The Feel

There’s no shortcut to learning.

In order to learn something, you have to actually do the thing. And frequently that means doing it for a long time before you get really good at it. My five-year-old recently proclaimed that he “knows how to drive.” He’s presumably saying this because he’s watched us drive a car while sitting in the backseat. Even though he’s never done it, he feels like he has through the sheer volume of hours of observation.

This is the knowledge gap between observation and experience.

I remember the first time my dad taught me to drive. It felt foreign starting the car, putting my seatbelt on, and adjusting the mirrors. I never experienced the mechanics of holding the steering wheel; or the vibrations of the car through the pedals under my feet; or having to alternate between applying pressure to the gas pedal while applying a different level of pressure to the brake pedal.

I never experienced the feel of driving.

Every type of work has a feel. And this is something you can’t fully understand until you experience it firsthand. You need to get the movements in your body and mind, learn the mechanics, and move from observation to experience.

The same applies to learning anything. You have to put down the book, stop watching tutorials, and move away from observation into experience.

You have to feel the work.