## Description - I started listening to this audiobook on Spotify and the author/narrator talks about some amazing things. Specifically he makes the claim that anyone can achieve great success not with the help of talent, but with the cultivation of character traits. While he acknowledges that talent and innate ability are good signals and indicators of success, talent and innate ability without character traits often lag behind in the long run because the talented individuals can get disheartened at poor results or adversity and flounder. - The term *soft skills* came from the army ### Contents - [[#Chapter 1 - Creatures of Discomfort]] ## Chapter 1 - Creatures of Discomfort - Polyglots used to have a hard time learning languages. Because learning was hard, they didn't want to learn. However once they figured out they were enthusiastic - The rise of Steve Martin the comedian. He bombed a lot when starting and he hated writing. However he eventually had to learn how to write and how to enjoy writing before he became world-renown. He boiled down jokes to their basic structure in order to become an effective comedian - Learning a language - Speaking, writing, and listening are all different skills - Produce a short paragraph of who I am and why I'm learning German - Lean into the discomfort - Learning is not about reducing mistakes, but about making early mistakes and learning from them - Desensitize oneself from making mistakes