Arthur Brooks: belief

Transcript context

…That’s right. Now, why did you start getting worse in your 20s as a horn player? Because you were still playing all the time. Usually, you get better, right? You’re not that old in your 20s. Classical musicians, they tend to peak about age 36, according to the literature. That’s when most of them will look back on their career and say, “That’s when I was doing my best playing. ” My best playing was when I was about 20, as a matter of fact, is what I found. In retrospect, I think there’s a plausible physical explanation. We now know with brass players that those who don’t take care of themselves, they don’t warm up properly, actually, they play too long, it’s a highly physically taxing thing to do. They get micro tears in the muscle in the upper lip, which now can be repaired. That was not a medical technology that was on offer in those days. That’s one explanation. The second is, quite frankly, Tyler, I was probably burning out, and I was getting ready for my next spiral, which by the time I was in my late 20s was going to turn out to be an economist, the world’s most noble profession. First, tell us your spiral theory of careers, and then we’ll get to you becoming an economist.…

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