Adopting the Renaissance Human too
I’m currently a university freshman and I’m going through the phase of questioning the meaning of life and figuring out what my purpose is here on this planet. Hoping to find a big kid job that’s both interesting and an economic activity — but I’m starting to realise that this is hard because I’m interested in everything and anything, and driven to pursue it all but life’s limited time and energy makes all effort seem like a chase after wind. Historically, I know that focusing on one thing, and only one, almost always paves way for success. Handling many things at once only allows you touch on them superficially so it’s not enough to make great impact.
But after listening to Valentin Perez’s guest feature in a podcast, I stumbled upon his article on Medium, and he wrote:
Many people believe that having “too many interests” is a sure path to mediocrity.
I believe that being a generalist is better than being a specialist. Will elaborate in another post, but three quick reasons are:
1) I find it more fun.
2) I have more and better ideas as a result of exploring multiple fields.
3) Becoming amazing (like top 5% in the world) at the intersection of two or more skills is easier than becoming amazing at a single skill.
I have many interests. I’ve cultivated some but haven’t pursued many. It’s hard to find time to pursue them all, but I believe it’s possible to consistently pursue many.
Later on, he shares how he’s going to pursue and practise 15 skills each week through time blocking and day allocation. He did it for about 202 days (based from his Medium posts) and has stopped (blogging about it so perhaps he still does it independently) since then but I still find it pretty inspiring to have juggled (startup) work + fifteen extremely different interests into a single week and persisting months of it.
As a result, I’ve decided to take on a similar challenge in pursuit of figuring out what I want to do with life and whether I have the skills to do it. Below, I’ll outline the activities I hope to develop and how I’ll go about them. I’ll update anyone who’s interested by posting an article on Medium everyday, similar to what Valentin did, so please bully me if I fall ill to a common mental plague known as laziness.
The What — Activities
1. Coding
I’m currently very active in the No Code community since (obviously as evident here and here) I can’t code but I really hope to be proficient in, at least, one programming language by the end of this year, 2021. I was inspired by the anecdotes of my dad’s friend who works at Jane Street — from an all-you-can-eat pantry to desks with six computer screens, what more can anyone ask for? Of course, if that doesn’t work out then I guess being a Twitch Software Engineer isn’t too shabby as well.
I wouldn’t be able to pursue any of those things if I can’t code so I have to learn!
2. Writing
Initially started writing on Medium for the passive monetary gains however I wanted the satisfaction of knowing that I wrote 1,000 articles. So, in December of 2020 I wanted to publish 1,000 articles before the year ended and by the end of it, I churned out 10 articles by which 4 articles were published in one go however I just ran out of ideas and motivation. I guess this is the problem with tight deadlines. Since I’ll be posting everyday about my updates for Re Human, it ties in nicely with this arbitrary goal!
3. Running
I’ve won a couple of trail running races in Hong Kong however I’ve stopped training for about a year now because I was convinced that focusing on one thing (i.e. high school) would make the likes of succeeding higher. I was wrong! My grades dropped after a semester of no training since I had extra time to procastinate and this made me unhappy. Since I’m in university now with a heck load of time, I’d love to get back into it.
4. Graphic Design — Growth Hacking — that kinda thing
I’m not too sure how to categorise and was a bit conflicted on bundling this in here since I do graphic design & growth hacking for a living however it’s what I enjoy doing. This meme sums it up pretty well:
But I’d love to aimlessly create a few Figma designs for the sheer fun of it and to build a portfolio so I decided to put it here too!
5. School
Acing school is an easier formula. Just put in the work, do the hours and you’ll likely attain grades. With Re Human blog post accountability, I hope to do 8 hours of learning and studying everyday.
6. Chess
I recently learnt how to play chess (a year ago when I was 16) and I’ve been dabbling on it on & off now so I hope to really get into it. This aspiration solidified, of course, after watching the Queen’s Gambit and Twitter people like Alexandra Botez.
7. Books
No words can suffice why. Instead let this quote by Calvin Ross do: “Reading will transform your life. Books allow you to transcend the limitations of your direct experience and tap into centuries of knowledge and wisdom from the world’s greatest thinkers across every discipline. Books teach you how to live, how to be a good person, how to lead, and how to succeed.”
The How
I’ll do the following everyday:
- Coding — 1 hour stream it on Twitch
- Writing — 1 hour; writing updates
- Running — 15 minute run with 1–2 minute rope skip every hour
- Graphic Design /Growth Hacking — 40 minutes
- Chess — 15 minutes
- Books — 30 minutes
This requires discipline as Valentin mentions too but unlike him, I have not developed this as I would have hoped to yet since my actions are almost always based on my mood and this is absolutely a bad habit which is why I intend to change this through the Re Human project.
I’ll learn and study in the morning and if I find myself with a burning passion to use Twitter, I’ll play chess instead (productive procastination). I’ll run after lunch then code during sunset for immaculate vibes. I’ll do work (i.e. graphic design) during the evening and I’ll end the day by writing an update, posting it here, then reading to fall asleep!
Thank you for reading! I’ll set up the Twitch account for the code streaming, an Instagram page to update in real time, and other things tomorrow :) Read Valentin’s article (which is where I largely drew inspiration from) since he framed his process and reasons for doing this much more nicer. Read here: https://medium.com/renaissance-human-lifestyle/renaissance-human-lifestyle-eccd16e8f4d6 ! See you tomorrow
