>The way you get better at X is to do it. For pretty much >all X.
A bit off topic, but one of the few X where this does not hold is marriage. Statistically, first marriages are more likely to succeed than any subsequent marriage.
A bit off topic, but one of the few X where this does not hold is marriage. Statistically, first marriages are more likely to succeed than any subsequent marriage.
Think about getting sent back to the beginning of your marriage, would you be better (with that one)? You would... that's the point.
[1] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/divorces-in-england-and-...
My point was that there exist skills (or goal oriented behavior, here the presumed goal being to stay married) that do not necessarily improve with "practice." Nothing else comes to mind, but I would be interested in other things that break the common notion of always getting better with "practice." Human beings are very complicated, and I can imagine other situations where practice does not make perfect.
I remember reading some research about divorced people where many reported that they had underestimated the emotional devastation that they felt after the divorce, and that if they had known how hard it would be, they would have tried much harder to rebuild their marriage.
As another off topic comment about how complicated people are, in marketing it is important to let people know that what you are selling is easy and quick and convenient and ... Except for one area, where it is critical to tell people how hard it will be and how much work they will have to do if they buy your product. And that field is body building. Body builders buy products that pitch how hard they will have to work and how much pain they will need to endure. Go figure.
I think you might have confused "getting married" with "being married". People who get married several times are probably pretty good at the getting married part. People who stay married, though, probably work hard on the day-to-day experience of being married. In the same way good writers work hard each day on the writing.