I was just thinking the other day that everyone’s a critic, but if you don’t try to do it, you can’t understand what it feels like.
CRITICIZING IS THE EASY PART
As someone who watches a lot of reality shows and competitions like Top Chef among others, it’s easy to say:
She should have done this!
He should have done that.
You totally missed this!!
..but hindsight is 20/20.
I get that in the heat of the moment, I am thinking: NOOOOO!! Don’t try and make that dish in 3 hours, you won’t make it!!
It’s hard to think on the fly, and it’s hard to reach the level of talent that these people have reached. What we’re seeing is only half an hour that barely represents their years of work.
Sometimes, I do get annoyed, and I have to say out loud (to myself):
Have YOU tried doing what they did?
Do you know what it takes to even reach their level?
That shuts me up pretty quickly.
Of course I have no idea.
Until I have stepped in their shoes and tried to do the task, I can’t say anything.
(I tried acrylic painting the other day, and realized I shouldn’t quit my day job.)
I’d never be able to do what they do, let alone do it in 4 hours or half an hour.
Another flippant remark that really irks me is:
Oh that’s easy.
…but that person has no idea what goes into this effortless-looking task.
NOTHING IS EFFORTLESS
Case in point: Just the other day, I was trying to explain what I did to a friend of mine.
He’s a bit of a know-it-all* and wanted to flex his “my brain is bigger than yours” muscle.
(*As I am a bit of one myself, so I can recognize my own kind..)
It was a something really complicated and technical, and after trying to explain it for a while and noticing him getting even more frustrated, I said:
You know what? Don’t feel bad.
We’ve only been talking about this for half an hour.
It took me 3 years to understand these 4 sentences.
He couldn’t let it go.
He simply couldn’t believe it would take 3 years for someone to learn something that seems so simple.
I think he also thought it was because I’m a girl, and technical stuff doesn’t come easily to GIRLS. *rolls eyes*
…so he tried to prove to me via a multitude of emails filled with examples, wasting my time, trying to get me to validate that he could, in fact, learn something in less than 3 years.
After 3 weeks of being annoyed by constant messages, I told him to STFU and leave me alone by saying:
What the hell does that prove if you can think you can learn something in a month, that took me 3 years to master?
It’s not even your job.
I said that even if he learned what I did, knowing how it works as a concept and in theory, is VERY different from reality.
Putting it into practice, is the hard bit.
It took me a month or so to “get” the idea in theory, but once I tried to apply it, all of what I thought I knew, went out the window.
PEOPLE WHO ARE GOOD AT IT, MAKE IT LOOK EASY
People to whom things seem to come very easily and look very effortless, have spent years honing and perfecting their craft to reach that point.
Until you can actually do what they do at a very basic level, we should all really STFU and take a step back to appreciate and admire the hard work that went into attaining that level of success.
