A Different Way To Learn

Now I am no genius teacher by any means... but I am what some would consider smart and a quick learner. Now there's a thousand ways people can learn; by the books, by teaching others, jumping in the fire, experience alone, certs and tests, working with others, and the list goes on.

I fall into the "Experience" category; but in a way more practical way. Honestly, 95% of the information I intake... is completely lost. I imagine with my particular brain, it probably isn't as a heavy lift as it is for some others. Others can study, make connections, put pieces together, etc. However, I don't work that way. No. What I do is in the moment and retrospective learning. Not so much preparing, planning, and understanding.

Look, I know we've all been taught the Grey's Anatomy thing; read, do, teach or whatever (I don't know exactly what it is honestly), but why? It's not that it isn't effective, but it isn't effective in every situation for every person. We tend to find something and blindly apply it across the board... when that's not how it works.

Society wants to tell you constantly that you're unique, you live your own truth, etc. etc. - but then want to apply concepts to everyone as if we're all the same. This makes no sense. Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. I won't rant... at this time.

Here's the way my brain processes learning, after many years of struggling with it. Maybe it works to help you too.

You can't learn if you don't believe you can. It sounds ridiculous, but often I hear from my kids, my coworkers, my friends, and everyone that "I don't know anything" or "Nah that's really difficult and I can't learn it" or "I would need years to be able to do that." And to be fair, the world also makes that really intimidating too... because jobs are specialties, and you get paid for your effort. They wouldn't pay you if it was easy.

Drop all that. Your starting point is the mindset here; if you believe it's hard, or you'll never know, then of course, as you get into, it will burden you. Look, convince yourself, and you can do it practically anywhere, that whatever you're doing can be easy. Imagine yourself doing it.

"Okay buddy, so I can imagine myself being a rocket scientist, but that doesn't make it easy" - Come on. I hate the "rocket science" analogy. It's an excuse. Rocket science does require years of training, experience, and extensive knowledge on chemistry, architecture, electronics, and probably more. That doesn't make it hard; it makes it long. 90% of all skills honestly just rely on logic, and it's up to you to connect logic with logic.

More practically, let's say technology. People consider tech some giant magic behind the scenes stuff; it's not. Computers are not really all that complex... they are a lot of little logical pieces that work together. You press a letter button, it's not magic that when you hit "F" on the keyboard, it shows up. No. You press "F" on the keyboard, the keyboard recognizes that press and sends press across a wire to my computer, to where my computer receives that press, and it processes that press as the letter "F" from the keyboard, and the screen then shows me what the computer processed.

Oh by the way, I honestly don't know how a keyboard works. That was all just logic. When I press, something happens. My keyboard is connected to the computer... somehow, so logically the button press goes to the computer. Inside the computer are parts that process my button press across the wire. Those parts have to connect to my screen somehow to show me the "F" I hit in the beginning. Logic. That's all that was.

So if I can sit here and logically break down something I don't know in 2 seconds, how much more of life can I do the same?

Here's the thing here; sure, not everything is that simple. I get it. However, you should START with the mindset that it is... because 90% of the time, it is that easy. This sets you up beautifully to start learning. You can't learn if you're resistant from the beginning.

Nothing bores me more than building a "hello world" app, or trying to follow the instructions one step at a time, or having to "shadow" someone for 6 weeks. My problem here is purpose - what's the point here? What am I actually getting from these tasks?

Sit with someone? I guess it's free money because I ain't picking up anything from it. Build some sample app or thing? I mean I guess, but that really doesn't show you real world situations and nuances. Follow instructions? Cool, I can do that, but the real test is when I don't need or have them.

The start of me learning anything (and honestly usually the blocker) is not having anything to apply the learning to. This can make or break me. I work in tech for example. I often have to learn new technologies, new processes, and new people. The problem with it is often a job will tell me - "learn this thing so we can use it." Well, Mr. Genius, I can read two articles and tell you what it can and can't do, generate some ideas, and then let's get a plan in place on what we hope it does.

In other words; let's solve a problem and let the learning be secondary. What happens now is that you have some sort of end goal, some end state that will keep you focused on learning. You won't have all encompassing knowledge, but you can learn while actually do something worthwhile.

