly shit aside, you've had quite an impressive run. I was first assuming that you ended up shifting to BJJ to take full advantage of your matwork and have smooth sailing from there, but as soon as you mentioned it, I was like---duh, of course that can't be the case, seeing how other BJJ-ers would also be good at that very thing.

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I was writing about myself and very aware of how awkward it felt the whole time, but telling this story really helped me understand how I got to where I am now: a human with fingers and not fins!

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Another way is think combo; put together your happy meal. I bet you're good at more than 1 thing, what matches that combo of skills? I was always good with computers but also people. That turned out to be a good combo for certain jobs

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Yes! This led me down a few paths, and some were really fruitful. I agree: there might be a hundred thousand BJJ practitioners out there competing, but maybe a thousand who were using judo AND jiu jitsu the way I was.

The more specific these combos are to you, the more likely the competitive group around you is smaller (and thus easier to make your mark).

I've used it here, I think: very quick art skill (I very seldom get into the weeds of details) serves well to help tell my story, and I stay in my lane with the stuff I write (much better at this now!).

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I’ve kind of always been “jack of all trades, master of none” type of person, so I’m not quite sure how to answer this. When I was playing in bands, I realized I didnt have the greatest chops or musical dexterity but I could sing and write songs and did a decent job working crowds, so I would up fronting a band for a while. I guess that’s the best example that comes to mind for me

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That's a good one too. I was in bands as well, and we were made up of two guys who could write songs (come up with tunes and lyrics, on the fly if needed) and two dudes who could really play their instruments well. We needed both types, and if you know me by now, you probably know I was not the patient technical master on the bass.

I think I was smart enough to stay in my lane, mainly. I did get better at bass, so my circle probably expanded a bit into the technical realm (I liked to experiment with fills, but had little idea what I was doing other than whatever I thought sounded good).

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I play chess and in chess I've always been pretty good at fast time controls. But when people were given time to think out of my traps they've been able to beat me. So to improve I needed to slow down and think. That's been my change in circle of Competence. I'm still good at fast times but to improve, I've had to learn to take my intuition, and let it hang out for a moment while I try and find something better. Then in a time scramble bring back the quickness.

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That's a good example! You were very good at the quick sort of thinking, but now you're expanding slowly out into the slow type.

I like to think about what the best move might be and then hold it in my mind for a while, trying to find an even better play. I think I'm better at this in life than in chess, but that's really just a scathing indictment of my chessplay more than a self-pat on the back!

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