A Genius Makes Pasta, An Accountant Goes For A Run, And Why WD-40 Isn't Called WD-39: How Having A High Tolerance For Repetition Can Lead To Improvement
The 3-Word Quote: “Progression Requires Repetition”
***A quick note before you read: please check out the links at the bottom of the post. There are 1000s of great causes run by hundreds of great people - the links below include two of them. Thank you for donating to these groups, if you are able.
1.
June Huh was lost.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know what I was good at," he said.
Like many young people, he was adrift.
Huh's father taught statistics. His mother taught Russian literature.
School was important to them.
It wasn't important for their son, June.
June was steered toward math by his father.
His dad gave him problems to solve at home, but June didn't complete them - he simply copied the answers from the back of the textbook.
When his father tore out the pages with the answers, June went to the library to find a book that still had the answers.
His dad gave up on math for June.
At 16, June dropped out of high school.
He thought he would become a poet.
Poetry didn't work out, either.
He continued to stumble but eventually enrolled in Seoul National University in 2002.
Surprisingly, he enrolled in a math class taught by Heisuke Hironaka, a gifted mathematician and inspiring teacher.
It was then that June became hooked on math.
The class offered him freedom and allowed him to attempt complex problems that the professor would help solve in real time. He was not just assigned problems to complete from a book.
But not everyone loved the class. The class was challenging.
The enrollment started at 200.
One hundred ninety-five students dropped out.
June was one of the five who stayed.
He worked on math daily and began to stand out in the field.
He was no longer lost.
He eventually solved a problem that had stumped mathematicians for 40 years and later enrolled at the University of Michigan.
Ultimately, in 2002, he was awarded the Fields Medal, often called the 'Nobel Prize of Mathematics.'
A student who despised math.
A high school dropout
A failed poet.
And later, a Fields Medal recipient.
This could be a story of a gifted mathematician who found his calling - and it is.
But much of his success also comes from a skill he exhibits anytime he works - something that most people can replicate in their field.
Most can’t understand his complicated math proofs and problems.
But we can learn a lot from him by how he cooks pasta.
2.
Chuck Myers is an accountant.
He also recently retired from coaching high school cross country.
Over a decade of coaching, he has coached hundreds of runners, including my three kids.
He ran in college, competing in sprints for Ball State University.
He is still a runner but now runs long distances.
Two simple things made him a good coach: he cared about the kids and had a passion for running.
One day, my oldest daughter came home and said she couldn't wait for me to read an essay she had written.
The topic of the essay was to write about an adult who had impacted your life.
I proudly took her essay, eager to read it - especially since it was about me!
However, I realized as I began reading the essay, it wasn't about me.
My daughter had written about Coach Myers.
When my other daughter won a scholarship, she was allowed to invite her parents and an influential teacher to the awards ceremony.
She invited Coach Myers.
But the ceremony was 1000 miles away.
She told him he was invited but then sheepishly broke the news that the awards dinner was several states away.
‘I’ll be there,’ he said.
Coach Myers flew to the awards ceremony and dinner.
He was there for just a few hours to support her, and then he flew home the next day—all on his dime.
He's that kind of a coach.
But he isn't a licensed teacher. He is an accountant.
And when he's not coaching or crunching numbers, he's running.
And on January 1, 2002, he went for a run.
It would change his life.
3.
The odds are you have a can in your house or garage or somewhere at work.
The can is likely familiar looking - predominantly bright blue with a yellow rectangle in the center and topped off with a red cap.
The product in the can is sold everywhere - drug stores, hardware stores, big box stores.
The company's website has a documented list of over 2000 uses for this one product.
The product is, of course, WD-40.
At some point in your life, the lubricant spray has probably helped you stop squeaks or loosen bolts—or one of the other 1998 uses.
WD-40's formula is so secretive that the company claims only one person knows the secret recipe to the spray lubricant.
And despite being one of the most used products in the world, WD-40 is not patented.
No patent was filed because a patent would have required the inventor to divulge the secret ingredients.
So, they refused to file a patent to protect their secret.
Though the product is complicated, how WD-40 got its name was simple.
But how it got its name can provide a little inspiration for anyone.
The Takeaway:
So what do a math genius who makes pasta, an accountant who runs, and WD-40's name have in common?
They are examples of how repetition and streaks can improve performance.
Most often, the more one practices a skill, the better one will become - this is common knowledge.
But practice and repetition aren't always exciting.
That's why most of us have long since given up our New Year's resolutions—boredom is tough to overcome, and willpower is tough to generate.
But improvement often depends on repeated actions.
It took June Huh, now a Princeton professor, some time to find his passion.
He quit math, dropped out of high school, briefly became a poet, and enrolled in a university.
Only to discover math again…and win the Fields medal.
However, a magazine profile of him included a few lines about how he approached cooking, which explained much of his success.
The lines were about how he made pasta.
By Huh's admission, he didn't know how to cook anything.
He once ate only frozen pizzas for months because 'he didn't want to deal with getting groceries or cooking.'
He avoided many everyday activities - preferring to work on math instead.
But later, Huh decided to learn to cook.
He wanted to learn to make pasta. He figured he'd make a 'simple pasta in oil.'
And how he made pasta often resembled how he attacked math problems - by trial and error and lots of repetition.
His first attempt at making pasta resulted in a meal that was not a success - it was different from what he envisioned in his head.
So he made the same dish again the next night, hoping for improvement.
The second night's dish was hardly an improvement over the first.
So he made the same dish the third night.
And he continued to make the same pasta dish every single night - for six straight months.
Six months. 180 days. The same pasta dish every night.
Why? Because working on something until he deems it correct is what he does. It's how he also tackles his math problems.
Constant, continuous work.
