#220 How it works and how to do it?

When dealing with learning in any field, you are first faced with the basic task of understanding what exactly it is and what it does. For example, you understand what an airplane is and what it does, without this understanding the parts that make up this great innovation are meaningless.

Sometimes students make the mistake of learning “how to do something” before understanding “how it works”, this results in a lack of understanding as to where things fit within the system. My suggestion is to spend time understanding the given skill as a whole before getting into the nitty gritty of how to perform specific sub-skills. An example might be learning to shoot three pointers before understanding the rules of basketball. While it is a fine skill, the practitioner fails to understand where it fits within the sport and may perhaps view basketball as a three point contest rather than understanding all the components that make it up.

By understanding how it works, it is much easier to pick apart the necessary fundamentals that must be learned before going about learning them rather than getting the cart before the horse. This will lead to much faster progress in any discipline as you will be left with a clear path of highest importance versus lowest importance as you begin your journey towards progress.