Learning to learn
- Published on
- Shreshth Mehra--5 min read
We can be knowledgeable with another man's knowledge, but we can't be wise with another man's wisdom.
Contents
I have now gone through more cycles of learning from scratch than I can count, whether it be astronomy, coding in Next.js, or the numerous skills I had to learn during my first startup. The process is always the same: it's painful, and your head hurts because you have no idea what you're doing, and it seems impossible to grasp how others get it so easily.
Besides the headache, the only constant thought is, "I wish I had someone who knows how to do this to help me through it." It would make everything so much easier. However, I'm now realizing that even if I did have this other person, it might not be as helpful as I once thought.
Note: For me, the concept of learning to learn is divided into two distinct categories: acquiring skills in focused, well-defined domains with fewer variables, such as engineering or finance, and navigating more complex domains with numerous variables, such as life or startups. Here, I want to focus on the latter.
Acquired VS Developed Knowledge
Let’s take the example of my first startup. I started building wearable clothing that provides feedback on posture for gym-goers. One analogy used over and over in the startup world is that of Vitamins and Painkillers. The idea is that even though people know vitamins are good for them they forget to take it. Furthermore, the company making vitamins has to educate the customer on why they are good for them. On the other hand, if a person has pain, they’ll go and buy a painkiller themselves. So, the general advice is to make painkillers, not vitamins.
I had heard this advice countless times already, yet I continued to put hours into developing the technology for my startup. What’s worse, when you ask people about vitamins (good posture, in my case), they always claim it’s such an important thing, misleading me into thinking they would pay for it. After 1.5yrs of developing the tech, testing it, pivoting, and testing again, I came to the same conclusion: "Make painkillers, not vitamins." The point I’m trying to make is that there is a clear distinction between knowledge that is acquired externally (from a book or a person, etc.) and knowledge that you develop internally. The latter, in my opinion, is a lot more powerful because it has been internalized into the workings of your mind and body. Even though I had heard this advice so many times and it made sense, it wasn’t until I learned it myself that I truly understood it. Now, the way I would have described it back then and now has not changed, but for some reason, I understand it much more intuitively.
Two Types of Advice
Now, something I find interesting in this is that the piece of advice given to me, "Make painkillers, not vitamins," was sound and accurate but barely helped me. Furthermore, now that I have come to the same conclusion, I go about giving the same advice. What I think is happening is that once a person has made the difficult journey of getting through the process, the brain summarizes the learning, in this case, "Make painkillers, not vitamins." Anyone who has completed the journey will agree with it, but it is rarely helpful to the person at the start of the journey. So then, I ask myself, what kind of advice would I give to a person starting the journey?
The Most Relevant Advice
It seems that the most relevant advice is to simply do. Just do stuff, make mistakes, and figure it out for yourself. I don’t think anything anyone else has to tell you can be more valuable than what you learn yourself—that is true wisdom. When I first came to this conclusion, it felt disappointing because I was hoping for something extraordinary, something that would actually solve my problems. But instead, it seems that the only way to become wise is through the process. Yes, it is painful and stressful, but you must do it. I’ve used the example from my startup life, but I think this concept goes well beyond. Our parents pass on knowledge and wisdom to us, but very often, we have to make the mistakes ourselves to truly learn and understand it. One might point out that this advice to just do is of no help either, so the other advice I think does help is that of patience and trust in the process. But just like everything else, I think these two must also be developed internally. So it seems that one must somehow get through the difficult journey, struggle, do it a few times, and then realize that things eventually work out. This gives you the patience and trust in the process that is needed. Beyond that, you just do more and more stuff and learn. So what good is any advice?
I think the important thing to note is that when a person goes through the process themselves, their brain dissects the problems and understands them in the way it best comprehends. However, the brain still requires some cues and direction to help it dissect the problem effectively. The heavy lifting must be done by you and your brain, but the person giving advice can offer some ideas, hoping one of them will plant itself in your mind and then propagate recursively within your own mind until it becomes internalized and transforms into developed knowledge.