The repetition of making pasta allowed for gradual improvement.
But he stopped cooking - it wasn't his passion.
His wife says that pasta is still the only dish he can make.
But he makes it well.
Huh says, 'I have a very high tolerance for repetition.'
A high tolerance for repetition.
Those words sum up Huh's success and can be followed by anyone to improve anything.
No question Huh is gifted at math.
But his ability to combine his math skill with a tolerance for repetition - to do the same or similar things over a period of time helps him suceed.
That blending of talent plus time is a winning combination.
But having 'a high tolerance for repetition' is tricky.
Repetition can be boring.
It can be tedious.
And improvement can be slow.
Ira Glass, a writer and podcaster, is well-known for his 'gap' quote.
Glass mentions that people who create things often have great taste—they know what they want and what they want the finished product to be like.
But at first, people new to a skill or activity have more taste than skill - their taste is better than what they can produce.
In other words, what they execute doesn't live up to what they imagine.
And it is frustrating.
People become discouraged.
And they quit.
Glass calls this the difference between what people envision and what they can create— 'the gap.'
And Glass says the only way to close the gap is for people to 'do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work…It is only by going through a volume of work that you're going to catch up and close the gap.'
And that volume of work often involves doing a lot of the same thing: repetition.
Huh's first pasta dish wasn't good.
He pictured a wonderfully tasting dish; he produced a terrible dish.
But he did what most of us won't do- he made the dish 179 more times to get it right.
He closed the gap.
***
Chuck Myers was a good coach.
He coached for years and cared about the kids.
And despite retiring from coaching, he didn't quit running.
And what's unusual about Coach Myer's running is when he runs.
He runs often - very often.
And when he runs is what makes him similar to Huh, the mathematician.
January 1, 2002, changed his life.
On that day, he went for a run.
And he never stopped.
He is what's known in the running world as a streaker.
You see, he has run every single day of his life since January 1, 2002.
That's over 22 years of running every day.
It is well over 8000 days in a row of running - not missing even one single day.
The streak continues even to this day.
And to keep the streak alive has required lots of dedication.
He has run in different countries while on business trips.
He has run in the mornings, afternoons, evenings, and in the middle of the night.
He has run on streets, paths, treadmills, hallways, and runways.
Most of his runs have been while healthy, but he has run on days while very sick, too.
Over 8000 days in a row of running.
Think about that for a minute.
8000 days in a row.
Is there anything you have done for 8000 days in a row? 800? 80?
When he came to our daughter's award ceremony, Coach Myers said he would meet us at the dinner later in the evening. He had 'to go on an 'easy ten-miler' because he hadn't had his run for the day.
Common advice tells you to keep working and 'get 1% better every day.'
You may have heard this.
Get 1% better every day, and soon you'll be a star in your field.
Seems simple.
It can even be slightly motivational.
But it is not very practical advice - because it involves so many variables.
It depends on how good you are at the start, your discipline, what skill you're trying to improve, and how long you work on the skill.
As psychologist Brad Stulburg states, 'Progress is non-linear.'
Repetition is a great first step for progress but doesn't guarantee better performance.
Huh repeated making pasta until satisfied; he didn't make pasta like a professional chef.
Coach Myers runs every single day, but he does it for enjoyment. It's his passion.
And he has a high tolerance for repetition.
He's repeating an action daily but isn't getting 1% better each day.
If he were, he would be an olympian by now.
***
If you fixed, repaired, or owned any equipment, you've likely used WD-40.
Next to duct tape, it is one of the most indispensable items you can have.
And like Huh and Coach Myers, WD-40 can teach us a little.
Norman Lawson invented WD-40 in 1953.
A mechanical engineer and founder of Rocket Chemical Company, Lawson, was asked to create a product that could prevent airplane rust and corrosion.
He worked hard, experimented widely, and ultimately created a successful product, WD-40.
It was marketed to consumers a few years after its creation.
But its creation didn't come quickly.
The WD in WD-40 stands for 'water displacement.'
The product helped keep water away and helped prevent rust and corrosion.
But why isn't the product simply called WD?
Why add the number 40?
Because the number 40 has some significance. It represents something.
When you spray WD-40 on some rusted piece of equipment or door hinge, what comes out of the can is the fortieth version of the product.
Lawson worked tirelessly on getting the formula correct.
In other words, the product failed 39 times, but the final finished version was the 40th version.
So, the name became WD-40.
Forty was a streak.
He and his co-workers tried to perfect the formula, but they failed 39 times.
But they kept working.
The failure led to a streak.
The streak led to improvement.
Time and time again, what they envisioned didn't turn out as expected.
Thirty-nine times, they failed, but as Ira Glass said, they were closing the gap with each version.
They, too, had a 'high tolerance for repetition.'
Ira Glass said that often what you're making is a disappointment to you.
Glass said, "A lot of people never get past that place. They quit.'
The mathematician could have quit after the third night of making pasta.
The accountant could have ended his run streak after a week.
The inventor could have given up after the 28th failed attempt.
But none did.
They all started streaks.
They all steadily improved.
And they all began with 'a high tolerance for repetition.'
3 things before you go:
Coach Myers continues to run. Now he’s running marathons to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please click on the link to learn more and donate here.
Peace Bears: a small non-profit run by daughter that delivers new teddy bears to kids facing cancer. The next 100 bears will go to this summer camp - camp video here.
There are two easy ways to donate to Peace Bears, if you are able:
Venmo @Emma-Mann-59
Fill out an E-gift card on the build a bear website and email it to: emma.c.mann@vanderbilt.edu. The link to do that is here: E Gift-Card
Speaking of streaks…watch this video and read about how it started.
I appreciate you reading. See you in 10 days.
-Jeff