Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011) is a documentary directed by Liz Garbus about the remarkable life of chess grandmaster, cold-war hero, and American fugitive Bobby Fischer.
Life Lesson:
You give up having an ordinary life in pursuit of an extraordinary one.
Movie Scene:
Malcolm Gladwell: Sure, Bobby Fischer starts with a very exceptional mind. But genius is not only about a particular innate gift for X; genius is about a desire to do X. It’s about a willingness to sacrifice. It’s about an ability to develop that kind of obsessive interest in perfecting one’s ability to do some task. People who’ve studied expertise have looked at classical music composers, surgeons, chess players, interested in figuring out, what do high achievers have in common. They have always, almost without exception, put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice first.
Dr. Kári Stefánsson: Most of us think within relatively narrow boundaries, but an occasional individual manages to get outside of the box. Those are the people who make new discoveries; those are the creative people. But occasionally, it is difficult to get back into the box. His genius and his illness are joined at the hip. I don’t think that Bobby could have been as creative, as extraordinary, without being extraordinary in other aspects. And that aspect we call a disease.
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