I watched the documentary In Search of Greatness which features elite athletes like Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Rice tonight. It’s a quick watch and interesting.

Below are my notes/favorite ideas:

• People have immense deep talents that the current system overlooks or doesn’t nurture.
• Making something important just because we can measure it is a flawed way of thinking.
• People who do great things don’t comply. They break the mold and do something completely different.
• Children learn to speak. Nobody teaches them. There is a lot to take away from this in the sense that the key to learning a skill is you set up an environment where you can learn it implicitly (like language). Create an environment that forces them to learn things without them articulating what they’re learning.
• Unstructured play is important. A championship German soccer team studied their best players and found the big difference was the guys who made the national team had a lot more unstructured small-sided play when they were young, i.e., fields not in normal proportions or play in 3v3 games where they got more touches. Elite soccer players spent more time in unstructured play, such as 3v3 or 5v5 games, compared to structured training sessions. Note: the study in question is entitled “The Role of Deliberate Practice and Play in Career Progression in German Soccer Players”
• Kids’ environments are too structured and analytical now – Gretzky
• Kids have less unstructured time than a prisoner in a high security jail. Parents have become social secretaries for their kids.
• Pressure for conformity, compliance and standardization. People however are diverse, creative and want fulfillment and meaning – not drudgery and a kind of dreary repetitive existence. – Sir Ken Robinson
• If you promote conformity, don’t be surprised that’s what you get.
• Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd describes perfectly our education system
• People who do great things don’t comply. They break the mold and do something completely different.
• We must balance freedom and control
• Michael Jordan hall of fame speech is next level. He brings up all his grievances even in this moment.
• Need to explore and test your own limits
• “Nobody took away my creativity” – Gretzky on his coaches. “Coaches shouldn’t be drill sargeants”