Sillybean

Learning, and practicing, and confidence

So, Bear’s new column is up at Subterranean. It’s about learning, and learning how to learn. This made me stop and think:

But there’s a corollary. If all you ever attempt is things you can’t do, the result is discouragement. And also, coming back to things you can do, going over them again and again–like playing scales–builds technique and confidence, and helps to internalize them, make them automatic and effortless… so you have more brain power left over for the new, hard thing you are trying to accomplish.

Seriously. I wish that someone, anyone, had put it like that at any point during school or any of the various kinds of lessons I tried and eventually gave up.

A lot of my failures have to do with my own impatience with myself. I try to dash to the next step without having really mastered the previous one, because — the end! It’s there, I can see it, and I want to be there!

... yeah. Gotta remember to slow down sometimes.