"Okay, I assume there's a trade off" - Yes absolutely. Here's the thing though; most subjects we learn are wide and broad. No matter what it is; welding, technology, reading (like a child learning), etc. there's a point where you realize that you aren't going to use everything you've learned, and even if you retain 100% of the information, your brain if not using the information, will eventually just... push it out and forget it.

This is where I think it's practical. If I am at a job, and let's say we're introducing something like AI in the mix; well let's assume I don't know jack about AI. Instead of going down a large rabbit hole of AI, it's history, how the system works, how to implement it, etc. etc. etc., let's figure out what we want to do with AI. The company may tell me, "we want to automate X task with AI." Okay there it is - I may be learning, but I need to automate. So I will learn what's needed to automate and practically apply that learning IMMEDIATELY, which gives it a much higher chance of sticking.

So... as a person with executive dysfunction, anything larger than a Skittle tends to feel like it's a big rig and someone is telling me to push it up a hill. Impossible. Here's the thing though; a Skittle usually isn't alone. In fact, when you go to the gas station, you buy a bag of Skittles.

Stop right there. Your task, your learning, and your time are a bag of Skittles. You really need to open that bag of Skittles to consume it. If sticking with that analogy, often your work will say they only want the red Skittles. So you open it up, get the red Skittles, and consume them. That leaves a whole bunch in the bag, but you got the red Skittles you needed for the company.

I know you may not be technical here, so I'll use a really simple example in tech to help you understand. My boss may tell me... we need to automate a back up of files on a computer, and let's assume I have no idea how to do that. Okay, well heck, I don't know what I am doing here, so let's take it logically - "Back up" - that just means they want a copy of it so if the file goes missing, we can get it elsewhere. There's my goal. There's my practical application. But... if I don't know how to do that, this is a heck of a task. Let's break it down.

• What would the company prefer I use to do it?
• How do I locate the file on the computer via the code/tool?
• How can I make a copy of that file?
• Where does that file copy need to live?
• How do I move the copy of the file to the new location?
• After it's moved, how can I make sure it's there?

If you read that and said "Oh God, that's 6 things I have to do now," then yes. That's the point. Here's the thing, it is 6 small and digestible things. Instead of one large, giant, confusing task, you now have 6 tasks that are very clear, can be done independently, and put together by logic.

This can also apply to let's say... something broken in your house. Let's say your toilet won't stop making noise. Your water bill drastically went up. Oh man, but you aren't a plumber and never opened your toilet. Well, let's go look at the toilet. You go there, open the top of the toilet and look at the pieces -

• There's the toilet bowl, but there's nothing really there to look at.
• You see a pipe coming out of the back. There's no water or anything there... so it's probably not the problem. You follow the noise instead.
• Inside the top, you hear a loud noise so you look into it. You see a chain, some weird black piece, and a bunch of water.
• You just start pressing things, maybe pulling the chain. Suddenly, the top fills with more water, after a minute, the sound stops.
• You look back in the top and notice some loose chain floating in the water. As you play with the chain, you realize the chain gets stuck under the black thing, so you wrap the loose piece around something and boom.

You just fixed your problem with logic. You don't have to be a plumber... you just have to logically piece things together.

I often encounter the people type of person that's just like "well I tried and it didn't work" the very second something doesn't go the way they saw it. I never really got that mentality. Just try again. You think you're going to learn or get new knowledge by giving up? No no, you need to fail to learn.

You hear the motivational speakers play up failure as the key. While I don't think it's necessarily the key, it's definitely part of learning. Learning doesn't mean you do it right the first time. Learning means "trying." Think about it that way. If you're throwing a basketball at a the basket/hoop, and it doesn't make it, do you stomp your foot and sit down? If you do, I'm sorry. Most of us though, we just grab the basketball and shoot again. Miss again. Then we think... maybe I am too far away. Maybe I need to change the way I throw. Maybe I need to change the angle. After a few shots, we get closer. We make a few baskets. We win.

We should apply that mentality to everything. If you're trying to fix a water leak, try again. If you're trying a code and it keeps not working, try again. You get the idea.

