

The Pyramid Method: A Simple Strategy for Becoming Exceptionally Good - wallflower
http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/06/03/the-pyramid-method-a-simple-strategy-for-becoming-exceptionally-good/

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thebigredjay
The trick about this concept, and this strategy, is that you have to consider
just what exactly you are practicing. I took a peek at his MySpace
(<http://www.myspace.com/sickabodsane>) and honestly, he is not the most
technically adept rapper. His rhymes and rhyme schemes are usually fairly
simple and his topics aren't particularly striking. He has good cadence and
breath control, he is easy to follow, and his stuff is catchy though.

I would argue that in this process his key outcome was not improving his
rapping ability. He learnt about stage presence, handling a microphone,
interacting with a crowd, picking suitable topics to entertain that crowd, and
probably more. As a result of consistently performing and being in this place
he has likely built a network of people doing similar things and of fans. For
someone who wants to succeed in a rap career these are all important things,
but my question is did his rapping actually improve?

It's all a question of metrics and of knowing exactly what you want to get out
of your project.

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dgreensp
It sounds to me like you are just debating the semantics of "good rapper" in a
way independent of the article.

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roryokane
Unfortunate name – it reminds me of the pyramid scheme, under which the vast
majority of people lose more than they gain. Perhaps a clearer name would be
the Single-Benchmark Method, though that doesn’t sound as interesting.

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wanderful
I think of it as getting in a feedback loop, which people often call
iterating. Practicing is also close. The idea of iterating is simple and can
be seen in anything from education to genetics to investing.

The challenge often is getting over the personal hangups which prevent one
from facing honest feedback. There is a general narrative where a person's
will to achieve a particular goal finally overcomes the fears related to
identity and the outcome, and progress accelerates.

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aeontech
I like the focus on having a solid, measurable, _objective_ benchmark.
Everyone knows that it takes hundreds of hours to get very good at something,
but this essay is a great reminder that simply putting hundreds of hours of
practice is still no guarantee of progress if you do not have a way to measure
it.

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williamdix
I have set a professional goal for myself to become more active in the Rails
community and to begin contributing patches to Rails and other open source
projects I use. With the eventual goal of getting the super awesome Rails job
that I one day want as opposed to the okay-to-good Rails job I currently have.
This article gave me a lot to think about in relation to my goal.

~~~
captain_mars
Similarly, I have set myself the goal of becoming an awesome mobile app
developer. My goal is to first become one of the most valued developers at my
current workplace, and then to move on to a better job.

I would appreciate any suggestions for how one can apply this 'Pyramid method'
to the field of programming. What should be the pyramid here - Github?
StackOverflow?

Or is there another way to approach this quest?

~~~
wallflower
The best mobile app developers I know are equivalent or even better graphic
designers than they are programmers. If you truly want to become a better
mobile developer, focus on improving your ability to design the visual side.
When a user sees your mobile application, they are interacting with and see
only the tip of the iceberg, your UI. They don't see the underlying iceberg of
code.

As far as a specific tip for the Pyramid method, get involved in your local
mobile development SIG. For iOS, it is Cocoaheads (weird name, I know but
Cocoa programmers are an interesting bunch). Once you get involved (or better
yet, start one up), start presenting topics. By presenting, you will be pushed
out of your comfort zone. Don't know AVFoundation? Volunteer to present on
this topic and then build your first AVFoundation based app. As another
comment in this thread pointed out, hackathons are a great way to meet other
developers and improve your coding production. Seek out the good developers in
your local area, nothing beats buying someone a beer or coffee and listening
to their experience and advice. Do a pro-bono project, ideally one with a
deadline (and one that would be difficult to back out of - e.g.one with
personal commitment)

StackOverflow is a good practice area. If you have free time, go find some
questions you don't know how to answer and answer them.

One last thing, buy a lot of apps. Use them, try to reverse engineer them (not
from object code but from the app itself). Money well spent.

~~~
captain_mars
Awesome suggestions; thanks!

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adriand
This relates to an issue that I personally struggle with. The issue is that I
am interested in a number of different fields, mainly business, software, and
writing (and politics, somewhat). I find the most inspiring achievement is
that of the polymath and I aspire to someday be worthy of that label.

The issue is that in a world of six billion people and innumerable domains of
knowledge, it is difficult to achieve true expertise in even a single field.
Laser-like focus on a single skill, as described in the Pyramid Method, offers
the potential of becoming amazing at that skill to the likely exclusion of any
others.

My dilemma is therefore whether or not I ought to try to become an exceptional
software developer or businessperson or writer, or whether it's okay to just
be pretty good at all of those things and never achieve major recognition for
any of them.

How possible is it to actually become a Renaissance Man these days?

