I strongly disagree.

When I was young I wanted to became a great guitarist. I've practiced a lot, but when I was near 18 I understood a simple thing: "I will never be Freep, Clapton or Hendrix, no matter how I will try harder".

I put aside my guitar for years. I'd thought that time: "I will never became great musician, but I can be a good engineer".

My wife was amazed that I can play guitar after two years of our marriage.

Hard work is not definitive factor in all cases. Sometimes you just must have inherent ability to do the work.

For example: everybody could be trained to run marathon. But it's not possible to be trained as good marathon runner. One must have genetic ability for this.

Doing the thing is not enough to get good at it

I’ve played guitar for 25 years and I’m shit at it, because I thought “just doing the thing” was enough

Having seen exactly 2 of your examples in real life, particularly people who had no experience and no interest in painting or playing an instrument until their 40s, a few years of persistence and targeted practice made them better than me after a lifetime of “casual play”.

I might have to put in less time to “get better than them” if I really sat down and tried for a year, but I’m not sure that matters in the way you’re thinking

I think that's an important notion people tend to overlook. Doing something you are naturally good at is enjoyable, and doing things you're naturally bad at, is not. This is less apparent when you're just having fun, like singing karaoke with friends, playing guitar at campfire, playing sports recreationally, etc.

But when you set a conscious goal of being better than most other people, and notice that after hours/days/weeks of deliberate practice, you are still not as good as the more talented people with little practice, it becomes pretty hard to maintain motivation and optimism.

This is not true from my experience.

Not necessarily. Person A might beat B at video games, too. Just spending time doesn't necessarily make you good at something.

I disagree. You'll probably be better than the average 1000-hour practicee but not necessarily any particular one. Some people really do have a knack [innate talent] for certain things.

Be the best person you can be and try (it's very hard) to stop comparing yourself. How can you be anything more than your best? Do it because its good for you or you enjoy it, not because you are awesome or not awesome at it.

I used to think the same way until I tried learning to play guitar. Have been trying it for a year now and I seriously question if I will ever be able to do it with reasonable proficiency. (So far holding on though.)

Depending on what you mean by "bad", this is not necessarily true. Some people are better at certain things than others if you control for the amount of practice they've had. Take a group of children who have never played the piano. Give them a recording of a simple song, and tell them to listen to the song and play around with the piano for 1 hour and try to play something that sounds like that song at the end of that hour. Even with zero practice, some people will do better at this than others.

Oh, and one thing that you have to learn to become comfortable with (or at least Zen about)...there is always somebody better at something than me.

Who are these mediocre people who have put in 10k hours of deliberate practice? I can't recall anyone I'd call mediocre who's put in more than a thousand hours at something.

You need to start hanging out with smarter people.

Why should anyone else make that their aim? It’s great that it works for you, but I don’t think that’s applicable to me.

This is so true. Unless you spend your life doing something you will never be as good as them. You gotta choose what you want, but being the best at something is a heavy life decision.

You've just put yourself ahead of 95% of the millenials here by saying that. The only way to become great at ANYTHING is to admit that you aren't, and work on improving yourself.

Being junior isn't a bad thing. Everyone starts at the beginning, even the prodigies. The bad ones are juniors that attempt to skip the learning process by claiming to be great, not the ones who do like you are and put in the effort to learn.

The difference between you and the typical millenial, at least the ones that I've had the misfortune of working with over the years, is that they think they're good, and don't listen to the folks around them who've actually DONE the work before.

"I don't know if I agree with this. Some people are born with incredible talent in various areas."

The only talent humans are born with is the ability to construct their own future.

Those who lack talent and experience often believe that success is predicated on luck. They see spectacular photographs taken in times of perfect light, and say, "Wow, you were so lucky to get such gorgeous light right when you were there with your camera!"

The smart ones eventually come to realize that you make your own luck.

To which I hope my younger self would retort

'That thing you're doing, you're not half as good at it as you think you are'

Or you try it knowing there is a learning curve and that you will never be great. People can still participate and enjoy things knowing they are only mediocre at that.

Jeez this hits home for me. I think of myself as a decent guitarist and songwriter, but when I look at what I consider “good” guitarists that are far better than I am and that are half my age, I have to keep telling myself it’s because they’ve put in those countless hours despite being so young, which means that in their much shorter life span, they have somehow fit in my entire lifetime’s worth of practice and possibly much more. What did they have to sacrifice to do that? Friends, relationships, gaming, binging on youtube or tiktok? If you can be ok with certain sacrifices, you can accomplish great things.