Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Video Response to Freakonomics podcast on "The Upside to Quitting"

To listen to the podcast I'm discussing you can download the mp3 here.

Sometimes you just got to know when to quit. This episode looks at lives of a prostitute, a ball player, a navy seal, a musician, and an Amish who all decide to quit.  "Fail and fail early" is the take away. I share my personal experience with quitting in finding my major in college.

 

How do we know when to quit? I was raised to try it "for a season". In sports growing up you only play a "season". This means you only play for a few weeks or months usually during one of the seasons e.g. spring, summer or fall. Often I would play baseball in the spring, soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter. By the time I got to high school I realized I wasn't cut out to play baseball or basketball so I focused my energy on soccer which I was at least decent at.

 

I once even did a stint with Cross Country, which for those unfamiliar with this sport its basically crazy people running really long distances. My father thought it would be good for me. I was an ok distance runner but found it difficult to find enjoyment in a sport where I threw up after every race. I wanted to quit but my father told me to "finish the season". I did. I actually gave it one more try the next year but decided it wasn't for me after that. Trying something for a "season" taught me not to quit or give up too early, taught me patience and perseverance, and mostly endurance. 

No comments: