Learning: Theory and Practice

Through a lot of my early life, I’ve absorbed all the knowledge theoretically. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ve often left feeling that I haven’t actually learned it. Now I try to follow the mantra that I won’t really know it until I try it. 

Once I have an idea I try to validate it. If some opportunity comes my way, I try to check it out whether it’s worth pursuing asap. Let’s say I’ve been learning digital marketing. I know a lot about it. At the end of the day if I just know about it – does it mean that the knowledge is worth anything at all? That’s why now I’m learning to apply what I’ve learned practically, that way there’s clear value coming out at the other end. Typical business consultants are usually quite the opposite though. They talk about the high-level, but often can’t go into depth… That requires practice and often they don’t have it. The question is do they need it? Maybe it’s a different niche, but it would give them extra credibility.

 I find myself a bit of an anomaly as I find learning as my hobby. I try to hear about different things. At school alone I studied, economics, physics, maths, Spanish and then ended up going into Management in university. This diversity allows me to look at many different fields at once and see connections between them. Now that I’ve been working, I’ve taught myself fundamentals of programming and I can now write basic solutions. Learning the fundamentals of each new field allows me to see the world through a wider lens. I keep getting a new worldview.

However, even if I learn to code, I don’t consider that I know it anymore. If I can speak with programmers that’s the level where I classify myself at, which I’m fairly happy with. However, I’m definitely not qualified to say that I know the field. The same goes about the niches of digital marketing. I know high-level concepts of most channels and techniques, however, I can dive deep only with a couple. Those that I’ve implemented myself and spent hundreds of hours on. 

Learning things at high-level is easy and quick. But as soon as you go deeper, you start to understand how deep the rabbit hole actually goes. That’s the same about every field. Once you’ve reached that point you start realizing why the 10,000-hour rule makes sense. To be world-class at something, you must spend ridiculous amount on it, in deliberate practice.