~~~
kirse
Stop caring about labels, titles and recognition; then your struggle will end.

We all want to lead a life of significance, but don't fool yourself into
thinking that the only way to find significance is to "achieve major
recognition" in the eyes of others. In fact, you'd probably agree that chasing
the esteem of others is probably the least significant thing anyone can do
with their life.

~~~
adriand
Just wanted to thank you for writing this comment. Since reading it I've
really, genuinely re-evaluated a lot of things in my life, and I'm continuing
to do so. Thank you - I needed it.

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gabebw
This reminds me of what Steve Martin did in his early career. He played the
same comedy clubs over and over again, keeping the routines that worked and
ruthlessly dropping the ones that didn't, until he became the most famous
comedian in the world. As he put it: "I did stand-up comedy for eighteen
years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining,
and four were spent in wild success."

P.S. Born Standing Up, his memoir, is deservedly praised.

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donaq
I liked the story, and I think the points are solid, but I must ask the
question: Did Chris eventually have a good career as a rapper? Is he a name we
would recognize?

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wumpushunter
One of the headings is "The Ballad of Sickabod Sane", and a quick Google
search turns up his MySpace page: <http://www.myspace.com/sickabodsane>

An article in Flak Magazine[1] describes him as "a popular MC from the
Manhattan club scene."

You don't specify what you mean by "a good career," but it would appear that
he's not reached the Cristal-filled-hot tub stage in life yet.

I did enjoy his songs, though.

[1] <http://www.flakmag.com/features/makingrap.html>

~~~
ryanf
That article is by the author of the linked post. He discusses it in the "My
Pyramid" section.

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est
This post is good in all, but I have one question: There are _other_ ways for
becoming exceptionally good except the OP's "pyramid" way?

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waynecolvin
I think the OP is onto something. Focused attention is good if you don't get
tunnel vision. In addition to finding a relevant venue you would want relevant
mentors and colleagues too. Hopefully some of them are in that same venue.

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aba_sababa
This is great advice for participants in the budding northeast hackathon
scene. I've never done a startup, but from what I can gather, doing a
hackathon isn't that far off. You code furiously and you try to win. You pivot
if it's not working out. You make awesome shit, and fast. Hackathons are just
a bit a shorter. I figure if I can win a hackathon, I'd a) be better prepared
to win in startupland, and b) get noticed by the people who pull the strings.
So far, it's working out well, and I'd recommend any budding programmer (read:
student) to go to as many hackathons as possible.

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austinB
So essentially this is a niche to win strategy? Become the dominant player in
your microcosm then continue to expand once dominance is achieved. I won't
argue with this, it's not applicable to every pursuit, but solid advice on the
whole.

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jholman
If I understand you, I don't think that's the advice at all. I believe
Newport's key point is NOT "win in a niche, use that as your base, leverage
that to a wider context".

I believe the essence is this:

You're gonna hafta practice a ton anyway. So one way to decide how to focus
your practice is to pick a microcosm with clear feedback, and go hard on that
one type of practice. It's not about the (microcosmic) prize, it's about the
focus that having a prize gives you in your preparation for the real fight,
which you can get to in a few years. Thrashing during practice is as much a
problem as thrashing during the fight for the thing itself.

While I think it's interesting advice, my thought is that for every opinion
piece advocating laser focus, there's another opinion piece advocating
dilettantism and adaptability and opportunism. It's hard to know how to add
that up.

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thenomad
Good post, but I think the best insight into why Chris (the rapper) succeeded
was in the comments - it's an iterative process.

Competitions, particularly recurring ones, are great because they force you to
finish something, get it judged, and start something else.

(Speaking as someone who's in the middle of a huge project with no end in
sight - sounds good!)

~~~
billswift
Try to tease out parts of the project that you can actually complete and get
some feedback on. Feedback is one of the most important requirements for
getting better, and the feedback on a completed sub-project is always going to
be better than that on a project that is still being worked on. Not to mention
that clearly finishing even parts of the project is helpful to morale.

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reneherse
as for applying this method, does anyone have suggestions for finding a forum
that could provide clear feedback specifically for web design?

~~~
biot
A/B testing with measurable, objective conversion metrics? Other than that,
sites like dribbble.com display the number of likes an image gets. Your
metrics there are how many follow you and what the average rating per image
is.

