Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed my life

Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by lionhearted on Friday August 24, 2012 @01:03PM (#4428437)

Sounds like he has the "rage to master" personality trait... very conducive to hardcore training and mastery in something like martial arts or a craft skill, or a discipline... also conducive to addiction or getting "way too into" hedonistic pursuits.

I've got it too, and have made insane/amazing progress and gotten quite good at some skills, crafts, and disciplines in fast time. I've also burned many hours on something like Civilization IV or playing lots of Chess. It's a mixed bag.

I wrote about it here --

http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/advice-if-youve-got-the-rag...

Definitely worth reading if you've got the same personality mix.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by datalus on Friday August 24, 2012 @01:45PM (#4428674)

Wow, I've never heard of this before, but I knew a friend in college who eventually lost himself to drugs for a bit (dealing it, using it too much). He had gone from passion to passion in 1-2 year cycles. During high school he was seriously into Unix and was incredibly into just hacking on it all day, every day for hours on end. The next year he decided he was over it, and got into really spiritual pursuits (converting to Islam) and wearing traditional garb and was incredibly active in a Mosque. Then, unfortunately, he fell into the aforementioned drugs episode.

Now, however, he's stabilized after going to therapy and has a pretty rad job doing pen testing. Anyhow, thanks for posting this link, I knew there was some sort of thing describing his personality trait :)

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by the_cat_kittles on Friday August 24, 2012 @06:31PM (#4430017)

"pen testing" is not the act of checking to see if pens work, as google has just informed me, though the story would be hilarious if it was. It's short for penetration testing, which is checking for vulnerabilities in a security system.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by awef on Friday August 24, 2012 @01:28PM (#4428579)

I've never heard of the term 'rage to master' but I've been told this behaviour is common in people with Aspergers Syndrome. Intense interests which takes priority in life only to be substituted with something else weeks, months or a couple of years down the line.

Maybe you can shed some more light on the 'rage to master' personality trait you're talking about?

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by lionhearted on Friday August 24, 2012 @01:41PM (#4428649)

Ellen Winner coined the term in the book "Gifted Children: Myths And Realities" --

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465017592/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

I'm not able to find the definitive research paper on it right now which was titled "The Origins and Ends of Giftedness," but here's one on the trait in the visual arts which should give you an idea --

https://www2.bc.edu/~winner/pdf/talent_in_visual_arts.pdf

Despite the term being catchy/interesting, most of the literature on it is very academic and somewhat dry. It probably makes for poor curiosity reading, but it's supremely valuable to dig through the academic papers if you have the trait yourself or you're a parent/guardian/teacher of someone who does.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by awef on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @06:46AM (#4442973)

Seeing as I have yet to read up on the matter I can't say that I do or do not have the trait myself. But from the little that I've come to understand I'd say it's highly plausible.

I'll continue to look into it, I find awareness of oneself's personality of highest importance and I always strive to learn more about why I do the things I do.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by maayank on Friday August 24, 2012 @05:51PM (#4429873)

the definitive research paper on it right now which was titled "The Origins and Ends of Giftedness"

It seems this is it http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.110...

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by goblin89 on Friday August 24, 2012 @01:45PM (#4428679)

You probably should read the document lionhearted linked to:

> Google the term “rage to master” – click around, read some summaries, and then check out a couple academic papers. It will be very worth your time.

I'm not sure if it's related to Aspergers, but I don't think negativity[0] is warranted. Having an intense interest is good by itself; if it keeps for a few months—there you have a startup. =) The only problem is indeed that you have to master it, and not always do conscious attempts help.

[0] Although I might be mistaken and there wasn't any in your reply.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by awef on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @06:57AM (#4443000)

I'll go ahead and do a little research. My comment might've come out a bit blunt but there was no negativity implied. More of a partly sceptical tone as to where the seemingly hip term came from.

I'd love to discuss the good and the bad with the trait itself but I should probably do some reading first to verify that it's the same trait that I'm referring to.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by gavinlynch on Friday August 24, 2012 @02:09PM (#4428809)

Never heard this term either previously, but I can relate to a lot of those traits. Thanks for the info.

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Re:Once a somebody, now a nobody: Starcraft 2 has destroyed ... by crgt on Friday August 24, 2012 @02:53PM (#4429054)

Thanks for this.

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