The whole idea of "wasted potential" is bullshit
Just because you're good at something, doesn't mean you enjoy it. Nobody should do anything they don't want.
shareWell at least it got him away from soaking the floor.
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MovieChat Forums > Good Will Hunting (1998) Discussion > The whole idea of "wasted potential" is ...
Nobody should do anything they don't want? My dear, entire life revolves around doing stuff that you don't want to survive. From the prehistoric killing of cute animals and eating them to survive, fighting in wars to working shitty dead-end jobs and living in tiny moldy concrete cubicles... most people don't do and never did these things out of enjoyment, but out of necessity.
share"Nobody should do anything they don't want."
Spoken like a very young child.
Then again, Will was even pushed by his best friend to take this opportunity to get a different kind of life.
Because no matter what you think about Will being allowed to make his own choices, it is not like staying with his old crowd was doing him any good.
Agreed, all these reactions are from people who don't know what to do with their life or don't have the balls to go for it.
I guess I agree with you, Knish, and the op, despite the mildly harsh wordings ;), as potential itself means little in reality by itself. To actually get good at something you need to put that talent to use to develope it. The figure of 10k hours of practice has been thrown around to fully actualize any talent or potential. During those 10k of use and honing of skills you also see if you like what you're doing enough to do it as much as you need to get good at it.
So, in the film Will would have had to do thousand of hours of math to get as good as he is at it, no-one is born with those skills, which is what they are, as opposed to raw talent, which can get you started. So the film seems ridiculous in portraying a guy who has honed his math talent to actual skill and then claims to give up, despite supposedly secretly doing those math equations on hallways where anyone could walk in on him. He must have wanted to be discovered, at least subconsciously. Also the ease with which he learns and puts that to use by reading a lot, and then pretend to loathe that is also not how reality works.
I do realize that the story is about a psychologically damaged 20-year to 21-year old, who comes to recognise the importance of putting his talent to use and blaablaa. However, he has put so much time into learning things already that he made that choice years ago.
So, in conclusion, the combination of Will's actions and claims in the film seems off, poorly written and unrealistic.
"To actually get good at something you need to put that talent to use to develope it. The figure of 10k hours of practice has been thrown around to fully actualize any talent or potential."
Of COURSE you have to practice anything; no matter what your personal talent. The film doesn't portray anything different. . . although your 10K figure, is, of course, absurdly random.
"During those 10k of use and honing of skills you also see if you like what you're doing enough to do it as much as you need to get good at it."
THIS is a thousand percent true, but again, the film doesn't address it. A different film, about someone with a genius for something they don't enjoy, would possibly be interesting. But that has no bearing on *this* story.
"So, in the film Will would have had to do thousand of hours of math to get as good as he is at it, no-one is born with those skills,"
Again, that number is ephemera. Will is portrayed as a once-in-a-generation prodigy. Matters of scale simply don't apply to people like this. . .there are no "rules" about how long it would take them to get "good" at something. In fact, the measure of how "good" someone like that is tends to be quite different from what you seem to be assuming.
"So the film seems ridiculous. . .He must have wanted to be discovered, at least subconsciously."
You seem to have missed the point of the film ENTIRELY. Of COURSE he wanted to be discovered. . .Sean says this *explicitly* ("You could be a janitor Anywhere. Why did you work at the most prestigious technical college in the whole f!ckin world? And why'd you sneak around at night and finish other people's formulas that only one or two people in the world could do, & then lie about it?")
So, in conclusion, you've managed to misinterpret/misunderstand everything, for an EXTREMELY well-written movie. "Unrealistic" is a term with no currency: by Definition, GWH describes wildly unusual people/events.
The 10k figure comes from academic research on the issue, and is a minimum. I did not make it up, and it is not random, but a bare minimum of effort to become an expert in a field.
The point about wanting to be discovered is not obvious, as he fights against it so hard and aggressively.
Ok, you like the film, whereas many posts in this thread are about perceived issues and problems with the film, starting with the op. No need to be so aggressive.
Apologies if I sounded aggressive. I stand by my points, tho:
"The 10k figure comes from academic research on the issue, and is a minimum. I did not make it up, and it is not random, but a bare minimum of effort to become an expert in a field."
It's entirely random. No idea what "research" you're citing, but common sense (and a wealth of examples) makes it clear that NO arbitrary number will apply to every person. First of all, you'd have to define "expert." Secondly, even if you do, that scale *definitely* won't apply to a person with a huge head start (e.g. native ability). In the case of Will, he's clearly an outlier. . .for someone like that, NO normal standard is going to apply. Again, the movie makes that clear (Lambeau's story about Ramanujan).
"The point about wanting to be discovered is not obvious, as he fights against it so hard and aggressively."
The point is not only obvious, the movie beats you over the head with it. Again, the quote I gave from Sean illustrates this; the entire movie proceeds from this central idea. That scene is Very Specifically telling the viewer that Yes: Will wanted to be discovered.
No worries, I should be a little more tolerant in a basically goombah level rudeness thread :) (currently wathing Donnie Brasco on the telly, as is evident...)
I'll have to concede both your points in your latest post. Turns out the 10k thing, Malcolm Gladwell's thesis in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book) has been heavily criticised, but I'm so used to quoting the idea I've sort of ignored that. That's not very constructive, so I had a peek. A Business Insider article for instance makes basically the same point you do, with statistics to back it up, that raw talent and ability is a much better indicator of (future) expertise than mere hard practise, which does not make as dramatic a difference, https://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-destroys-malcolm-gladwells-10000-rule-2014-7?r=US&IR=T
On the other point I meant more of an internal confict, I suppose, that it's not obvious to Will himself what he wants, even if the audience is made abundantly aware of these facts. He's painfully torn about what he really wants, if it means he has to give up his friends and comfortable life. And he wouldn't have to, people from different walks of life can be friends for life, no less so if the friendship goes back to childhood, even if many people do lose contact for practical reasons.
So maybe it's not poor writing as such, but the sheer level of talent Will has seems to me, and to some other people also in this thread, a bit too convenient and easy, the polymath part very jarring. Maybe I'm even jealous of it as a part time academic. I suppose watching a similar story about Leonardo da Vinci would be more palatable, a known and "proven" polymath and genius.
It's indeed a point the movie makes, as Will comes to accept himself, to know himself better, that his massive, throbbing, veiny talent is indeed an essential part of who he is.
[edited some spellings, while using BritEng stylings, then needed to edit the word 'edit' etc.]
The great majority of people spend their lives in occupations they wouldn't be in if they didn't have to to make a living. Very few people do what they love.
shareExcept I guess most of those people have dead-end jobs with no status and slim chances of promotion.
They are seldom highly educated within a STEM field, like Will easily could have been.
The thing is though Will could apply his intellect to anything, he may not like the job being offered but there would be other opportunities. He was still young too and cynical. He did need to pull his out of his arse though.
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