(2015-10-07) Hogge Whiplash And Extreme Greatness

Tyler Hogge: Whiplash and Extreme Greatness. I recently watched the movie ‘Whiplash’ after reading that Kobe Bryant called it one if his favorites and Kyrie Irving wrote the movie title on his game shoes. It’s an incredible movie about an aspiring drummer.

the scene below is one of many that stands out . The main character, Andrew, is breaking up with his girlfriend in order to focus on drumming.

Andrew: “I want to be great.”
GF: “And…you’re not?”
Andrew corrects himself: “I want to be….one…of the greats.”

Kobe clearly differentiates between greatness and being one of the greats. And by most reasonable standards, he is both. But how?

The first answer is that Kobe is maniacal in his work ethic.

athletes aren’t the only ones that say these types of things. Consider this Quora answer from Justine Musk Elon Musk’s ex-wife, on what makes him great: Extreme success is different from what I suppose you could just consider ‘success‘.... If you’re extreme, you must be what you are, which means that happiness is more or less beside the point.

Genetics. Have some amount of God-given talent

Of course, there’s luck involved. that’s another post.