A Secret of Success.

A lot of the great minds had friends they actually talked about their own fields with. My friends and I in college didn't really talk about programming. This one really smart guy would always be explaining programming and teaching others but he was a bit of a loner even though he wasn't nerdy.  I'm sure he got a really good job but imagine where he would be today if he had had a bunch of friends he talked about programming with. So many people just want to talk about other things besides their field. Einstein I bet actually talked about physics with his friends outside school. I know he had a group of guys. I know he and Maleva Merick would study together and she helped him a lot because she went to this other school where they were teaching modern stuff while Einstine's school was way behind and disagreed with all that controversial stuff and she had been exposed to.   She was his link to the stuff that really mattered and the stuff he later figured out for us. Maybe that's normal when your getting your PHD or masters to hang out with friends and discuss nothing but your field outside of school but that's what makes you a beast in your field. Tolkien and CS Lewis were buddies and would meet for a writer's group called "The Inklings". Thomas Kinkade and James Gurney were buddies in college and wrote a book on sketching together years before they became well known.  They also worked for Frank Frazetta on "Fire and Ice" (a fantasy film).   Yeah it's so important to have buddies that you can discuss things with.    So many times at church we get out of church and people aren't discussing the sermon.   I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone discuss the sermon.    I'd try to do it but maybe it sounded like I was being subversive.  It's probably a good idea that if you discuss the sermon be sure to reiterate how great it was.   But at school you don't have to do that, so be sure and ask a friend to hang out and discuss it for a while.  Go over the notes and compare them and maybe the friend with the better notes can give them to the one with the worse notes.

This goes along with my theory about how movie writers (screenwriters) are better than novelists and fiction writers because they have to discuss their stories with others.   It's probably not the best way to write if you write as a team however but it will increase your skill level if you do it so that when you stop you will be all the better.   Although a novelist could be better if he happens to have a natural talent that even he doesn't understand.   Someone might just be born a great author.   People like that however could conceivably lose their talent because they don't understand it and might develop some habit or try some technique that totally ruins their style.   If you really want to improve (at fiction writing) the best way would be to get on a team of writers making a TV show.  I guess writer's conferences are good too but a lot of those involve a lot of listening to lectures and it's pretty much just like school.   Listening is good but after the lecture discuss it with someone.  Ask the other person for help and with filling in notes that you didn't get.   A lot of people do this already but I think a lot don't. 

 Anyway whatever it is you are interested in being good at you have to have conversations with others about it and you have to be able to do it on your own without it being part of your job or as part of a school assignment.  Although if your job is writing for a movie or TV on a team that's different because you are going to spend huge chunks of time doing it.  Yeah getting a job in your field is ideal because you get paid to get better but that's part of the goal.    Things like programming pretty much require you to program outside work.  I guess if you get a job doing what you want to excel at you can usually think about other things outside work but it's still good to discuss your craft with someone.   Think of other people even your competitors as colleagues whom you can get together with after work.   They might steal your ideas but that's rare because usually people don't get it anyway.    They will tell you that you are wrong but rather than giving up try and get them to explain why.    At