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Comment by kevinalexbrown | Hacker News Reader

It took me a while to appreciate it, but what I enjoyed most about this was the letter from Brushwood to Teller. Teller's letter was awesome in all of the general ways, and he makes great points about about doing something besides the thing you want to excel at.

But Brushwood's email was great because it asked for advice for a specific problem, and it was a problem that Teller had the expertise to answer. Not "Oh Teller! I want to be a great magician just like you!" Not "What are 10 things an aspiring magician should do?" Not "Dear Teller, would you mind sending me information you find relevant or letting me pick your brain over coffee?" It was "I want to develop my own style, here's what I've done to that end. I've had some success, but here's how I struggled with taking it to the next level. What do you suggest, as someone who's accomplished this?" Emails like that tend to get the best kinds of responses.

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>It was "I want to develop my own style, here's what I've done to that end. I've had some success, but here's how I struggled with taking it to the next level. What do you suggest, as someone who's accomplished this?"

Connecting thought from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywu7Vu8Hko0

Quote, not verbatim: "Roadblocks are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough."

Questions like...

> "Oh Teller! I want to be a great magician just like you!"

> "What are 10 things an aspiring magician should do?"

> "Dear Teller, would you mind sending me information you find relevant or letting me pick your brain over coffee?"

... are indications of people who don't want it badly enough. They are infatuated with the fabulous end product, but not infatuated enough to really dive into it. The advice to "prod and demonstrate the failure/successes of your prodding before asking for advice" is not a heuristic against laziness - rather, it's meant to find out the depth of passion in the inquirer. Putting effort into an infatuation elevates it from a passing delightful thought into a serious, long-term passion. People who have chased life-long passions like to help those who aim to do the same.

Here's the link to the actual lecture with relevant quote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo&t=5m45s

   The brick walls are there for a reason. Right? The brick 
   walls are not there to keep us out, the brick walls are 
   there to give us a chance to show how badly we want 
   something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the 
   people who don't want it badly enough.

   -Randy Pausch

... or perhaps those questions are indications that someone hasn't arrived at a mature stage yet. It often takes me quite a while to formulate a good question about anything.

Whether they are willing to work hard or not probably is better seen by looking at the kinds of questions they ask a year apart.

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