Soman Chainani — The School for Good and Evil (#220)

I was going to recommend you The Inner Game of Tennis once I heard you wanted to get into the sport. Great choice! BTW, you should interview Guillermo Vilas. He would match most of your categories as explained in Tools of Titans: he was never # 1 (but very close) so he will be more willing to talk than Borg, Connors or McEnroe, he was not a natural, but learnt how make it work, etc. Plus, he was incredibly obsessive with his training. John McEnroe said recently of him that Vilas taught all players of their generation to become professional athletes. If you do it, you would meet a very interesting character, plus, you would end up being greeted by a bunch of porteños with yerba mate and Malbec!

First of all, wow….. This episode made my brain explode! Might be the best one I’ve heard. So inspiring and so much in it…. at times I almost couldn’t keep up because there was so much good stuff being talked about… And a fellow Indian also!

How do we learn more about his meditation technique for removing the “I” and also about meditating on death? Did he learn this from books?

Hi Tim. Long time fan, loved this episode. I’m a dancer in a professional training program in New York City. Dance has a very misconstrued and undervalued reputation in the US, and it is exciting to hear someone reference Ballet 422 on a show with the ability to educate a wide range of audiences. Unfortunately, because the documentary was mentioned in passing, some of the facts noted are incorrect, and the relationship of Justin Peck with the grand scheme of dance choreographers in the world today is misrepresented. The company is New York City Ballet, not American Ballet Theatre, in case anyone wanted to look up Justin Peck on the website.

Some Dance artists making waves in the dance world today are William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Wayne Mcgregor, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Liam Scarlett, to name a few. I highly recommend trying to see the documentary Mr. Gaga for a window into another dance artist’s life. There are so many spectrums across the dance medium that no one person or description could represent its functions for both the dancer and the audience members.

As an artist in a field that requires pushing mental and physical limits simultaneously, your guest discussions are incredibly pertinent to a dancer’s mind set. Dance is a melting pot of meditation, Jiu Jitsu, chess, physics, and poetry; and this excludes the cultural and business integral side of connecting with audiences. Dance is an art, a business, and to some, it is like a religion.

Thank you so much for what you do and for your positive influence, it would be wonderful to hear dance represented more seriously because in today’s world, it is more important than ever to keep people present, alive, and involved in live art. It requires all of the senses, including inherent human connection that we so often neglect with the dawn of technology. Thank you so much for your time and once again, such an amazing podcast. Your work has impacted my life positively in more ways than one.

To any dance enthusiasts who read this, I invite your to add to or correct any of my input. The dance community is large and there are so many artists worth mentioning.

The description of creative energy being like a volcano was so fascinating – it is quite true, the problem is that sometimes it lies dormant while we are working on other projects or goals in life, but there comesa point it cannot be ignored. I did like his point about it being advantageous to undertake creative projects on your own terms (timeline, budget, etc.) and not having your creativity bounded by worries around income (depending on art as income.). I am finally unleashing creativity in my early 30s in the form of side projects & it has been incredible. Creativity thrives under a lack of constraints. it’s also interesting hearing how childhoods immersed in fantasy & high fantasy books go on to influence us later in life. Such a rich genre for young people developing the inner landscapes of imagination & possibility. Some of the most fascinating creatives I’ve met all shared the experience of the book that is Dune by Frank Herbert in their teen years & it forever changed them in some way.

I am just starting on my second life (i am 69) and need a lot of back filling to appreciate this interview. So continue mentoring and i will catch up and maybe appreciate this later. I am re-reading 4HWW for the third time looking for my muse to get me back to the twelve year old in dreaming of what i can be. Thank you for the journey so far.

Hello Tim,

Hope you’re keeping well. I’m really enjoying your

podcast show, I’m just wondering is there any chance

you could invite and deconstruct habits of some of the most successful visual artists? People such as Damien

Hirst, Marina Abbramovich, David Hockney….etc.

Thanks

Tim

Recently read a great article written on Bill Gates personal blog, a review of the book String Theory by David Wallace. I’d recommend checking out the post if you’re still considering getting into Tennis!

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/String-Theory

Have a great day!

I think you need to get Andre Agassi on the show. You can pick his brain about tennis, among other things. “Open” is a fantastic book, as you know.

