The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard

Product Information

True courage, for him, turned out to be recognizing his limits and his humanity, and renouncing his desire to be all-powerful. He discovered the Stoics’ precept that if we want to be happy, we need to focus on the things we can control, and leave the rest to the gods. In this sense his experiment taught him something, and his failure is a success, because he became aware of his own physical reality, and of reality itself. One point in his favor: it took only 6,000 hours for him to realize this and to become an expert in stoicism; that’s 4,000 hours fewer than predicted. That’s not counting the two years of doubt and denial, which makes 365 a 2 × 24 (since depression is twenty-four hours a day), equaling the 17,500 hours of “purposeful depression” that it took him to realize that the rule of 10,000 hours perhaps didn’t exist or wasn’t valid for him. The rule of 10,000 hours flatters us because it allows us to think that with enough work, we can become whatever we want. That everything depends on individual will and a sense of effort. If performance was only about training, if 10,000 hours really were sufficient to compensate for natural differences, why continue to separate men and women in competitions? Because, as David Epstein shows, just because we want to doesn’t mean we can. To think you didn’t become a golf champion after 10,000 hours because you didn’t work hard enough is as misguided as to believe that a champion doesn’t need to train, that they just have to exist to win. The temptation of 10,000 hours, for all its whiff of egalitarianism, offers an even more dangerous illusion than the inverse temptation to just let it all hang out. You can’t afford to skimp on training, nor to underestimate your limits. We shouldn’t say “if you want to, you can” but “if you can, you’re right to want it.” But let’s ask ourselves simply and honestly: if you really think about it, who actually believes, without doubting the virtue of trying, that with 10,000 hours they could, if not become world champion, then at least reach the top level in their discipline of choice? For anyone who’s hesitating about the answer, here’s another question, which we should all be able to agree on: Who thinks that 10,000 hours of training would give them the courage to walk on a wire 400 meters off the ground? Or, more modestly, just to start small, between the towers of Notre-Dame?

Whenever I’m able do something without any effort I start to think it is inherently easy, that anyone should be able to do it. This is called the expert’s illusion. The minute you find yourself on the other side of expertise you realize it is an illusion, and that what is easy for one person isn’t necessarily easy for another. You find the illusion of the expert with literature teachers who think everyone must love reading. Or with math teachers who can’t understand why you don’t understand. This is the only thing they find difficult: understanding that what is easy for them is difficult for others. In any case, putting in your 10,000 hours in your given area absolutely does not guarantee that you will reach expert level. You need both the innate “hardware” (the “cables,” the computer), which comes from nature, and the acquired “software,” which comes from training. To achieve greatness there is no magic number of hours that will allow you to substitute work for being gifted. You need both: the gift and hard work. The gift without the work will go uncultivated, the work without the gift will be sterile. In both cases, it’s a waste. It’s a pity not to train if you’re gifted, but training when you have no gift can be harmful. You may incur needless harm to your physique and to your ego, and tenacity or denial can turn into blindness and useless obstinacy. Despite the flaws of the 10,000 hours rule well documented, we are still bombarded with variations of the same. Through the example of a failed experiment and other references, the author drives home the point that working hard is not enoughIt is true that one must put in the work and "pay their dues" so to speak, and there is support of the 10,000 hours theory as a general construct, although some skills require more and others require less. However, this compounds when you add the idea that no matter how many hours you put into learning something, those hours will be essentially wasted if it is a skill to which you are not suited. One example provided is a man who dedicated himself to mastering golf, and after a few years and repeated injuries, gave up, as it was not feasible given his level of physical skill. Often, we suffer by committing ourselves to goals and things to which we are not suited, and finding out own path and the things we want to become experts in often provide far more satisfaction. Strive to be, rather than to do, and the doing (action) will become the natural consequence of flow. Ollivier Pourriol is a philosopher, writer, and novelist. He lives in Paris, where his lectures mixing philosophy and cinema are widely attended, and where he puts his ideas into practice over aperitifs with friends. Since moving to Paris, I started feeling that I am not trying hard enough to achieve my goals – learning the French language and helping French companies communicate better with their audiences in India. After reading this book, I do believe that I have already taken the first step – without thinking and without hesitating (you will know what that means after you read the book). Identifiers: LCCN 2020022658 (print) | LCCN 2020022659 (ebook) | ISBN 9780143135494 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780525507161 (ebook) Loved this book. It is insanely thought provoking and far more philosophical than I first thought. Some of the stories sort of go on too long, but there is incredible depth and coherence in the chapters themselves and throughout the chapters.

Title: The French art of not trying too hard / Ollivier Pourriol ; translated from the French by Helen Stevenson. Other titles: Facile. English When the Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki first set foot in Paris in 1948, he knew only one word of French, one open-sesame that he gave to the taxi driver: "Montparnasse." He didn't mean the train station, he meant the mythical place that all aspiring painters dream of. He spent the rest of his life there in a studio very close to Giacometti's. Chinese by chance, but French by the dictate of his heart.To escape difficulty, you must stop resisting. Ease will come once you give it a chance. Being in a natural state, such as that of many greek statues, puts us in a natural state of ease, which enables us to stop resisting. Proper posture is important for a variety of reasons, as it helps to enable grace (or flow). Your imagination is at the heart of your life. If you can image something, you can create it; such is what is proven by the arts. when it “takes off” it’s like a well-oiled machine that functions to perfection. It’s like when you see someone run one hundred meters in ten seconds. You see the miracle of sentences mounting up, and your mind functions almost outside itself. You become a spectator of yourself. When that happens, I write really easily, and I just can’t stop. And when it works it’s fantastic. They’re really blessed moments. Yes, sometimes, you feel just like the queen of words. It’s extraordinary, it’s paradise. When you believe in what you’re writing it’s an incredible pleasure. You feel like queen of all the earth.

those who, on finding themselves lost in a forest, don’t wander around in circles, this way and that, nor come to a halt in one particular spot, but just keep walking in the straightest line possible toward their given destination, refusing to change direction for unimportant reasons, particularly since it was only by chance they chose that destination in the first place: by this means, even if they don’t get to exactly the place they meant to, at least they will eventually get somewhere where the likelihood is they will be better off than in the middle of a forest. Attention is a wave on which we must learn to surf.” The most powerful and thriving industry today is the one that has our attention at the heart of it. If I want to achieve my goals then I need to ride the wave not get drowned in it My favourite part of the book, Stop Thinking, walks through hypnosis, yoga, non-thinking, archery and modern rationalism to distinguish between thought and action - “Take a path you don’t know, to reach an unknown place, to do something you’re incapable of doing” For pianist Hélène Grimaud, who is as famous for her conservation work with wolves as for the beauty of her playing, the artist at the keyboard is in a state of “visitation.” They “vibrate” with the intuition of a presence, their “thought suddenly receives a kind of illumination, and in turns moves the body accordingly.” Here the vocabulary is no longer that of the sports field; it’s both religious and supernatural.Compelling . . . Pourriol set out to write a readable ‘airport book,’ and he has succeeded. . . . In a year of struggle and travel bans, owing to COVID-19, which makes it impossible for Americans to visit France, this title comes at a perfect time.”― Library Journal We’ve always been told to think before we speak. But thinking too much and trying to get the right words to describe our thoughts often leaves us paralysed. When I read Alain’s example – “I discover what I want to say when I open my mouth”, I was overjoyed. That is me written all over it A thought-provoking and delightful book. Pourriol dismisses it as an airport read. Yet somehow, apparently without effort, he has turned it into so much more. . . . [It is like] a pastry: rich and light rather than stuff to be endlessly chewed over.”― Daily Mail