J.D. Moyer

sci-fi author, beatmaker

10K Hours is B.S.

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On August 27

In Metaprogramming

As I get a bit older, and the number of activities I have spent ten thousand or more hours practicing increases, I’ve come to the realization that just doing the thing is not enough to get really good. Malcom Gladwell’s observation that the world’s best in every category have accumulated at least ten thousand of practice in their field is just that–an observation. Ten thousand hours of practice may correlate with elite mastery, but it doesn’t cause elite mastery. You need more.

Like many of Gladwell’s big ideas, this one has been refuted many times. The most recent research shows that hours of practice are only loosely associated with mastery. Those with natural talent (and/or good teachers and/or a good study plan) progress much faster that those who focus solely on grinding out the practice hours.

I have at least two natural talents, and I have practiced both very little. One is thinking in abstract data models. From the moment I was exposed to databases, I “got” them. I managed to turn this talent into a part-time career that pays most of my bills. I still had to put in the hours learning to code, but the mental models always came easily.

My other natural talent is that people believe me, without question, based on the sound of my voice. It’s weird. I’ve never practiced it at all. It drives my wife crazy, especially when I happen to be wrong.

In other life areas I’d like very much to be good, but I’m only mediocre. Like chess. I watch chess videos, solve puzzles, play many games, but struggle to break 1000 ELO on chess.com. I’m still in the top 20% of players on the site, but I’ll never be elite. Still, I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made. It’s sweeter because it’s hard earned.

For me, I’ve decided that it’s worth it to try to get better in areas that interest me, even if I’m not naturally talented. It’s exciting to make progress, to devise a study plan and follow it. And access to knowledge, lessons, and expertise has never been easier, thanks to the internet and YouTube. Thanks, Youtubers who take the time to teach others. You rock!

No More Building on Sand

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On June 16

In Culture Rants/Shares, Personal Updates

When Twitter went downhill, I wasn’t sure what to “do” about social media. Many of the authors and artists I followed fled the platform, and my feed became a cesspool of vile posts from accounts I was not following. Though my Twitter/X feed has become more sane, I rarely go there anymore. The company dismantled TweetDeck, my preferred mode of viewing and posting, and I just lost interest.

Until then, Twitter had been my preferred social media platform. I posted to Facebook and Instagram a few times a year, usually to promote a new release. But I was on Twitter daily, posting at least a few times a week, sharing thoughts, opinions, and retweeting items of interest.

Post-Twitter, I decided not to rush the process of finding my next “main” social media site. I signed up for Bluesky, Threads, and Mastadon, but I didn’t spend much time on any of them.

I’d been burned. I’d spent significant time on Twitter, and my experience had been ruined by Elon Musk’s ego purchase and atrociously poor management (firing top engineers, dismantling moderation teams, inviting fascists and bigots back to the platform, alienating advertisers, and generally running the company into the ground). I didn’t want to repeat my mistake by hopping on a new bandwagon.

Then, a few weeks ago, I had a realization. I already had a “main” social media site. It’s this website. It’s self-hosted WordPress.

If I have something to say or share, long-form text is usually my preferred mode of communication. Sometimes I like to share a picture or two, but usually it’s just words. So a WordPress blog is perfect. People can comment on my posts if they want, or message me. And I can share posts to different audiences on Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn, depending on the subject matter and vibe.

Many of my family and friends visit my site occasionally to see what I’m up to. I keep up with them by following their posts on whatever social media site(s) they post on, or just call and say hi (a Gen X thing). So my blog does function as a social media site, in addition to being a place where anyone can read my posts or learn more about my fiction writing and music.

And I’m no longer building on sand. No one can rug pull my own site, or buy it and ruin it. Nothing lasts forever, but WordPress.org is open source software. I own my own domain and my own content. Being the sole moderator, I can edit or remove old posts or comments whenever I want.

So welcome to my social media platform.

Reading in Crockett

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On May 19

In Fiction Writing

I put out the message on all my social media channels but forgot to post here until now. If you’re in the Bay Area and looking for something to do today, I’ll be reading at Passionate Feast Vintage & Book in Crockett at around 2pm. I’ve chosen an excerpt from The Last Crucible (Book 3 of Reclaimed Earth) featuring Aina, an awakened cybrid, one of my favorite minor characters in the series. Also reading will be T.K. Rex, Douglas Henderson, and L. Ann Kinyon.

How to More Easily Use Your Own Power

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On May 8

In Metaprogramming

Sometime in my forties I realized that all major choices could be boiled down to two paths:

  1. Empowering action (research/planning/implementation)
  2. Passive paralysis (inaction, worry, pathological perfectionism, denial, etc.)

And yet all too often, I still catch myself taking the second, objectively worse path. Why? Because empowering action requires the expenditure of energy, mental focus, and the risk of failure or poor returns. So I look for “outs” that will exempt me from difficult actions and effortful tasks. These might look like:

“That’s out of my control or influence.”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“That’s way too hard.”

Success or improvement in every aspect of life is achievable, and there are multitudes of people who have already achieved success in those areas who will happily share the exact steps they took, often for free. But it’s often disappointing to hear their “answers” because an accurate depiction of how they achieved success invariably includes specialized knowledge, many hours of focused work, and/or difficult behavioral or attitudinal shifts.

So how do we get past those mental barriers and expand our personal power?

For me, the answer is twofold:

1. I accept that what I want may well be within my reach, but not immediately and not without effort. I reject modes of thinking that lead to passivity and living with low standards.

2. I build motivation and focus by letting go of some wants and desires that aren’t consistent with my core values, and double down on what’s really important to me (relationships with family and friends, mental and physical health, artistic work and integrity, making a good living and co-providing for my family, saving democracy, the habitability of our planet, etc.).

That’s my thought for the day.

Posts in the pipeline:

  • some pictures of our new house
  • a fiction reading May 19th near a lesser-known bridge
  • taurine!

Take Your Wins

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On April 29

In Metaprogramming

Often when something good happens to me, I just take it in stride. I don’t want to get too excited about any particular success because fortune rises and falls. Everything that goes up must come down. And even if the general trend in any particular area is up/good/optimistic, I often find myself anticipating or worrying about the inevitable declines and losses.

Recently I decided this is completely wrong-headed.

Kia, who recently lost both her mother and uncle (and her father a few years earlier) helped me change my mind. She, too, had been focusing too much on loss, especially witnessing end-of-life declines in health, wealth, and mental clarity. But gradually, over the course of many conversations, we both changed how we were looking at things.

In the end, we all lose. There is no winning at life. You can die well loved, rich, with many achievements, and even with most of your marbles intact. But you still die. There’s no getting out of this game alive.

You can live a “good life”, contributing to the world, caring for your family, making lots of money, having adventures, living by whatever values you hold. But in the end we’re all still dead, unable to appreciate any nice words people might say about us after we’re gone (and of course it can go the other way too).

With this in mind, I no longer take my wins in stride. I celebrate them because there is no winning in general, there are only individual victories and positive moments.

Of course some wins are bigger than others. Graduating from college is a bigger deal than completing a single assignment. But I am no longer interested in deferring my sense of joy when something goes right. Just because something will inevitably go wrong tomorrow or the next day, just because there’s always a bigger hill to climb, doesn’t invalidate that something good or great just happened and deserves a moment of appreciation.

So take your wins, big and small, in every life area. Acknowledge them and feel good about them. They’re all we got.

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