The Myth of Instant Mastery

In my post 3 Things Being a Design Mentor Taught Me (Part 2), I mentioned a mentoring tip that is particularly helpful when you are ‘strapped for time’. My dear friend Prithvi, commented on this, saying, “... while the allure of accelerated learning is enticing, some things just take more time.”

And I couldn’t agree more! This has been my personal battle as well, encouraging quick learning when I know that learning in reality takes waaaaay more time. Often a lifetime.

Learning is like the steeping of tea, it’s like the sprouting of beans, it’s like the setting of curd, it’s like the marinating of chicken, and also like the fermenting of beer. Pick your favourite analogy. The point is that time is a key ingredient to learning anything. (Clearly, I have been spending a lot of my time in the kitchen lately!)

Learning, much like cooking, gives you delicious results based on the time we give it and the patience we hold for it. And while all of us, including me, are tempted to enroll in those 5-day zero-to-mastery courses and 2-hour career-shift classes, the truth is, we barely skim the surface of learning in such a short time.

Why does learning really take sooooo much time?

Reason 1 - We start with Unlearning

We all have prior mental models that we use to navigate life. Learning something completely new requires some of these mental models to break down. It requires the break down of old ideas and perspectives to make room for new ones. While this break down takes a lot of time. 

Reason 2 - We need to build Foundations

Foundations are just the basic concepts of anything. The ABC’s, based on which advanced learning stands. Often foundational concepts require memory and retention. And this again takes time. Repeated recall ‘through time’ is what makes it possible.

Reason 3 - We need the Practice for Refinement

Practice is repeating a certain activity over and over again. The problem, the scenario, the brief, etc. could be completely different. But the repetition of our action is the only way to gain expertise and become more refined in our learning. Practice again means time.

Reason 4 - We take time to reach the Aha Moment

Learning involves a series of ‘aha moments’. You know, when you feel stuck or not really thinking of something in particular, and suddenly a thought or idea drops on your head from nowhere. These are my favourite moments. Aha moments are a result of a lot of subconscious sense-making. Over a period of time, our subconscious collects data, and fits them together in different ways like a puzzle until we find a revelation.

Reason 5 - We need to Plateau

Have you experienced a learning plateau? This is when you don’t see any progress at all. You may be mentally (or physically) exhausted, no new ideas strike, you may start being forgetful, etc. And often, all of a sudden, there’s an explosion of revelations and there's sudden intense movement in your learning. With patience, these plateaus become the launchpad to exponential growth. But only with time.

Have you struggled with time while learning?

When we rush to learn something and only prioritise the outcome of it, we lose out on the juice of learning. There is nothing wrong with short courses as long as our expectations are in place. The short courses will only serve as a means to be exposed to a new domain, while the actual learning could take many years.