Master Your Tools

Couple months ago, a friend sent me this article virtually "Speed learner Max Deutsch challenging chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen". My friend called the story a life-hack story, together with remarked that this is the "Silicon Valley bro" frame of heed inwards action: "Nobody deserves whatever honor because I am thence confident together with valley savvy I could naturally write an app together with practise it better".

This was my answer on the article.

This is a real squeamish example of a hack versus expert: Expert had years of battle-scar, together with internalized everything. Hacks/shortcuts are going to accept yous alone to where the expert's domain starts.
Also some other accept away is, nosotros humans are dumb. We don't conduct maintain anything to hold upwardly proud of virtually our mental prowess. I brand thence many stupid mistakes every week, it is frustrating. It is a shame nosotros can't acquire much smarter on the spot. But inwards the offline mode (doing research/thinking past times writing), I cry back nosotros tin practise better. We tin alone brand upwardly for the shortcoming of our brains past times using dependent acre (writing or math-symbolic computing).

This story is a perfect example of the demand for tooling together with the demand for mastering your tools.

There are many levels of learning/mastering

This is what I wrote inwards 2012 virtually the many levels of learning. It has a squeamish backstory every bit well, virtually how I almost flunked differential mathematics every bit a freshman.

There are many levels of knowing. The showtime grade is "knowing past times word". With passive learning (like I did for studying for the diff final), yous acquire the most express shape of understanding/knowing. It is ephemeral, together with yous are non able to reconstruct that on your own. The minute grade is "knowing past times showtime manus experience". At this level, yous are able to understand/witness together with if necessary rediscover the noesis on your own. Finally, the 3rd grade is "knowing past times heart" or grokking it. At this level, yous internalized the noesis thence that it becomes purpose of your nature.
The best way of learning is past times doing. You demand to operate hands-on, brand a lot of mistakes thence yous tin start to internalize that knowledge. That agency yous should make, together with arrive at things continuously. For this to operate inwards a sustainable manner, yous demand to modify your default mode from the consumer mode to the producer mode.

As it comes to learning/mastering a tool, hacks/shortcut does non cutting it. Just having a passing familiarity amongst the tool doesn't empower you.  You demand to master copy together with internalize your tools.

No pain, no gain. If yous don't curvature yourself, yous did non master copy the tool. You are short-cutting together with won't acquire the total benefits of the tool together with grade up.

You really master copy a tool alone when yous master copy yourself together with curvature yourself amongst that tool's thinking mode. Mastering the tool together with yourself through the tool, takes many weeks, together with sometimes years. When yous pay your dues together with move deep, alone then, yous move past times together with grade up.

Learning/mastering is a slope descent process

You (well, at to the lowest degree I) progress through the levels of learning gradually almost via a slope descent similar process. Let me give an event from Paxos.

The showtime fourth dimension I taught Paxos inwards my distributed systems shape to a greater extent than or less 10 years ago, I don't cry back I understood it well. I was a hack. I felt real unsatisfied virtually how I couldn't explicate it better. Through these regrets, I started getting ameliorate at it. This echoes what I wrote before virtually "what I acquire from teaching".

In that downward hr afterwards teaching, what practise I do? I conduct maintain regret-flashbacks virtually some parts of the lecture I delivered. I conduct maintain remorse virtually how I botched some parts of the lecture together with how I couldn't respond a student's inquiry better. The argue I botch upwardly a purpose of the lecture is oft because I haven't internalized that purpose yet. The argue I wasn't able to brand a smoothen transition from ane purpose to some other purpose is oft because I didn't conduct maintain a ameliorate understanding/insight virtually how those parts fit. It is probable I was missing some context virtually it. Or perchance to a greater extent than probable that I knew the context, but I didn't internalize it good enough. There are many unlike levels of knowing, together with the to a greater extent than reliable/resilient/dependable grade of knowing is knowing past times experience. Teaching is a way to conduct maintain hands-on grooming inwards your enquiry area. You acquire through your regrets virtually how yous couldn't explicate it better. 

So the way I got ameliorate at internalizing together with explaining Paxos was past times making mistakes together with feeling similar an idiot. Once inwards a piece I would hold upwardly proverb "Oh, wait, this doesn't brand sense inwards Paxos", or "Wait, how does Paxos bargain amongst this?", together with thence operate my way out of these problems. I would experience bad together with nation to myself "How come upwardly I didn't notice this afterwards this many years?", but I directly got used to this feeling. I know this is a natural purpose of the learning/mastering the tool. This is a goodness form of screw up, because it makes me learn. When I screw upwardly together with acquire from it, I am leveling up.

Tools grow your brain

A goodness tool is a forcefulness multiplier. So it is definitely worth the fourth dimension to master copy a goodness tool, because yous volition acquire a lot of mileage out of that tool every bit multiplicative factor.

Young Steve Jobs was pitching computers every bit bicycles for the mind.

I cry back ane of the things that actually separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a report that measured the efficiency of locomotion for diverse species on the planet. The condor used the to the lowest degree unloosen energy to displace a kilometer. And, humans came inwards amongst a rather unimpressive showing, virtually a 3rd of the way downward the list. It was non every bit good proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t await thence good. But, thence individual at Scientific American had the insight to exam the efficiency of locomotion for a human being on a bicycle. And, a human being on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.
And that’s what a calculator is to me. What a calculator is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve e'er come upwardly up with, together with it’s the equivalent of a wheel for our minds.

To brand a transformative contribution, sometimes yous volition demand to invent your ain tools every bit I wrote before inwards "How to move 10X":

Adopt/Invent ameliorate tools "Give me 6 hours to chop downward a tree together with I volition pass the showtime 4 sharpening the axe." -- Abraham Lincoln
I mean, non simply ameliorate but transformative tools of course. Most often, yous may demand to invent that transformative tool yourself. When yous are faced amongst an inherent worthy problem, don't simply move for a betoken solution, generalize your solution, together with ultimately arrive inwards to a tool to practise goodness for the future. Generalizing together with constructing the tool/system pays that technical debt together with gets yous to conduct maintain really 10X benefit. MapReduce every bit a tool comes to my heed every bit a goodness event for this. By generalizing on the form of big information processing tasks/programs written at Google, Jeff Dean was able to come across an underlying pattern, write a goodness tool to solve the occupation ane time together with for all.
Scientists pass decades to invent transformative tools (Hadron Collider, Hubble telescope) together with thence they acquire breakthrough results. As researchers inwards calculator science, nosotros should elbow grease to adopt/cultivate this mentality more.

The goodness intelligence is mastering a tool makes it easier for yous to selection upwardly some other one. As yous move adept inwards ane tool/domain, yous tin map other tools/domain to that together with contextualize together with master copy them much faster.

Thought-processes.

Intuition pumps. 

How to move 10X. 

Good engineers usage goodness tools. 

Teach Yourself Programming inwards Ten Years.

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