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The reason I disliked Arnold Schwarzenegger's biography, Total Recall, was that it white-washed his path in life. It's clear now that he's been a successful businessman, with great achievements in bodybuilding and physical culture that will have him remembered for a long time after he's dead, as well as a number of what a regular Joe would consider big breaks: his acting career, and his political career. People might not know he's a sharp businessman, but he's made his millions before acting somehow. The book, however, portrays him as a juggernaut of success. "I did that, then I did that, and that, and that..." After reading Vladimir Pozner's Parting with Illusions – an insightful autobiography of vivid images of his time – this just didn't seem right. Pozner had a lot of success in the field of journalism, he's been on TV, he owns a number of businesses – but in the book, he also speaks about his failures and his worries – something noticeably absent from Schwarzenegger's. (Apparently, Schwarzenegger writes about his affair in one of the chapters of the book. I never read past about the middle of it: couldn't stomach it.) (EDITed to add: I recognize that both men are writing autobiographies – the "auto" part I find difficult to believe in Schwarzenegger's case – which means they're going to be somewhat biased to their own side of the story, especially with something that's happened a while ago and is no longer so full on detail. I realize, too, that Pozner's book was biased in such way, regardless of how much effort he'd put into averting it. I do posit, however, is that Pozner's account is far less biased than Schwarzenegger's, in no small part because of the heart-felt, genuine nature of the former's stories.) There was this blog post by Dan Abramov, of overreacted.io, called "Things I Don't Know as of 2018" [https://overreacted.io/things-i-dont-know-as-of-2018/]. It lists Dan's known unknowns, and encourages others to do the same publicly, in an effort to shed the idea that a developer must know everything in their field to be considered capable. I think this is what we need more of: to know that people arounds us, amateurs and experts alike, are fallible, before the pedestal is violently broken down the line. It doesn't necessarily mean that their expertise is, as well, but as human beings, we're all failing in some areas where others wouldn't be able to guess. Scientists, artists, businessmen, craftsmen of other calibers... From personal experience, it's one of the big things that keep artists anxious about their craft: that they aren't good enough because they're not as good as their aspiration figure. They don't know that the person they revere got to where they are partly because they struggled until they got their big break. We may not have control over external circumstances, but we do have control over what we choose to do with our own self. Practice is what brings skill about. |