This extends into life as well. I play golf (for fun [2]), which cunningly has a scoring system that tells me I'm objectively rubbish, and getting (mostly) worse.
I've found this professionally useful in combating the seductive idea that "because I'm -really- good at one thing, I'm good at everything. "
I've seen the opposite in customers sometimes. Doctors who are very good doctors, have strong feelings about UI (that are objectively just wrong[1].) But because they operate in a culture which treats their word as law, they find it hard to accept that others may have skills in other areas they lack.
If you are an expert in something I recommend including something else in your life to keep you humble. That humility allows you to be a better spouse, parent, and human being. (And ironically a better expert who's able to recognise and adopt an idea or solution that'd better than yours even in your area of expertise.)
We choose to do these these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
[1] think yellow comic sans italic text on blue background levels of wrong.
[2] golf is fun precisely because it is hard. Things that are easy are not fun. The pleasure of 1 perfect shot out of 100 tries is the dopamine that keeps us coming back.
I've found that one of the best ways to dismantle an overblown ego is to play StarCraft (Brood War or SC2, the result will be the same) or really any other 1v1 game. The direct feeling of being beaten, potentially overrun completely, time and time again, especially after putting in hard work is very humbling.
Fighting games are very good for this except they've always invited a certain mental block in people where they'll declare certain things "cheap" and end up offloading a lot of the humbling experience and not take it to heart. This type of scrub mentality exists everywhere but in fighting games it seems to come extra easy to people, perhaps because they have too many potential things they can blame (tier of their character, match-up supposedly being bad, etc.).
> I've found that one of the best ways to dismantle an overblown ego is to play StarCraft (Brood War or SC2, the result will be the same) or really any other 1v1 game.
Sadly no. Playing SC2 online weaned me off online competitive games. Because of all the kids calling me a stupid noob ... when I won. The ones beating me were polite.
Golf might be better because its me against me. No excuses about the other guys ability. But sure, as long as you find your fun, and your humility, it doesn't really matter where it is.
I console myself by believing that Tiger Woods is pretty bad at CSS :)
I've found this professionally useful in combating the seductive idea that "because I'm -really- good at one thing, I'm good at everything. "
I've seen the opposite in customers sometimes. Doctors who are very good doctors, have strong feelings about UI (that are objectively just wrong[1].) But because they operate in a culture which treats their word as law, they find it hard to accept that others may have skills in other areas they lack.
If you are an expert in something I recommend including something else in your life to keep you humble. That humility allows you to be a better spouse, parent, and human being. (And ironically a better expert who's able to recognise and adopt an idea or solution that'd better than yours even in your area of expertise.)
We choose to do these these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
[1] think yellow comic sans italic text on blue background levels of wrong.
[2] golf is fun precisely because it is hard. Things that are easy are not fun. The pleasure of 1 perfect shot out of 100 tries is the dopamine that keeps us coming back.