Be Lopsided : Speakers & Interviews

If I had a university I'd want it filled with undergraduates striving to be well rounded, grad students striving to specialize, and professors who are experts in their fields.
So no I'm not in line with his premise. I can see how it suits his needs and certain needs of the university however

I vehemently disagree... he may not have intended his message in quite this way, but the encouragement to become incredibly specialized at a young age is terrible because someone who does so will most likely becone icredibly narrow-minded and lose the perspective and openess necessary to be an open-minded, practical, rational-thinking human being... just think about anyone you know who spends all their time playing world of warcraft to the point that it dominates their life in thought and action... sad, right? Sad that they're wasting time on something so "unimportant", and missing some great joys and opportunities that life has to offer, right? Well realize that running, or any other activity for that matter, is no more "important" than anything else (since there is no objective empirical measure of "important", as it is a term defined within context...).
...it IS possible to be excellent at many things... if you develop yourself as a complete human being, not pigeon-holing yourself, you will become more apt on all areas... there are many examples.. polymaths such as Da Vinci, multi-sport wonders, of which there are countless examples... amazing individuals such as those became so by NOT limiting themselves to narrow fields of focus...
...and as far as needing to get rid of other "distractions" to be good at running... well that's just bull. How much running do you need to do in a day to be good? 90'? 120? that, plus good diet, sleep, stretching, and whatever else you thinnk you might need? Add it up. It'll be a small number. A small number out of 24. As malmo says, "there are 24 hours in a day, Always have been, always will be, You can use every single one of them.".
Before you go eliminating other "distractions" that might be some things that you are actually interested in (i.e. sacrificing a passion for musci to be a good runner [there is time for both]), why not start by eliminating the real distractions... like get your fat butt off msn.. or stop perusing letsrun every 1/2 hour... and get off sites like this!

Love it, good, to the point, honest.
Great great advice.

I agree with the post about the pursuit of excellence as a way of life. The Buddist saying goes (paraphrasing)- 'If you see a man do anything, you've seen a man do everything.'

This advice applies to the Corporate world as well. Companies that hire college grads or people with a few years of experience are looking for specific skills sets or a specialty.

magnanimity is the quality of being "very generous or forgiving, esp. toward a rival or someone less powerful than oneself." I don't think that's what you meant %u2026 or what he meant.

I agree with Wetmore, pursue magnanimity, with a healthy balance.

The virtue it takes to become great at one thing will carry over into other areas of life. If you look at great runners for example, they are usually not slackers in things not related to running. Pursuing greatness in one thing requires you to be good at many things, what you gain from pursuing greatness in one thing, if it doesn't work out can be applied to somthing else. But if you never pursue greatness in one thing you will never know your full potential.

Burnout? that is when good runners dont feel like doing the hard work it takes to be a great runner. then they quit because they are not seeing results. too many excuses to not be outstanding!

Then what happens if you are no longer able to do that one thing for whatever reasons (injury, burnout, etc.)? I agree that you shouldn't spread yourself too thin, but that isn't what being well-rounded is. Being well-rounded is being good (not mediocre) at several things so that if one thing does not work out, you have something to fall back on.

i completely agree, i had friends killing themselves in high school doing ten different things and burnt themselves out by the end, i just focused on running and school it worked out really well for me.

i agree with this totally
no one cares if you are ok at alot of things
they care if you are great at something