A Prolific Learning Principle: Acquiring Actual Skills
Learning to DO things is different than learning ABOUT things.
Learning about things and acquiring knowledge is worthwhile. However, actually creating new things and building things with what you learn is even more worthwhile. Often, you learn the most about things when you actually try to do something with them.
Over the years, one of the biggest transitions I’ve seen in my learning is that I want to do something with what I learn. I was the kid who enjoyed reading encyclopedias and reading books. I loved learning for the sake of learning. I’ve rarely run into a topic too boring not to read about. Over the years, I’ve also slowly acquired another love; that is using what I learn to create new things and to do things. I’ve also learned something by accident. I acquire a deeper understanding and knowledge of those things I put into practice than those I just learn about. Those things also stay with me longer.
The field where I first became consciously aware of this was language learning. I spent close to 3 decades with most of my language learning focus on learning about a language. In this time, I acquired few actual language skills. I’d assumed that if I kept working hard at learning about a language that skills would develop over time. The reality is that was I doing little more than rote memorizing and reviewing a lot of information and never using it. When I actually started practicing using language skills, I started seeing immediate progress. In hindsight, I realized that those things I was an expert in and knew best were those things I actually used. The areas of physics, mathematics, and computer science that I knew best were those what I had actually put into practice and used on a near daily basis professionally for a number of years.
One of the challenges for the aspiring prolific learner is finding methods focused on acquiring skills. Many fields are focused on first memorizing and “mastering” a core of information deemed critical to know. Fewer fields start out with a focus on immediately acquiring skills and then enhancing them and learning more. Most formal courses start out with an assembly line approach where all beginners are forced along the same path at the same pace. As you read more information about the various principles of prolific learning, you will see that few fields of study follow them.
One unspoken assumption I never questioned was that learning about something would lead to practical skills. Years ago, my formal background in education led me to believe that the best approach to teaching or learning was to carefully lay out a list of prioritized topics carefully organized to build on each other. I’d carefully consider how to teach those things in order. I was convinced that it was essential that students learn those things. I just assumed that learning those things would lay the foundation for acquiring skills and learning more. I never realized that without explicit methods specifically focused on practicing skills that skills would never develop. Now, my approach to teaching a subject would be to find a few projects a student is personally interested in and let them loose at it. I’ve come to see that few fields actually are organized like a building with a foundation and various floors that get built on top of other floors. Most fields are more like an interwoven web where various parts of the field interact with other parts of the field. In many fields, it really doesn’t matter where you start because at some point you’ll end up interacting with most other parts of it.
What do you really want to do? What methods will get you there?
I think the most important thing to do before anything else is to ask yourself what you want to do with it. If you want to learn to play piano, ask yourself what you want to do. Do you want to play hymns as an organist? Do you want to play jazz music in a restaurant? Do you want to compose new music? Do you want to play keyboard in a garage band? Do you want to play classical music in a formal setting? What style do you want to play? The answer to these questions will help determine the best path for you to take.
It is possible to take piano lessons for years and diligently practice daily and not come close to being able to do what you want to do. You must have a clear idea of what you want to do and pick methods of learning where you will spend time practicing skills of that sort. If you want to play classical pieces of music, then a formal teacher who has you working on those types of pieces is likely a good approach. However, if you want to be a lounge pianist improvising light jazz, you will want to be spending a good part of your practice time actually improvising new music. Spending years learning to perfectly play classical pieces will do little to help you learn to improvise. Spending years practicing scales over and over is not the same as practicing creating music and improvising. Daily practice improvising is the single most important thing that will improve your improvisation skills.
Once you have a somewhat clear picture in your mind, you will have a better idea of the actual skills you want to learn. You will then have a better idea of what types of methods of learning will help you focus on and practice those skills.