Attention is the whole game
Talent is common and cheap. Sustained attention on one thing is rare and worth everything.
I used to think the scarce resource was talent. It is not. Talent is everywhere and mostly wasted. The scarce resource is attention — the ability to point yourself at one difficult thing and stay pointed at it long after it stops being fun.
Everyone can do it for an afternoon. Almost no one can do it for a year. That gap is where all the good work lives.
