Jacob Collier with Simon Sinek

First of all, and I'm hesitant to put this in writing, I'm not a huge fan of Jacob Collier. That being said, I think he's brilliant and incredibly talented and my daughters both like him.

This interview he did on Simon Sinek's podcast took me by surprise.

I will undoubtably be referencing parts of this interview in future episodes of my own podcast. One such part that stood out to me was where Collier talks about how musical training and mastery doesn't necessarily equate to better music.

This goes back to the zen idea of "beginner's mind" or the origins of the word amateur which means to do something out of love. Austin Kleon talks about this in one of his books.

Another idea that struck me was that Collier said he never had a practice regimen. He always just worked on whatever he was curious about. His curiosity lead the way.

I have always felt strongly that students should be encouraged to follow their curiosity, not just in music or art, but in all subjects. Collier is an example of the benefits of this way of exploring the world.

And it feels as if these two ideas are related. An amateur, someone with the beginner's mindset will approach the subject they love with incredible curiosity. The longer we can feel as if we don't fully understand what we love to do - the longer our curiosity will propel us to new discoveries.

As soon as we feel like we've achieved expert status, the search is over. We trick ourselves into thinking we're done. Or do we fall out of love with the subject? Or is it both?

Is the illusion of mastery actually the thing that allows us to feel bored?