No One Can Stop You

I was very interested in watching Watson on Jeopardy! this week. I was rooting for the humans but am excited about the possibilities for computer interactions in the future. I am not worried about them, I think they will be helpful.

Later, I read Ken Jennings article on Slate. What I remember about the article is how he approached competing with the machine. The machine was cold and calculating, while contestants’ minds might cloud over with thoughts of their competitors. He talked of competing too aggressively the first days and coming out a loser. And then relaxing and competing, not with the machine, but with the other human. You should read his article, it’s very interesting and I’m probably getting parts wrong, but it all comes down to playing mind tricks.

I have a list of life lessons that I keep. One I heard from a bunch of former NBA basketball players. Eerp, I can’t remember all of their names so I won’t say any of them but they are commentators on TNT, two regulars, one a guest. I am a big fan of basketball. Anyway, they were talking about how a certain big-time NBA player admitted that some other players were good at guarding him. The TNT commentators, again all former players, were going on-and-on about how a player should NEVER say or admit something like that, that it is like telling everybody a secret. At most the player should say, “they make me work harder.” And that great players would say, “no one can stop me.” Head games, right? The lesson I took from this was, “no one can stop you!”

What does this have to do with writing? I sometimes find myself second-guessing my writing and often it’s in relation to other writers. I get trapped thinking, “how would they write?” And really it should be just me finding my voice and keeping it, front and center. Mind tricks and head games come in handy at times.