All tagged Difficulties in learning
The reality of the learning process is that it’s often non-linear and, most importantly, unpredictable.
There’s a tendency to think of it (hope?) as a “paint-by-numbers” approach: follow these steps and you’ll get to your destination. And while aspects of learning are indeed structured and conventional in that sense, many others are not. That, in so many respects, is where real learning happens.
At what point do we stop asking questions?
It comes very naturally to us when we’re young, but at some point, so many of us, simply stop.
There are many reasons for this. It could be that it wasn’t encouraged at home. Or it could be that our schools and our teachers didn’t want to hear them. Or it could be peer related, not wanting to seem ‘out of place’ with our friends. (I can’t quite decide which of those is the worst.)
I really don’t like the idea of standardized tests.
Ostensibly, they’re designed to be a pure measure of talent and intellect - a way to measure our depth of understanding of the specific subject matter in question.
But the fact is, they’re not - well, not in the way we’d like to think anyway.
Episode 29 of the podcast is now available. Today’s episode is about the concept of "productive struggle", this idea that our success in life is based on our ability to work through difficult issues and problems without knowing or having the path handed to us.
It took me a while to get to grips with the fact that “learning” needed to be a continuous process in life. That is, the idea of “learning” isn’t something that is one-and-done but rather is an ongoing activity, a muscle that I should constantly flex and use and build throughout my life.
The other learning that I had about learning was that it could be on any manner of subjects and topics that interested me. It didn’t have to be on subjects that were considered ‘conventionally useful‘ or that didn’t mean much to me.
Epictetus’ words are easy to understand, but difficult to practice. Not surprising, given that it’s in our nature to be liked, to gain approval, to be considered valuable.
The problem is that when we accept these opinions, when we consider ourselves to be “important”, we think we’ve “arrived” and achieved some special end-state or level of wisdom.
It’s a really weird thing.
In the process of learning something on guitar, specifically when I’m dealing with particularly tricky fingerwork, I’ll hit a point when I just can’t get my fingers moving fast enough, or to the right notes, or with the fluidity and rhythm needed for the song.
It’s that situation when the mind knows what to do, but the body can’t translate. Time after time, I’ll try but I’ll miss this note or I’ll flub that one.
