Thank you for writing this!! This exactly how I have been feeling of late as I work on my debut novel. And I had no way of describing it. My imagination out weights my skills to write a epic, mind blowing story. And I’ve been impatient to get to a level of writing where I am happy with it
I've been writing on and off for years, and in all honesty I'm not sure the feeling really ever goes away. But you just have to keep on learning and keep on writing. And focus on enjoying the process!
The Taste Gap - this is the concept I've been looking for - I'm writing a piece on 'goals' and am specifically trying to talk about the futility of many of our goals, advocating a sense of goallessness, but I don't want to deny the value of structured striving altogether. The Taste Gap feels like the thing I'm trying to describe - a sense of ever evolving direction which is always a few steps ahead of where we are now.
That's an interesting idea, that many of our goals are futile. I've certainly found that out in my life in general – yes, I might want X, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it. I think perhaps it's worth taking a concept from storytelling, specifically the Six Act Structure, which is that a character's goals evolve as they learn new things and their skills develop. Perhaps what's key to setting goals is being realistic and understanding what might come next, and evolving our goals as we progress.
Two interesting insights. First the Dunning Kruger affects anyone who's skills are at level 1, even, and especially the 'experts' who are hyper focused in one area. They have many more unknowns.
Second, most people will never get through stage 2 due to cognitive dissonance, another cognitive blindness where it's so uncomfortable the brain glitches and you become self righteous and fall back to Dunning Kruger.
I write some of that here. Your essay is wonderful and I wish I had led with this topic first! 🤣
Thank you for writing this!! This exactly how I have been feeling of late as I work on my debut novel. And I had no way of describing it. My imagination out weights my skills to write a epic, mind blowing story. And I’ve been impatient to get to a level of writing where I am happy with it
I've been writing on and off for years, and in all honesty I'm not sure the feeling really ever goes away. But you just have to keep on learning and keep on writing. And focus on enjoying the process!
The Taste Gap - this is the concept I've been looking for - I'm writing a piece on 'goals' and am specifically trying to talk about the futility of many of our goals, advocating a sense of goallessness, but I don't want to deny the value of structured striving altogether. The Taste Gap feels like the thing I'm trying to describe - a sense of ever evolving direction which is always a few steps ahead of where we are now.
Thank you for the post.
That's an interesting idea, that many of our goals are futile. I've certainly found that out in my life in general – yes, I might want X, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it. I think perhaps it's worth taking a concept from storytelling, specifically the Six Act Structure, which is that a character's goals evolve as they learn new things and their skills develop. Perhaps what's key to setting goals is being realistic and understanding what might come next, and evolving our goals as we progress.
https://sixactstructure.com/
Thanks for this reminder, it's come at a good time.
Glad it was useful!
Two interesting insights. First the Dunning Kruger affects anyone who's skills are at level 1, even, and especially the 'experts' who are hyper focused in one area. They have many more unknowns.
Second, most people will never get through stage 2 due to cognitive dissonance, another cognitive blindness where it's so uncomfortable the brain glitches and you become self righteous and fall back to Dunning Kruger.
I write some of that here. Your essay is wonderful and I wish I had led with this topic first! 🤣
https://www.polymathicbeing.com/p/you-know-nothing
Thanks, Michael! And I'll give your essay a read when I have a moment!