To get good at something, study something else???

[jts]

Gotta really weird question. First a few examples and then the question.

Example 1:

Kasparov (world chess champion 1985 - 2000) in an interview said there was an experiment on math students. Half of them got extra hours of studying math, the other half got the same extra hours studying chess. At the end of the year all the students were tested in math and those who studied chess did better in math. (???)

Example 2:

Lasker (world chess champion 1894 - 1921) in his book "Manual of Chess" wrote that one does not achieve an easy mastery of anything by anxiously restricting oneself to it. Lasker prepared for his world title match with Schlechter by study not chess but the game of go. (???)

Example 3:

Kasparov in his book "How Life Imitates Chess" says when he was a kid he was poor at drawing. He wrote that he would have become a better chess player (better than world champion for 15 years?) if he had learned how to draw. (???)

Example 4:

In the same book, Kasparov says that whatsisface (a famous physicist) was into lock picking and fun stuff like that and that helped him to be a good physicist. (???)

In all these examples it seems that to get good at something you should study something else instead of studying the thing you want to get good at.

My question is:

How does that make sense?

[Selene]

Yes.

[BaalChatzaf]

Example 4:

In the same book, Kasparov says that whatsisface (a famous physicist) was into lock picking and fun stuff like that and that helped him to be a good physicist. (???)

Richard Feynman.

Talent is a cluster of skills, not just one skill.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[syrakusos]

See the discussion on Ayn Rand and Fun in which I posted about Arthur Koestler's theory of creativity as the intersection of different matrices of understanding.

BTW - about 1000 years ago, attempting to learn Go I read a parable about a man who went to a Go master. They played one game and then spent the year not playing go but walking in the woods, talking philosophy. The next game, he won. The plural of anecdote is not data ... but it does highlight much of what we suspect about the subconscious mind. If you are stuck on a problem, stop working on it; sleep on it, instead.

Also about 1000 years ago, good advice about studying for final exams in college is that if you stay up with the work all semester, rather than cramming the night before, go to a movie.

When you study something else, you gain perspective. Last month, I intereviewed the Classics department here at UT for an article in The Celator. Just as when I wrote a similar article about the University of Michigan Classics department, they have a nice coterie of math and science majors, some of whom want to get away from all that for a relaxing class - as if ancient Greek grammar would be "relaxing" - and also the math majors who appreciate the logic of ancient Greek grammar. ... Even though C. P. Snow famoulsy called these (humanities and sciences) two different cultures, in fact, to the active mind, they are not.