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Smallsteps had her spring dance performance last night and it was nice to dee her excited and taking it seriously. She really enjoys dancing and music in general (she is tapping piano keys at the moment), but we haven't supported her nearly enough in this, though she is only six. Though, six might be "too late" if she really wanted a career in music or dance perhaps, as it seems that these days, they start with professional coaching at three years of age and are competing by five. 

>Who wants to be a professional anyway? 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23uFc55Cy3J6Yg463rEEZJ5cjontqHe5DudSQbftBAVPDQxhin2gdEvmLBQw1Z1RNHXAb.png)

From my perspective, I just want her to have some skills she can have some fun with and I know that music and dance can be used socially and tend to have a lot of groups through life for it. Sports however, unless going pro, tends to end around fifteen years of age, with perhaps a renaissance later in life. 

>I wish I could sing.

The only person I sing aloud for is Smallsteps. 

Hopefully, Smallsteps learns and enjoys some Karaoke. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23wCDvrz78YbxDfXsW3An5zokCaw34vPaa9oLyyvjWWY1xn2FaxPT4iLdifyWCBu4C7m1.png)

>She was a fox in her show.

When she was a kid, I taught her to say "Rock n Roll!" with the hand signs. At preschool, she learned the "fox of silence", which her teacher uses when she wants the class to be quiet. Smallsteps put these two things together and screams.

# Focken Fox!

*I love it.*

It is the best when she does it on the streets. I was hoping for her to do it as they closed out the performance last night, but she didn't unfortunately. That would have made for a great video.

Whilst having breakfast together this morning, Smallsteps said what she thinks we are each good at and my wife got "cleaning" and I got "working" - which I think tells something about what she sees at home, though might not be completely representative of what actually happens. Though, it isn't not not representative either. 

Smallsteps is good at many things, but I feel that in this respect, she is like me, a bit of a generalist, with no core skill to fallback upon. She picks things up easily, but she doesn't dedicate herself to be very good at anything. I am not sure if it is a problem in later life, but at least for now, it isn't a bad thing to experiment a bit, however there is a risk. 

Picking things up easily but not taking it to a very high level means never really understanding the difficulty of learning something well. The early curve means learning comes very quickly in a short time, but being very good at something means pushing through long periods of little, but important gain. I feel that if I had learned this younger, I would have had a narrower set of skills, but have more willpower and specialized opportunity to push through. Be an expert, instead of a jack of all trades. I have made it work for me to some level, but I do think that it would have been easier and there would have been greater value if I had narrowed my scope a bit. I have flexibility and can offer low level value to many areas professionally, but can't completely "own a role" because I am never the best at any part of it. 

We don't know what the future holds, so I do think there is value in Smallsteps having some width to her skillset, but I also believe that being very good at a couple things brings experience value, where a person can "be a fan" of a topic and keep developing for a lifetime. I have never really been a fan of anything, never been that interested in a single topic.

>Am I missing out?

*Most likely.*

We are all missing out, all of the time. Every path we take will mean excluding an infinite amount of alternative paths and we have to come to terms with it. We can't have everything, we can't be good at everything and if we concentrate on one area, we can't concentrate on others. We might want to be a renaissance person who has multiple diverse skills at a high level, but the fact is, most of us are not that talented, not that smart, not that capable. 

>Sad, but true.

Regardless of what we do for Smallsteps, she is going to have a number of grievances with the way she was raised, where perhaps I worked too much in her opinion, or my wife cared too much about a clean house - yet, this is something that she is going to have to come to terms with too and when she is experienced enough, perhaps some of our perceived weaknesses will be seen as strengths in hindsight. 

The experience of parent who works too much, is likely to be better than a parent who doesn't work enough. The experience of a house that is too clean, is likely better than one that is too dirty.

>Define "too"

This is the problem with too, it is *too* subjective.

What is too much fun, what is too little fun? What is too much money, what is too little money? What is too much skill, what is too little skill?`

That last one is interesting - can a person be "too skilled"?

I guess it depends on which skills they are lacking.

For most of us, we are lacking a lot.
So we rely on what we have.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]



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