New Projects for a New Decade
The year 2010 brings a convenient opportunity to plan long-term projects for the decade.
While I have interests in various areas, musical and computational ones are dominant.
Today I am announcing two musical projects. Since it seems prudent to terminate pursuits in which there is no long-term interest or value and wise to focus on projects one considers to be necessary, it is my plan to undertake a new type of focus with respect to my engagement in learning the violin and the piano.
Since divine providence has seen fit to provide both a measure of aptitude and an availability of high-quality instruction in the area of music, it seems wise to me to maintain involvement with it. The particular reasons for my present musical pursuits are not entirely evident to me at this time, but I am aware of some potential results of them. Knowing that opportunities will only come as a result of thorough preparation, it is my responsibility to be diligent in the development of my skills.
Much research has been done in the area of talent and high performance. While I do not have the time to discuss such research thoroughly at this time, two elements are certainly of preeminent importance in the development of excellence: interest and diligence. Interest drives diligence, and diligence brings accomplishment, which in turn satisfies and increases interest, producing a noble virtuous cycle of achievement in those who embrace it.
Momentary diligence is ultimately useless, for it cannot produce lasting results. The only way to ensure long-term accomplishment is long-term diligence. Some have claimed that approximately 10,000 hours are required in order to master any skill. While it would be an oversimplification to describe achievement purely in terms of hours (as much time can be wasted in practice and study), significant amounts of time
are required in the development of musical excellence. For this reason, I have chosen the number of 10,000 hours as a milestone for which to aim in the pursuit of musical excellence.
Ambitious goals can be frustrating and overwhelming. Furthermore, a lack of momentum can cause worthy endeavors to be slighted, as small failures lead to larger ones. Public goal setting and accountability is helpful for injecting an uncommon level of pressure (both positive and negative) into an otherwise privately overwhelming task.
My goal is to accumulate 10,000 hours of targeted violin practice, and 10,000 hours of targeted piano practice, during the next decade, beginning January 1, 2010.
I am calling my violin practice
Project Paganini and my piano practice
Project Liszt.
I plan to post regular updates on these projects to
projectpaganini.com and
projectliszt.com.
Another challenge is to develop a rich vocabulary. Rhetorical skills are important for effective communication, and the mastery of words is critical in the development of those skills. In order to measure, document, and share an exploration of English in a way that may be of benefit to others, I have created
10newwords.com.
10 New Words is a simple project: explore 10 new words per day, 6 days per week.