Todd Kleinhans asks us to write about “Mastering A New or Existing Technical Skill”. Todd is one of my favourite people in the data community simply because he sends people hand-written notes. It’s such a nice thing that he does, and it makes people feel better than a simple thank you – like this message he sent to Kevin Kline back in 2018.
On Thursday, I was sat in a “Cloud & AI Innovation Summit” put on by the Adelaide Microsoft sub. I could’ve been visiting a customer and working on their data quality, or helping to sort out the details of an application, or writing documentation. But instead I was in sessions listening to what’s being said about tech, letting my head wander around the space, having conversations with Adelaide leaders.
I mention this because on that day I was reflecting on the fact that I learn differently to many others. In a session, I’ll probably be tapping on my phone, taking notes about things, jotting down ideas, looking things up, and generally letting my head roam around the concepts. People with pens often draw shapes or doodle. Questions appear in my head, which I either want to ask or research myself – if I don’t I end up feeling distracted by them. I’ve known for a long time that classroom environments and conference sessions are not really my preferred learning style, but if they can be conducive to letting my mind want through idea, then that’s good.
But Todd asked about learning (well, mastering!) new skills, rather than getting familiar with concepts. I’m talking about the latter because I feel it forms a foundation for skills to be built on. The concepts are the bedrock for the skills to attach to. I want to know the physics about why a ball will spin a certain way before I even put my shorts on. (Bad example – those days are long gone.)
I know that a lot of people want to experience the physical aspects of the world before they learn why things behaved that way, and that it’s very important to learn muscle memory to have a skill, but there’s a lot to be same for explaining concepts and inner workings, so that the why can be grasped. For me, at least, it’s that becomes a bit of a prerequisite for most new skills.
If I’m going to become truly proficient with a skill, it has to include knowing how the thing works. As a kid I had muscle memory that let me move around a piano keyboard, and I’d done some amount of theory as well, but it was only later that chord progressions gave me more freedom. When I picked up guitar-shaped instruments, the knowledge I had let me get comfortable much quicker.
I’m curious to see what other people say about how they master skills. There are a lot of people who like learning new skills in the data community.
@robfarley.com@bluesky (previously @rob_farley@twitter)
