David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

I say that while accepting and celebrating that if you want to be the best at one thing in the world, no, you have to sacrifice everything.

You have to be obsessed with just that thing.

There is no instant of someone who's the best in the world at something who's not completely obsessed.

I didn't need to be the best at anything.

This was a blessing, a rare blessing of humility I had early on is like, you know what?

I am not that smart.

I'm not that good.

I'm not that talented.

I can do interesting things by combining different aspects and elements that I know, but I'm not going to be the best at anything.

And that released me from this singular obsession with just going, I'm going to be the best programmer in the world.

And I know I'm not.

I fucking failed at it twice before I even got how conditionals work.

I'm not smart enough to be the best at anything.

I'm not dedicated enough to do that.

That's a bit of a blessing.

And I think as a society, we have to straddle both celebrating peak excellence, which we do all the time, and celebrating the peak intensity of mission it takes to become that.

And then also going like, you know what?

We don't all need to be Michael Jordan.

There's only going to be one of those.

If you want to be Senna, you got to be a maniac.