Hi Tim, I really enjoyed the part about Soman’s obsession with technique and form and how having a good coach made all the difference. He also mentioned the importance of having a coach that is focused on your success. I think good coaching deserves it’s own episode and hope you’ll consider interviewing a great coach (in whatever field) in a future episode. Thanks.

Hi Tim,

Absolutely love your show! As a tennis coach, I was super pumped to hear that you’re considering taking up the sport. But, I feel the need to comment that the way this episode’s guest recommended you learn tennis is the absolute worst way possible!

From what I understood of what Soman was saying, he was recommending you perfect your technique in a closed environment before doing anything in an open environment. This will teach you to have excellent technique, but absolutely no ability to use it in a match. Instead, I would highly recommend learning in an open environment, then addressing your technical shortcomings in closed situations afterward (then putting it back into an open environment). This open-closed-open learning pattern is endorsed by most coaching certification bodies, including Tennis Canada and the Professional Tennis Registry (both of which I hold certifications from).

As well, connecting tennis technique to movements you are already familiar with (I.e. Throwing, rotation, etc) will speed up your learning and get you ready to enter an open situation right off the bat. I of course do recommend you get a coach to supervise all of this, just not one who advocates for the highly outdated way the sport has been taught in the past.

Both my personal experience working with countless athletes of all ages and levels, and current literature support the methods I’m bringing up today. Try it out and the results will speak for themselves!

Thanks again for all the excellent content you put out!

-Colin

I just came across an awesome Netflix original series called “Abstract: The Art of Design.” There are 8 episodes (so far). It’s an absolutely brilliant behind the scene look at how creatives produce their Good Art (a look at how the sausage is made, as Soman put it). It was interesting for me to hear the quote you have often used “Amateurs look for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work” by Chuck Close. Enjoy!

Tim, I often listen to your podcasts on my way to work or while I’m getting ready in the morning. Most of the time I can’t get through an entire episode and will have to return to it later. The problem is that the audio player isn’t very user friendly for navigating the content if you pause it or come back later trying to find your spot. I’m wondering if you could get another audio player that will allow us to rewind or fast forward through your podcast so we can listen to what we missed or get to the part we left off at more efficiently?

So wise of Soman to keep his ‘day job’ (tutoring) for an extended period so as not to mesh financial dependency with the creative flow.

I know this is a long shot but I’m gonna put it out there nonetheless. Every time you come up in my twitter feed, etc. I can’t help but think, “Tim needs some new photos!” I’ve only seen a handful that do you justice and they don’t look very recent. I’ll be in CA on 2/21/17 and will be shooting some folks at Google and hopefully SoftBank as well on or around 2/24/17. I’d love to get you in front of my lens at some point. Consider this an open invitation in the off chance you actually see this! Cheers, Tim.

This was one of two episodes recommended to me. I was skeptical of a two-hour interview format, but I found that I loved the depth of discussion that the length allows. I’ll definitely check out more.

I’m really digging Soman’s philosophy on not relying on his art for income. A lot of creators make a similar distinction between the work they do for money and the work they do for love, but Soman took it to a new level that was impressive to hear about. Even after two hours, I’d love to hear more.

Super enjoyable episode, thank you. The quote that stuck with me this time is the bit about not chasing your dreams but pursuing that which you are the ‘best’ or better than others at (paraphrasing).

Went from listening to the Kara Swisher ep which was the worst to this one which was one of the best. Think the most valuable part was hearing how a fiction writer structures their day around exercise! Would have liked to hear more of comparing your actual writing processes and how you get the actual writing of a book done.

Tim mentions working out at night sometimes late.

Does he mention why in another podcast or article?

What’s the oil that Tim recommends for the vaporizer? The one that is the perfect combination for relaxation without sleeping? Is it geranium…? Thanks.

Isn’t it a good idea to be a mercenary? A romanticised view of creating art often leads to doing nothing and encountering “resistance” of the Steven Pressfield variety.

Trollope sat down for 3 hours every morning and wrote – hail, rain or snow. Neil Gaiman spoke about this too.

Episodes like this are why I keep returning to this show- a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation with someone I didn’t previously know but would like to learn more about.

Thanks Tim and Soman!