Picasso’s Paradox: When Proficiency Becomes A Burden

There is a <a href="https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-paradox-of-effort-innovation-waves-more#:~:text=%E2%80%9CBut%20Mr.,that%20masterpiece%20in%20thirty%20seconds.%E2%80%9D" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">famous</a> tale of Picasso in the marketplace. Picasso was walking through the market one day when a woman approached him. She pulled out a piece of paper and said, “Mr. Picasso, I am a fan of your work. Please, could you do a little drawing for me?” Picasso smiled and quickly drew a small, but beautiful piece of art on the paper. He handed it back to her. “That will be one million dollars.” “But Mr. Picasso,” the woman protested, “It only took you thirty seconds to draw this little masterpiece.” “My good woman,” Picasso smiled, “It took me thirty years to draw that masterpiece in thirty seconds.” <h2>This paradox is most common in the modern workplace</h2> In most working environments time = money. That’s why this woman’s perception of Picasso’s work was inevitable. She was impacted by the short amount of time it took him to produce it so she valued it less. This is when proficiency becomes a burden. <a href="https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-seeking-paradox-makers-vs-managers-more" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Sahil Bloom</a> gave another example of this in one of his articles recently. He named it the Locksmith’s Paradox. Imagine a junior locksmith who initially takes an hour to complete a basic lock picking task for the customer. The customer pays $100 for the task and is happy with the service. <a href="https://medium.com/mind-cafe/picassos-paradox-when-proficiency-becomes-a-burden-484157768893">Read More</a>