Competition as a Deliberate-Practice Deadline
Use a real event to force focused practice, honest feedback, and iteration
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 96%
This method uses a competition or public event as a forcing function for deliberate practice. Enter an event whose date is close enough to create urgency but far enough away to build and test the work. Develop an imperfect version, expose it to small real audiences, and explicitly ask for honest feedback. Watch nonverbal reactions too, because people may soften criticism to be polite. Diagnose the specific way each trial failed, return to the workshop, and test again. The objective is not merely the prize: the fixed date creates focus, while repeated contact with the intended audience reveals what theory cannot. Continue until the work succeeds reliably, including enough error margin to survive pressure on the event day.
Origin
Simon first entered a local magic competition expecting no chance of winning, then kept using competitions because their deadlines and pressure helped him grow.
Core principles
- 01Enter to grow rather than to guarantee a win
- 02Use a real deadline to create productive pressure
- 03Test unfinished work with the intended audience
- 04Ask for painful truth instead of polite reassurance
- 05Repeat until the result works with a margin for error
How to run it
- 1
Pick the arena
Choose a real competition, demonstration, launch, or performance with a fixed date and relevant audience.
Pro tip Select an event where the downside of an imperfect attempt is tolerable.
- 2
Commit before certainty
Enter before you know whether the work will succeed. Let the commitment create the need to resolve the important unknowns.
Watch out Do not confuse useful pressure with consequences you cannot safely absorb.
- 3
Build a testable version
Create the smallest version that exposes the core effect or skill to a real observer.
Pro tip Test one uncertain mechanism at a time when possible.
- 4
Set informed expectations
Tell testers that the work is new and may fail, and that you need candid feedback. This makes the experimental nature of the encounter explicit.
Watch out Do not present an experiment as a polished promise.
- 5
Read the whole response
Ask what worked, but also watch faces, eye movements, hesitation, and other behavior that can reveal what people noticed.
Pro tip Treat polite reassurance as incomplete evidence when behavior says otherwise.
- 6
Iterate to reliability
Return to the workshop after each failure, change the relevant mechanism, and test again. Stop only when it works consistently with an error margin.
Watch out A single successful trial does not establish reliability.
In the wild
Simon entered a regional championship about six months away to force himself to test whether a long-shelved magic idea could work. He expected a relatively small audience during lockdown conditions, spent six months in intensive workshop and rehearsal mode, and won the close-up category.
→ The deadline produced a functioning act and evidence that the idea had potential before the world championship.
Simon repeatedly tested an awkward developing routine for groups as small as three people. He disclosed that it might be amazing or hilarious, sought direct feedback, watched where spectators' eyes moved, and returned to revise the method after failures.
→ Repeated audience trials turned a hard-to-theorize perceptual method into a reliable performance.
Common mistakes
Optimizing only for the prize
The developmental value comes from the deadline, practice, and evidence even when the entrant does not win.
Accepting polite feedback
Testers may protect your feelings, so compare their words with their observable reactions.
Testing only in private
For audience-dependent work, theory cannot replace the observer whose experience creates the result.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for performers and makers who improve through audience response but struggle without deadlines.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when public failure creates unacceptable safety, legal, or financial consequences.
From the transcript
“it's great to have a deadline it's great to have a challenging slightly healthy stressful thing to work towards”
“if it works it'll be amazing if it doesn't work it'll be hilarious you know that set expectations it informed consent they know what they're…”
“give me the pain I need to know I want the painful truth of the Beautiful Lie”
From the episode
#679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder
Simon Coronel