How to Learn

Old dog, new tricks; keeping up with the times. I’ve been reflecting on learning new things. Why do some think that old folks cannot learn new things. One idea is that the older we get the more stuff we have going on. This can present all sorts of difficulty. Add the tonnage of material to learn and that makes the challenge even more daunting.

You get into the new study material and at first glance it is somewhat foreign. Then, you keep plugging away and there is a better understanding. I’ve seen people get frustrated and overwhelmed, which is totally natural. You keep going and going. Then, you begin to think as you should by anticipating various outcomes based upon perceived inputs to be made.

This is where I have been pondering. I’ve thought back to the difficult challenges that I have undertaken, physically and mentally. Once you have learned and learned and simply stuck around, there is a point that feels like the verge of breaking through. This space can vary in duration, some long some short.

It is at this moment when what you’ve learned can become complicated due to the stacking of more concepts and the pressures of wanting that breakthrough moment when everything begins to come together. I’ve been thinking about that moment and how it transpires. Obviously, this is different for everyone, but I have sometimes seen a clear moment when it begins to click.

I’ve been playing drums for many years. In the beginning I felt like it was good enough and the skills were positioned as they should be at the entry level. I did not take any lessons, and there came a point where it all just sounded the same. Then one night, while on vacation from school, the house was empty and I decided to clean the kit and set it up again. It was a few days before Christmas and no one was around so I took my time. I got everything together and tuned the drum heads up just a touch and left the loose. I grabbed a pair of sticks and went around the kit. Maybe it was the looseness of the drums heads but there was a different bounce and that lead to a changed way that I felt behind the kit. The sticks just seemed to bounce pop and everything was fluid with the movements. That was a moment when I transitioned from playing drums to being a drummer.

I’ve had the fortune of experiencing this feeling many times. I think that is part of the reason why I am eager to learn new things that are outside of just being an average specialist or working a job. To do this you have to be comfortable being really bad at something for an extended period of time. That can be tough as we age since we want to remain in our comfort zones and self-security.

Today, I got just the slightest flash of a glimpse of that feeling. I immediately knew what it was. Although I have just started out learning this new craft, there is this thing that I can feel that is sort of an understanding. It is like I understand how it works but still lack the awareness of syntax and its locations. I took that lesson and tried to supercharge it with my own ideas.

ChatGPT is always right there, but I have resisted the temptation to simply use artificial intelligence to draft the code. I believe that to learn programming correctly, it is important to have a clear knowledge of the language first, then use language model to supplement that knowledge.

There is always that side of you that wants to learn the thing quickly and just get on with it. That is one of the toughest parts. I want to get it going and begin implementing and building things. I have taken a measured approach, much more measured than usual. Self-imposed pressures can be the most destructive. Outside pressures can create a challenge and motivate, but everything recirculates around the self. There is a threshold and I am sure that I will get to the point ( I may be here now ) where the environment is too lax.

It is an on-going process. Similar to architecture and construction, the amount of learning is heavy. The key difference is that in the construction business you need a real project to get the most out of seeing things happening in the field. With computers the knowledge is a click away and the gratification is in-line with film making. You can code and test and test again, each time feeling like progress is being made.

I imagine that there will be multiple points where knowledge based personal breakthroughs can be achieved. It is an uphill climb but those realizations are exciting.