Does Mastery Still Matter? - by Alex Kondov

I was right-brained enough to appreciate beauty, but not enough to be good at creating it. I just didn’t have the hand for it despite my best efforts. But even though I didn’t manage to become an artist, I learned to appreciate those who did. Not only because of the beauty of their work, but because of the skill behind it. Mastery shows commitment, it shows strength of character, and persistence. I knew how difficult it was to draw a cube lit from one side, so I could only imagine how much time and effort it took to draw the Mona Lisa. This need to be good at what I do still hasn’t let go of me. I spent my first few years as an engineer in the part of the software world where mastery was lower on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Web agencies and startups taught me to be pragmatic, but they didn’t show me the beauty of building software. Craftsmanship had a pretty low ceiling in that environment. So I spent my free time devouring technical books and blogs. Looking back, a big chunk of that

I was right-brained enough to appreciate beauty, but not enough to be good at creating it. I just didn’t have the hand for it despite my best efforts. But even though I didn’t manage to become an artist, I learned to appreciate those who did. Not only because of the beauty of their work, but because of the skill behind it. Mastery shows commitment, it shows strength of character, and persistence. I knew how difficult it was to draw a cube lit from one side, so I could only imagine how much time and effort it took to draw the Mona Lisa. This need to be good at what I do still hasn’t let go of m