Clarity in Chaos

"The Art of Failure" by Malcolm Gladwell

"What happened to Kennedy that night illustrates a second major difference between panicking and choking. Panicking is conventional failure, of the sort we tacitly understand. Kennedy panicked because he didn’t know enough about instrument flying. If he’d had another year in the air, he might not have panicked, and that fits with what we believe–that performance ought to improve with experience, and that pressure is an obstacle that the diligent can overcome."

"When it was all over, Faldo wrapped his arms around Norman. 'I don’t know what to say–I just want to give you a hug,' he whispered, and then he said the only thing you can say to a choker: “I feel horrible about what happened. I’m so sorry.” With that, the two men began to cry."

"How I Hacked My Brain with Adderall: a Cautionary Tale" by Trent Wolbe

"After three months on Adderall, in one of the monthly phone check-ins with my clinic, I mentioned that the drug’s effects had diminished significantly, and got my monthly dose doubled (just in case this message was lost on you, I'll make it clear: amphetamines are extraordinarily addictive)." 

"As a freelancing work-from-home type it is often difficult to motivate oneself to follow through on project ideas, especially when they come fast and furious at all hours of the day."

There is always a drawback to drugs that claim to improve a person’s mental state. Whether that be physical limitations or just something really negative. Like for Adderall there is a risk of erectile dysfunction. The individual gets so focused on something that he cannot even focus on something that is not all about work and he can’t get hard. Pretty sad. The bridge between the two essays is the idea of focus. Adderall causes a person to focus on just one thing and causes people to effectively work on that task. Similarly, as Malcolm Gladwell states, panicking also causes an individual to focus on one specific thing. Both narrow your focus but limit other aspects. This is the reason that Kennedy Jr. ended up crashing. He was not focused on looking at the instruments and instead focused predominantly on looking for a light source on the vineyard. 

I found the comparison between panicking and choking to be really eye catching. I always believed they were the same thing. I often used them interchangeably but after reading the essay the difference is clear. Panicking causes a focus on one aspect and causes the person to forget all their other skills or just avoid using them. On the other hand, chocking causes a person to focus more on their skills and that messes everything up. If a movement is natural and you begin to focus on it then it comes out a little bit off. This sounds confusing. So for example when you are breathing, it comes naturally. You do not need to specifically tell your brain, “Hey lets breath now.” It just happens. Now if you and control your breath you will see that is is difficult to keep it at a certain pace or even put it back too a resting rate. This is the example I thought about when the tennis example was presented to me. The choking of the tennis player may have come from her focus on her arm movements. Since this all came naturally to her, now that she was focusing on it she kept messing up. 

The movie scene just kind of showed the opposite of Adderall. Adderall causes increased focus and the movie showed a loss of focus and increased clutter. However, the movie showed that by forgetting a difficult moment or event, you can better focus on other things. The movie relates to “The Art of Failure” because the movie scene is similar to the panic scene where you forget what you’re doing and there is just a sense of chaos.