Quote: (06-25-2012 02:07 PM)UgSlayer Wrote:
Instead of 10 different things, take one thing and become awesome at it. Whats cooler, a guy who can cook, do martial arts, sail, whatever.
Or a pan-am brazilian jiu jitsu medalist?
Or a guy who can shred the guitar like Steve Vai?
Or a guy who can cook like Mario Batali with random ingredients on the fly?
Or a guy who is conversational in 10 languages?
Bad idea.
I did exactly that (Well, not to the exact level you mentioned, but by all means elite) with something on that list, and it got me absolutely nowhere. Especially with girls. Think about all the girls you know; how many of them can hold a conversation on any topic to any level of depth? I'm betting it is none. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you appear to girls (and everyone else around you) boring at best, and unstable at worse.
To get girls, you have to appear to be worldly-wise (ie proficient at a number of topics) and be able to translate that into an emotional form they can understand at a base level. To get to the levels you're talking about (I used to practice hours and hours every day for instance) you're going above and beyond what most people can relate to, and chances are it still won't be enough to break the upper-echelons of the thing you're trying to master.
Added with that, if it is a sport, you're going to get nagging injuries which bug the shit out of you. Same with instruments or any hobby where you can get recurring irritations.
I'd say it is much better to become 90% better at something than everyone else, which might take 6-12 months, than 99% than everyone else, which'll take maybe 6-12 years.
The only exception on the list really is conversational fluency - because that is low level in terms of difficulty. Comparing say, Steve Vai's prowess on the guitar with language learning would be akin to learning to speak, read and write an ancient language to fluency to the level whereby everyone in the world with a vague interest would use you as the reference point for what is correct.
Being a world-medalist in a sport is practically akin to being the best person on a continent at a particular activity; so good that it is incomprehensible to pretty much everyone who isn't an enthusiast.