The short, random wisdom thread (needs mentioning, but not a thread!)

[ChrisV]

Share your little snippets of insight!

I wanted to create a little thread where people can post their small insights as they come across. Ones that are valuable, but not big or thorough enough to justify posting a full thread.

I think business is a constant learning experience, and we’re always figuring out better ways. I sometime think of little insights that I want to share on here, but think “I’m going to post a full thread for that? meh."

So I figured it would be a good idea to get a little thread going for snippets like those. Almost like a journal.

The first, I touched on in another thread. Which is: Average and finished beats perfect and incomplete. I have a habit of perfectionism. I can sit and work making every detail perfect then lose sight of the forest to the trees. Finished beats perfect.

So what are your little insights? Post them here, or post them here as you think of them.

 

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[ChrisV]

On Learning: when you learn something: put it into practice immediately. Our cognitive memory is terrible, but out experiential memory is great.

Imagine the following scenario. You’re learning new directions to a new class you signed up for. Your friend sometimes goes with you knows where it is. You ask him how to get there, he tells you, you write it down, and read the paper 10x to memorize it. But you let him drive. You know where the place is. You memorized it.

But then one week he has to give a talk somewhere, so he won’t make it. You take your little memorized directions and try to make it there. You’re almost certainly going to get lost.

What would have been a better decision. Once he gave you the directions, you should have said “Let me drive, I want to learn the way.” then driving that route would havre been second nature.

When I was learning programming at first I just took notes, did the quizzes, etc. But then when I had to do it on my own, I got lost a lot. So I took a new approach. Rather than just taking notes and memorizing, whenever I learned a new technique, I would put it into practice immediately. I would do it over and over until I could practically do it with my eyes closed. Seriously, you have to do things over and over until you’re bored. Boredness is a signal that you’re not benefiting anymore.

Things need to be ingrained in your mind. You create different neural pathways when you do something. You don’t even necessarily have to intellectually know something to have the neural pathways. It’s like when you dial a phone number. You can often dial the phone number just fine, but when someone asks you you’re like ‘uhhhh, let me go look at a number pad.’ Or the same with directions sometimes.

You have a muscle memory where you know exactly what you’re doing.... but you can’t intellectualize it. And the opposite can happen; you can intellectualize something, but have no idea how to actually do it. Don’t make that mistake!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

On Learning: when you learn something: put it into practice immediately. Our cognitive memory is terrible, but out experiential memory is great.

In the same respect, when trying to remember something or commit to it, WRITE IT DOWN on paper. No, a digital note doesn't count.