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Originally Posted by MariaG  The conversation about skepticism starting at about minute 26 was the most interesting part of this podcast, to me.
Skepticism as a creative process seems to have pretty serious real-world consequences. For example, what if I began to doubt my ability to do a push-up? Would I eventually lose the strength to do something that is now easy for me?
On the other hand, what if I stopped doubting my ability to lift 200 lbs.? Would I then develop previously untapped strength?
I would love to hear more about this topic in the future, Steve.
BTW, loved the interaction between Steve & Erin. They are a great broadcasting team. |
I remember hearing something (although I can't remember where I read it, or who specifically it was about) in a powerlifting article about a similar phenomenon occuring with whatever was just over the world record bench press weight was at the time- This was speaking of years ago, and I want to say the record weight at the time was 6 or 700lbs, as I said, can't recall for sure-
Anyhow, the story was that this particular weight had never been lifted by anyone before, and even the strongest champion lifters could lift an amount just beneath it, but couldn't lift that particular weight or anything above- until finally, one guy went in and did it. Almost immediately afterward, the same champion lifters started pressing the same amount of weight, and even surpassed it rather quickly, all because one person had finally done what everyone thought was impossible. I really do wish I could give some references for this story, I'm fairly certain it was a true one!
I don't take this to mean that, if you normally couldn't do a single pushup, you could just focus hard enough to go and magically lift 200lbs
You get the idea though.