Roger wrote:
On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:25:13 -0700 (PDT), brent
wrote:


when amateurs get bored out of their mind of the activity in question
they can take a break from it. Professionals cannot. They must
soldier on until they get interested in their livelihood again.

I believe that the "quitting (or resting) is not an option" is what
makes professionals so much better than amateurs in almost all cases.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the persons
work. If they no longer enjoy it, and many never did from the start,
they chose the wrong field. Generally when a person becomes bored
with their work, or dissatisfied the quality of their work suffers.
With nearly 35 years of working I saw a lot of that.

I agree with Roger here. However, there is, for lack of a better word, a
forced rigor or discipline that comes from having to make a living at
something. A professional who is "making a living at it" has to meet
some minimum standard, or they'll be forced to choose another activity
in order to keep body and soul together.

An amateur is under no such restriction. So the "spread" in
ability/quality/whatever metric is greater on the bottom tail of the
distribution for amateurs.

One sees this very markedly in professions such as acting or modeling.