Lesson 6: The Pendulum Swings... Part 1

The Pendulum Swings... Part 1

This statement can be interpreted in a few ways when I'm connecting music to life. One of it is the obvious idea of going to the extremes of any field. Another one is about the balance between art and science of anything worth mentioning. And there's another idea is about the way we play our life and music's state of emotions - extreme euphoria or depression and the likes, the way we can approach them to ensure a healthy sound/mind. This also includes issues regarding inferiority complex which was discussed in Lesson 4

And comes the most obvious one which is related to the whole topic above - Pulse.

Just a quick mention is that this idea came about in my mind thanks to my mentor at TTSH, who's a fantastic psychiatrist and a mentor. =) And I need to thank Meryl for an interesting insight that I learned through discussion with her.

Let's Go EXTREME

Being extreme about everything can be really good for us sometimes. It really allows us to push the limits of our own capabilities, knowledge and awareness. I'm pretty sure everyone who knows me would know by know I'm quite obsessed when I go into something, last there for quite a while before I come out with a whole bunch of (mostly) useless knowledge but probably learned a good lesson from within. However, I'd like to state that living in extremes isn't such a great thing for our health, mentally or physically, in the long run.

Who're the extremes?

Our world shows us many great examples of extremes gone bad - religious extremists being a really harmful example, as well as people like Lady Gaga who go for extreme quirkiness (while everyone is cheering her on/laughing at her/hating on her, I can only imagine what insecurity she must have within to do what she does). There's something mentally disturbing about Lady Gaga that I suspect is affecting a lot of people who listen to her/watch her videos, but that's for discussion for another time.

There are many... neutral... extremes such as Bill Gates (watch Pirates of Silicon Valley, the fact that he has done a lot of good was neutralised by the fact that he has also done much harm), and people like Mark Zuckerberg (we still can't say Facebook is necessarily the best thing to happen to humanity or the worst...). There are also some examples of... mostly good extremists such as Ghandi, Mother Theresa and many other passionate activists who never become famous.

Pros and Cons

When one takes to the extremes, chances of them doing harm and good is almost equal, because extreme always means something is sacrificed. Most of the results are dependent on hindsight rather than anything else; most harmful extremes such as Hitler started with a noble vision in mind (patriotism, a greater Germany), just tainted by fear and hate which resulted in such horrific consequences.

Hitting the Threshold

The most important thing to note is that the idea of going extreme is nothing wrong. I actually would advise everyone who wants to really improve in a particular area to go really extreme when you first start (at least it's what I do). It's like making efforts to make sure that you cover all the basics as there is a threshold that after one reaches what they learned would've become a skill rather than just pure knowledge - it's like when you go up the pyramid on the Do You Want To Be A Millionaire? show, where every time you go up a certain number of questions you're guaranteed an amount of money regardless of whether you answer the next few questions correctly or not.

After you hit the threshold, you will definitely feel something majorly different, and might even plateau. That's when you hold back and learn to moderate. Short stints of extremes are often very effective in getting things done - such as practising 8 hours a day for 2 months; but after that you would need to take a breather (we all need to sleep after working for a day, it works the same in practising) such that we can let our mind consolidate.

Climbing up the scale

There will be many thresholds to hit as you improve, and there'll always be good times to push to the extreme and times to stretch to get more width. You have to let the pendulum swing all the way to the max in the area that you want for a while, and then moderate and come back, then swing again; this gives you maximum efficiency in the long run as our brain actually cannot "multi-task" as much as we'd like to imagine. If we concentrate on depth we should work almost completely on it; if we concentrate on width we should work mostly on it. This gives us the ability to use momentum to our favour like the pendulum - it covers larger area if it swing in one direction rather than multiple.

