Kevin Beal Posted February 27, 2015 Posted February 27, 2015 There is a question I sometimes ask myself: am I growing? How do I know if I'm growing? What does growing look like? This video is me attempting to answer that question and coming up with some helpful principles in thinking about it. Here's the original script that I barely used:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zPJeUtWluIzVaHGrtGv5V4Ha5ZunHUcEk_WIbZAqP1U/ (might still be processing) 2
shirgall Posted February 28, 2015 Posted February 28, 2015 Interval training, cheat days, mental breaks, "going to the balcony" in a discussion, brainstorming... these are all ways that progress is made by changing up what is being done. Kicking the mind out of a rut in order to solve a problem is even considered heroic in many tales. Don't take it hard when you hit a wall and feel you must do something unconventional to get past it. 1
Kevin Beal Posted March 1, 2015 Author Posted March 1, 2015 Don't take it hard when you hit a wall and feel you must do something unconventional to get past it. If you think that, then you might like part 2! (Once it finishes processing, anyway)
shirgall Posted March 1, 2015 Posted March 1, 2015 Yes, it is very much the case that deeper learning may involve unlearning other skills. For example, I'm a firearms instructor. One of the things I have to deal with, with boys especially, is getting them to unlearn "Hollywood" shooting. Hollywood does NOT teach good shooting skills and it is even worse when it comes to safety. Even so, everyone without a Y-chromosome deficiency that came to class already "knew" what I was going to teach. Those that came in with no preconceptions were much easier to teach. One of the team's greatest joys was getting a girl scout her rifle or shotgun merit badge faster than the typical boy could do it. (Nowadays girl scouts don't do merit badges, they do "journeys", it's really depressing). Anyway, to head back to the point, mastery comes from knowing what parts of the basics you have to unlearn to get the nuanced greater skill. Mastery comes from something that works well in a perfect position and adapting it to work well in an imperfect position. Mastery comes from knowing what to keep and what to discard to adapt to the situation at hand. The real world is messy. Getting quickly from universals to particulars is the evolutionary leap of the self-knowledgeable. 1
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