Genius, mediocrity and perfectionism

先日目にしたネット記事。

I really think you’re right.

However, when I was in university, I noticed that the study methods of people who were beyond brilliant and could only be described as « geniuses » by me, were all about « starting from the top ».

« Do it from the top » means to start from the beginning, whether it’s an assignment, a problem, or anything else.

For example, I would like you to think of an examination question. If you’re in the science field, you’ll probably want to do descriptive mathematics. If you are a science major, you know well that it is difficult to solve all problems within the time limit. So, you should start from the part that you can solve without fail, and when you have enough time, you should start solving difficult problems. I think most people solve problems like that.

But they’re not. They don’t think about that at all (or so it seems…)

You have to solve from the first question really honestly. And you finish before anyone else and get a perfect score. Finish it perfectly.

I only met two or three people like « them » during my undergraduate years, but they were all like that.

The experience of studying for exams was very useful in my life then and still is, but somehow I had unconsciously developed the habit of focusing on efficiency and aiming for the maximum in a limited time, and when I saw them, I wondered if this was a harmful habit.

In the same way, in business, it is often said that you should not aim for perfectionism, but aim for the maximum within a limited scope, and that you should abandon perfectionism.

Aiming for perfectionism is childish, but stopping at not aiming for perfectionism may be childish as well.

Of course, I’m not a genius, so I can’t do this kind of « head first. But that doesn’t mean that I regret not being a genius at my age, of course. But I also think that the way geniuses act is very helpful from a different perspective.

単純な完璧主義・非完璧主義といった二元論でことを済ませず、いつでもバランスのいい考え方、行動をしていきたい。