On 9th June 2024, the great Roger Federer gave a commencement speech at Dartmouth College. In this speech, he made some interesting observations on the parallels between tennis and life. He made three relevant observations. First, he mentioned that effortlessness is a myth. Secondly, he emphasized that failure is part of one’s journey. Third, he mentioned that life is greater than the court, meaning there are bigger priorities in life, such as family, health, etc.
One of the fascinating facts he revealed is that he ended up victorious in about 80% of the matches he played, but this was achieved by winning only about 54% of all the points. This highlighted the point (no pun intended) that one will always have lows in life’s journey. I really felt the speech made some profound observations about life by making a great analogy between life and the game of tennis.
During this discussion, Federer made a comparison between being gifted and gritty. He brought the ‘question of talent’ to play and made pertinent observations. He mentioned that talent has a broad definition, including human abilities such as discipline, trusting oneself, loving the work process, managing oneself and a few others. The proposition that discipline is also a talent caught my attention as it resonated with my opinion.
This motivated me to ask how discipline plays a critical role in learning science and mathematics? We need to put in time and effort to learn anything at some depth. This kind of dedication to be disciplined is, in fact, a talent. Other features, such as managing time and balancing breadth and depth of knowledge, are also included. Generally, such features are not considered talents, but Federer’s speech hints at broadening the definition of talent.
In the history of science, there are many examples of people who were not considered gifted while growing up but made important contributions to science and technology. Albert Einstein is one such example. So much so that Einstein was considered a failure by his school teachers, and many did not consider him competent even up to the stage of his PhD. Now, we all know how wrong those people and their judgements were.
Another example is S. Chandrashekar, the famous astrophysicist. At an early age, he was considered brilliant, but a significant feature of Chandra was that he worked very hard (although he was rated highly). He was indeed very gritty and dedicated himself to the pursuit of science. He combined ‘giftedness’ with ‘grittiness’, so to speak.
These examples show a variety of characteristics that can lead to good work. Being patient, dedicated and hardworking can be an asset in any career and scientific research is no exception. In a way, this reinforces Federer’s thoughts on broadening the definition of talent.
Federer was undoubtedly one of the greatest tennis players ever. There is a lot to learn from him and his recent speech. There are some profound lessons for teachers and researchers like me from his points (again, no pun intended 🙂).
The takeaway from all this is “discipline is a form of talent”, and the world has to take note of this. Now that is a game, set & lesson for life.
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Physics 