The TV show Young Sheldon is one of my favorite shows. I especially enjoy Sheldon’s lines which can be funny sometimes and out of context most of the time.
But occasionally, Sheldon’s lines can be deep. For instance, in one of the episodes of season 7 Sheldon said something that got me thinking. He said:
At some point, it’s not enough to be a dog who plays the piano. You have to play the piano well.
We can draw an important lesson from this line. Consider your learning process as a kid. At the age of 2, if you can answer the question: What’s 8 + 8 correctly, that’s impressive.
But as you continue to grow, knowing that 8 + 8 = 16 will no longer be impressive. You’ll have to know how to do various aspects of math well like factorial, binomial, differentiation, integration, etc.
The line reminded me of what Cal Newport talks and writes about a lot — the idea that you must spend time to learn something hard and learn it deeply. You shouldn’t just know a little more than the average person. You should know a lot more than the average person.
It also made me reflect on my own life. I realized that I know several things, but my knowledge about those things only scratches the surface. You could say I’m a jack of all trades and master of none.
Some people may be surprised that I know a few things about something obscure like typography and can geek out on fonts and what makes a good font.
Speaking of fonts, why is Helvetica so widely used even though it’s not the most beautiful font out there? We all know Futura is the most beautiful font, right?
I can also lecture you on the most common typographic mistake people make when they say font to refer to the typeface.
It’s wrong to say, “I’m using Times New Roman font.”
The correct way to say it is, “I’m using Times New Roman typeface.”
The font is the size you want your letters to be like 12-point font or 14-point font.
The point is my knowledge of typography is just a little bit more than that of the average person. And that’s not impressive because, at some point, I need to know a lot more about typography — far more than the average person.
Here’s a question for you: What do you know a lot more than the average person does?
Remember:
At some point, it’s not enough to be a dog who plays the piano. You have to play the piano well.
To know a little bit is to be the dog who plays the piano.
To know more is to be the dog who plays the piano well.
You can choose to be the dog who plays the piano, or the dog who plays the piano well.
What will you choose?