Why Learning is like Rocket Science
And why that is a good thing
This is the second post in the series of learning. If you haven’t read the first one you can find it here.
Today I want to invite you to a new perspective on learning. Something that entirely changed my approach when starting off with new projects, and I’m absolutely sure will help you to grow with ease in the future.
The Critical Line
I don’t want to get to abstract on you, so let’s dive in with a clear-cut example straight away.
John Doe is learning a language.
He started off a couple of months ago.
Several times a week he has been attending classes, working hard with vocabulary, conjugations and all other sorts of things that can make you go from thinking
I wish I could talk Spanish
To thinking
Why do I want to talk Spanish?
But he pushed through it.
One day he puts on an episode of the tv-series Narcos.
Then he smiles.
He smiles because suddenly it struck him that he can actually follow what the Colombian Cartel is saying with just a little bit of help from the subtitles.
John Doe has reached the critical line.
The critical line is the point in your journey on learning something, no matter what, when you can continue to grow whilst enjoying yourself.
Why is it Critical?
It’s critical because we are all limited in how much we can (or should) push ourselves every day.
If you want to have growth in your life you will need a strategy for finding the things that improve you while you are having fun.
It requires immense discipline to come home after a long day and sit down to study conjugations in a new language. It requires little, or might even add, energy, to come home and watch a movie or series you love.
So, the critical line is, well, critical, when you seek to design your life around learning. Because we all only have a certain amount of discipline and energy each day and need to use it wisely. In some sense, we can hack the way life works by making the things we want to learn fun.
And when what we love is fun, we can start with something new on the side. You can transform the time you spent doing something just to improve into time that invigorates you. And when you are invigorated you will search new challenges.
Why it’s like Rocket Science
The most intuitive way to phrase all of this, in my opinion, is the following.
Let’s all pretend that the thing that you want to learn is a rocket.
You are the thruster.
When starting taking off, you will have to work really hard. You are motivated, but it’s still hard.
You push on through for a long time. First, it feels like it’s never gonna get easier. Then you start getting small hints. It gets easier, you are starting to pick up speed and the obstacles start to disappear.
One day you are going to be in space, just flying on carried by your momentum. That’s a great day.
The Shift
What I’m inviting you to do here, is to look at something that you want to learn and ask yourself
What’s the quickest way that I can make this fun?
The language example I actually stole from myself, but with French. Here are some other ones.
Playing the Piano
This is perhaps one of the best examples. When you start out, it’s really complicated and nothing sounds nice. There really is no creation going at all.
The critical line for me was to reach a level of playing where I could sit down and just play something that I personally thought sounded nice. Now I play because it’s almost meditative.
In the beginning, it sucked.
Programming
In the beginning, programming is all about things like syntax and logic. I thought it was a bit interesting, but really not that fun to study.
Then I made my first own computer program. It was only some silly game, but I found the feeling of having created something myself amazing.
Since that day I view programming as a craft, a way to make into reality what’s in my mind, rather than something strict and logical.
Before you leave
This perspective on learning has helped me a lot. It can work both as a strategy, what is the fastest way for me to make this fun? And as a motivator, because I always know what I’m working towards. What my goal with learning is.
Thank you for your time.
Regards, Adam.
