The better I get at climbing the more I can appreciate the difference between me and Jonathan Siegrist – or the difference between him and Adam Ondra.
(I am by no means implying those two gaps are equivalent.)
To newbies, everything ‘hard’ looks the same.
That’s why our non-climber friends ask us if we’re considering going pro when they see footage of us sending our first 13a.
It’s like looking at the ocean—from the shore, it all looks the same. The further you go and the deeper you dive, the more you understand its great depth.
With the things we don’t know anything about, whether it be a weird hobby, a new sport, or somebody else’s passion, it makes sense to assume there is a great depth we can’t see.
We can choose to ask about it or not. That’s up to us.
But if we assume there is much more there than meets our novice eye, we’ll ask much more interesting questions.
“The further you are from the shore, the deeper the ocean.” – Bob Kaplan
The Daily Nugget 