Especially in this day and age, you have to push yourself to be an expert in some sense (meaning unique skills) in order for you to even make a mark. This is because information is readily available and the capabilities of people around us seem to be just that high (with this competitive environment). Extremism can give you the edge initially, but the width gives you a much larger scope for you to be able to redirect energies. Such a breather will ensure that you can climb up your individual ladder efficiently and quickly, rather than charging down one path which might be guiding you to a different end point from where your strengths lie, limiting your true capabilities.

That's how you climb up the scale/ladder in anything that you do. It'll give you the depth and the width that you need when you're self-learning anything (this method is often difficult with conventional curriculum nowadays, but still usable if you have enough time).

It's all about Moderation

Looking at Steve Jobbs (hurting his health by his very extreme ideas), the long list of people who go to the extreme to earn money, leave a legacy, and religious extremists, sometimes they might be more "successful", or more "powerful" but at the end of the day it can take a toll on their lives, or even worse, others' lives. Another kind of extremism is the extreme cynicism leading to even nihilism (we just exist, with no meaning) leading to a destructive lifestyle or passive person. We need a bit of everything to function as humanly as possible.

We need to be overtly passionate/extreme about something, at least just for a while, so that we can reach a threshold before we move away, or we'd never improve in the long run. At the same time, making sure that you take breaks at suitable intervals will make you improve all the more when you restart your engines and push your way through to the next threshold. It's never easy, because if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and there would be no real value added for you (no new experiences, unique skills and personal achievements that can help you fulfill your dreams)

Practical Tips

The most important part of the lesson is always the practical tips: concepts can only get you so far. Like what I tell everyone, start extreme - like if you want to learn jazz, listen to ONLY jazz for 2 months and reach the new point before you take on anything new; or if you want to learn about guitar-making *hint hint to a junior*, spend the next 2 months reading up on forums and reading guitar-making books and consulting everyone you know about it, and do the practical side of things too.

Immersing yourself in the field will gain you that extra insight into what you want to do and give you a lot of skills that you will never gain unless you put both feet in and go crazy.

After the 2 months though, please take a break because any harder you push might not give you that much of a gain. The 2 months can extend up to 6 months depending on individuals' capacity, but the best gauge is when you feel the change upon you, and have solidified it through a couple of experiences.

Create your environment to go EXTREME

What I do for others, and myself, is to create an environment for you to obsess about something, i.e. buy/grab tons of recordings of the genre of your choice and just spam it; leave your Firefox tabs on as all being about the topic of your interest; force yourself to read books/buy books and leave them in obvious places to remind yourself; leave post-it notes everywhere to create a billion and one reminders. And most importantly, envision yourself being at the level that you wish to be every night before you go to sleep. This encourages motivation and allows you to be extreme.

When you want to take your mind off it, just reverse the whole process and hide everything. Make it difficult for you to obsess. You'll see the effectiveness of this through measures you take every day.

Personal Experiences

A good friend of mine had a jazz burn out, and I see many people who are extreme for too long hurting their bodies and not being able to break out of the mold that they already pigeonholed themselves to be in.

I am thankful I have an angel who ensures I don't go too obsessed for too long, so she's my moderator. How about you? Remember, the moderator does not have to be a person, it can be a reminder on your handphone, it can be just the change of environment. Whatever it is, try to adjust your surroundings to facilitate your growth, not hamper it. =)

Additional Added Notes

I learned a few more things today that I thought I would share regarding extremism. One of the things that is really interesting about Jack/Jill of All Trades (genuine ones... meaning being actually good in many areas just not great) is that they are not actually very "split amongst a thousand things", but instead they went into each area of interest for a specific amount of time and created a skill as opposed to simply a knowledge. This is why extremism is a useful trait.

 

Another sad truth is that our education system doesn't inspire that - firstly we don't inspire learning skills but love rote-learning to the max. It also does not inspire us to dabble and obsess/delve deep into something because we always need to care for everything else even as a kid. It's really nice if you can go deep in the cave as someone/something is holding anchor for you on the other side, but such environments are hard to find, and it is also a good thing to take turns being the anchor too, that's when you get to see the breadth of things.