Crossing the Threshold of the Frustration Barrier

  • The resistance stage of culture shock occurs when a person realizes that achieving something they wish to learn or become takes time and effort.
    • It’s not a free ride. Take my experience with the game of Go, for example. I want to play, I understand why and how, but I also understand that it will take a considerable amount of time to train, which brings frustration.
  • This is referred to by Kaufman as a frustration barrier.
    • It’s a phenomenon that reveals an uncomfortable truth: most things are not fun until you have obtained some decent skill.
    • I enjoy playing Go, but I don’t like stumbling into stupid mistakes.
    • I don’t enjoy the flow of stones in the second stage of the game, after the twentieth move.
    • I am unskilled and clearly see this. Thus, why start something at which I am not good, especially when it takes time to become better?
  • The same is true for note-taking. The majority of new note-takers look at what I’ve turned Obsidian into with awe and desire the same for themselves.
    • It’s okay to desire, but it took me almost three years of consistent note-writing to achieve this.
  • Kaufman argues that you only need as much as twenty hours to become fairly good at something.
    • 20 hours of deliberate practice of the basics is enough to cross the threshold of the frustration barrier.

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