Learning Something New
Learning something new can be painful. One knows how to do things how one’s already done them, how the world works, and wants to avoid the different pains associated with learning. In university, learning was a painful process as the signals I was receiving back were that I was bad at what I was learning and my marks were low. It was disheartening, especially after having to do well academically to get into the program I’d chosen.
I’d pour hours and meticulously log how much effort I’d spend on different subjects. For some of my more challenging subjects, I’d spend over a hundred hours for a single test. Often, I’d still fail the exam. It wasn’t until some switch in understanding occurred before I could make inroads.
By definition, learning something new means encountering the unfamiliar. It means finding out new ways of being efficient, of managing the order of operations, of seeing who one can talk to who knows things and can help, and who can’t. Where are the short cuts? The Tim Ferriss question he asks in learning is “How would this look if it were easy?”.
He also describes a technique called DiSSS in his book, The 4-Hour Chef. It stands for:
- Deconstruction
- Selection
- Sequencing
- Stakes
For most new things, we will bump into walls as we learn the course. Most things in life seem to have clear targets but behind them, many hidden targets and incentives. These are also dynamic, changing from hour to hour or based on the situation. We need to be OK with this or change and learning will become too painful and we might stagnate.
