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How and Why Hotstreaks Are Becoming More Prevalent in Individual Careers

At some point in time, it’s a given that you’ve heard of people having a hot streak in their financial, sporting, or even gambling scenery. Such individuals seem to have so much luck in these situations, to the point that you believe that the gods must favor them.

That being said, one place that many people strive to have a hotstreak is in their individual successive careers. Which begs the question; is it possible for one to have such a hotstreak in their career of choice?

Hotstreaks are points in time where individuals are able to perform at their best in their careers

The Possibility of Hotstreaks

According to a research team that collected information from the Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, the study examined over 30,000 artists, scientists, and film directors to understand whether their possibility to have high impact success in their fields of specialization came in form of streaks.

According to a statement provided by one of the students at the College of IST, Lu Liu, they observe that there was a universal pattern in the results.

The results revealed that more than 90% of the case studies had experienced at least one hot streak in their work career, while others said that they experienced at least two or three.

That being said, Liu says that in the theory of hot streaks regarding careers, there are two schools of thought that are normally accepted. The first one is known as the ‘Matthew Effect’ which says that the more fame an individual gains in their career, the higher the chances that they will gain success much later, hence supporting the existence of hot streaks.

Alternatively, the second school of thought known as ‘the random impact rule’, shows that the success of one’s career is a random occurrence and it is based strictly on the productivity levels of the individual.

Understanding the Mentality Behind Hotstreaks

Moreover, Liu said that the team discovered that the results they received shed a new light on how people view their careers. The team had even discovered that there is a point in time where an individual can perform much better while in his current career, however, the timing of the streak itself can be completely random.

Additionally, the team discovered that prior to the belief that peak performance in an individual’s career normally occurs between the periods of 30 to 40, the team showed that individuals can still achieve a lot of success deep into their careers.

Moreover, the team also wanted to find out whether professionals were more productive while they were in their hot streaks as compared to their normal working periods. The team discovered that they were not.

Productivity During Hotstreaks

As a matter of fact, the team wrote that the professionals showed no considerable change in terms of productivity while they were in their hotstreaks, regardless of the fact that their output seemed to perform much better than the median result.

During their research, the team expended their time viewing the scientists’ most successful work according to their most cited papers, they found that the timing was random.

However, hotstreaks are not necessarily related to an individual’s productivity

However, when the relative timing of these works was analyzed, the researchers discovered that these works correlated with one another.

According to Liu, this is one of the ways that the team discovered a hot streak.

Moreover, the team further analyzed data collected from other creative spectrums, such as content from movie directors, and artists that had similar patterns in their careers.

Liu noted that there were quite a number of cases that did showcase this sequence. For example, she mentioned ‘The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson, the likes of Albert Einstein who in 1905 published four papers, prompting scientists and the media to dub it his miracle year.

Measuring Performance

That being said, it appears that such streaks not only matter to the performance of the individual, but also to the society that he or she resides in.

Indeed, Liu believes that this could help researchers comprehend the innovative process, thus enabling them to identify the time at which an individual is having a hotstreak.

That being said, the research has concluded that indeed hot streaks do occur in creative careers, and the researchers are looking forward to applying these research methods and statistics to other domains such as entrepreneurs and inventors.

Conclusively, their main objective is to find a universal pattern to this streak.

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