Here's the key in failure though - if you keep doing the same thing, you'll keep failing, so you must focus on changing something to get it right. That's what failure is for. It's there to show you that something needs to change. If you want to learn, get it right, you fail... and then you change something until you succeed.

BONUS SECTION: Knowing When To Throw In the Towel

Let's be real here, failure can teach you something else you may not think about; maybe what you're doing isn't your strength. Maybe what you're doing isn't really something you have any sort of talent for.

I know I've spent thus far explaining to you how easy stuff can be if you think about it the right way... but let's be real; some things just fall out of our natural talent pool. This will sound really weird to you, but one of those things for me is hair. I don't get it. I can't braid if you put a gun to my head. Also, a really close second is color coordinating. I literally just today, had a disagreement with literally like 10 people about a cake, where everyone looked at it, laughed, and made fun of the colors that were chosen by the decorator... apparently they were extremely awful. I looked at that cake and saw absolutely nothing wrong. So, by that logic if 10 people thought it was crap, and I was the odd man out, chances are that it's a "me" problem!

Point being here - there will be some points where you need to toss your coins and cut your losses. There's other times where you actually can no longer do it alone; you'll need some help to get past where you're at. Learning is a journey, and sometimes you'll hit places where you cannot go alone, or is just impossible to pass. It's at these points you should think what the next step is.

On the flip side of that - play to your strengths. I am great with logical things, such as engineering, troubleshooting, etc. If there's some sort of logic to it, then best believe I can tackle it. So I've leaned very heavy into those things. I may never be a lead, shred-tastic guitar player, but I love writing songs. So I leaned into that pretty hard instead. I may not be able to write sweeping non-fictional instructional guides to the world, but I love giving advice and using my imagination and creating worlds... so I lean heavy into that.

What you'll notice, is if you play to your strengths, you will glide to the top faster than you could ever hope for. If you play to your weaknesses, you will work yourself to death to just manage it... if you even get there.

Experience and patience go hand in hand. It takes time to do anything, but you have to be actually doing it, and doing it for a while to get good at it. Therefore, there's two pieces of advice that come in the section for the price of one; actually gaining the experience, and having the patience to not give up.

People seem to somehow how think learning is something that happens before you get to do things with the knowledge... I would argue not. You are constantly learning, so why wouldn't constantly do something while you learn? Like learning doesn't stop once you do something. I think that's a mindset that they drill in us during school years; you learn then take a test. In real life, you learn while taking the test. You are in the midst of a test everyday, and you learn how to pass it. You'll get some wrong answers, but you can decide whether or not to go back and worry about it.

That's experience. Actually taking the test, getting used to the how the test operates, and learning how to answer the questions using the knowledge you gained. Or... in my case, what I am doing is not learning the material per say, but learning how to take the test, and learning the material along the way. Usually you learn a lot just by process of elimination and taking guesses. Unlike schooling where you either pass/fail, in real life, you try and then try again.

Remember though, this isn't a 60 question multiple choice test. It's an open ended test with a time limit that ends at death. This is where patience comes in. Your experience will constantly grow the more you do it. You will get better by doing it, working with others, teaching it, and all the jazz along the way.

Point being here through all of that - the practically by this point, is simply doing, asking questions, and trusting you'll learn along the way.

So you read a lot and I babble. I'll just sum it up -

• Start believing what you're doing is easy and logical. Even try putting logic to the test to convince yourself.
• Don't just learn to learn, but learn to achieve something. Have a practical goal with meaning and weight to it so you learn and do something along the way.
• Break the things you're doing down to simpler things. Often a huge task is a turn off, but a bunch of smaller ones is a bunch of small wins.
• Don't think of failure as "you failed" but rather as part of the learning experience. It's not about getting it right, it's about enjoying it along the way.
• Know that learning never stops, and the only time it actually will is if you aren't actually doing anything. Go for the experience, have patience, and you will inevitably learn along the way.

And now here we are. I don't know how practical this advice is honestly. Maybe it was just a confusing mess... or maybe it helped someone.

Anyhow, good luck with life!