Good Will Hunting
GWH is probably one of my favorite movies, and just now I learned something about myself as I was watching it for the _fill in a number_ time. His girlfriend, Minnie Driver (Skyler), can’t understand how Will is so good at remembering books, math problems, and such. He explains it to her in the following (paraphrased):
Will: Do you play piano?
Skyler: Yes
Will: Well, when you look at the keys, what do you see?
Skyler: chopstix
Will: When Beethoven looked at the keys, he saw music, it just made sense to him. I probably can’t hit a baseball past 2nd base, can’t play music at all, and wouldn’t be able to fly an airplane, but when I look at math, it just makes sense. It just works in my head.
For the past 3-4 days, and largely for a good bit of time before that, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to develop my first iPhone application. I’m intrigued by the revenue model of a $1 application that’s downloaded a bunch of times, but more than that I think I’ve been hoping for a stroke of genius that will fill in the holes of what I know that I’m not gifted at. Instead of building blocks on what I am gifted at, I’ve been trying to fill in holes on things I’m not gifted at.
Listening to Will’s explanation of how math works for him struck me as prophetic. Because he’s spent the large majority of his life running from what he’s good at … I’m not sure I’m any different. I’ve since quit the development programs running on my Mac, and have urged myself to pursue that which I do understand, and do see. Otherwise, I’ll end up a bitter old man for pissing away my talent at what I’m great at.