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Is disciplined practice over rated?

Is discipline over rated? Well, yes and no.
While it is helpful to have discipline in life, being disciplined is definitely not as important as what some people claim it to be.

Throughout our lives, we have been told that self-discipline leads to a more efficient, balanced, and healthy lifestyle. Although self-discipline is important, it can be difficult to maintain, leading to agonizing patterns of procrastination.

Some people just dislike being subjected to control or restrictions. For the same reason, they dislike the authoritarian nature of their culture and the educational system while growing up.

What Einstein is to science, Jacob Collier is to music. At just 27 years of age, he has had seven Grammy nominations and five wins. Being one of the most well versed musicians in all forms, a singer-songwriter-arranger-producer, someone who understands music on a molecular level, his contributions towards pushing the barriers of what music can sound like is unparalleled . In one of his visits to MIT which was later turned into a performance/interview documentary, he pointed out the concept of having an outdated idea of learning, practice, and education in today’s world. He states that, “The biggest gift I was given as a child was the space and affirmation to create in it. I was never ever taught to practice. People have an idea of how to learn and how to teach that I think is horrifically out of date.” (11:20–12:16)

While self-discipline is still culturally celebrated and rewarded, it is quite inefficient and overrated. Too little self-control makes you impulsive and prone to taking dangerous risks, but too much isn’t great, either

The older you get, the more exhausting and unsustainable this strategy becomes. Midlife brings with it the realization that you no longer have excess energy for inefficient strategies. The way forward is all about optimization and working smarter not harder. Self-discipline may give you some short-term success, but willpower is like a muscle and inevitably you get tired and stop.

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