Dr. Cal Newport

Every time they spend practicing – and this is also incredibly difficult.

But every time they spend practicing, it's almost entirely in a state of I'm not comfortable with this.

But if I focus as hard as I can –

Maybe I'm going to pull this off.

Like I'll pull off the Sonata at this new speed I'm trying to do.

Maybe I'll pull it off.

It's like the maximal growth stimulating state.

And so I wrote in this chapter, why was he so much better at guitar than I was at the same age?

Because I played a lot of guitar when I was younger and was –

rock bands, right?

And this kid was young, right?

But really, really good.

And I said, okay, now I realize it.

I can recognize me when I look back at my time playing guitar at his age.

I played stuff I knew how to play.

Like, that's what was fun.

Like, yeah, I want to like jam along with the songs I knew or, you know, rip some pentatonic scales, you know, to like a Jimi Hendrix album.

It was fun.

And he spent almost no time, the pro spent no time having fun.

Practicing was your brain had to be uncomfortable.