It’s just a requirement — even for getting a decent job, starting a family and settling.
It's not so necessary for getting a good job in my experience. Again, I got a fairly good job by winging it at their interview, I graduated college (which was a top college) again while putting in less than an hour each day and skipping all of my classes because I preferred to teach myself, and because I kind of disliked the study material. I see most smart people getting into jobs without working too hard. Even at jobs, if they are smart enough, they can afford to be lazy. You might be correct for the average person, but this absolutely does not hold if you have some level of giftedness imo. Which is precisely why I picked this forum, lol.
A person can have a passion for theoretical physics, but s/he’ll never become a theoretical physicist without spending a lot of time learning very difficult mathematics. The passion for physics doesn’t replace the fact that a lot of the work of that learning is drudgery. This is a hard truth.
This is not a hard truth, it is obvious. And I have no problem spending time. The problem is the sacrifices, the lack of forming relationships etc., the opportunity cost, and despite all that, the fact that I don't succeed. The hard truth is that you will never get there, that it is impossible, and that you can burn yourself and ruin your present chasing the wind. This is the hard truth I'm trying to face. I don't nearly have the numbers of hours in the day to give for everything to work out as well, so I constantly need to figure out what I'm willing to give up.
Unless you have a condition that limits your ability to work (and I’m not asking you to reveal that if you do), if you’re putting in 2-4 hours a day, you’re not trying. You’re pretending to try.
The perils of being honest. This is the response everyone gives me when I tell them how hard I work. So instead, in real life, I lie about how much I work, and the results "speak for themselves" so people are none the wiser. Maybe you have never worked with the kind of intensity I'm talking about. Maybe I have a problem with concentration which limits my ability to work, and I have wondered about this when all sorts of people claim to work 8-10 hours a day. But are they honest? They almost always have nothing to show for it. On the other hand, in those 2-4 hours, I get more done than most people get done in a day, by far, because I try to *actually* work hard, not just sit at my desk. It's actual intense mental work, which most people, and from what it looks like, you as well, don't seem to understand. I don't know if I can explain it to someone who doesn't know what it means. It's actual deliberate practice. You can do grunt work for much longer.
If you want to learn to play, it’s up to you to make that happen, now.
Feel good advice, because I cannot *make that happen now*. If I could, I wouldn't be posting here. I can get okayishly good at it, and teachers say I'm moderately to very talented depending on who you ask, but I started too late, so playing piano at a high level can not happen, by all accounts. Still, I can't help myself but try, but this is interfering heavily with my life because I need to start earning, at which point it will become even more impossible to try to learn the piano. So the question is, I suppose, should I "grow up" and accept the harsh reality that it's too late, and that I should just start earning and become your average productive member of society?
