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I think it has to do with the level of mastery. At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own kn

by nagrom 14y ago

I think it has to do with the level of mastery. At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to people who don't know anything. By forcing yourself to redo the basics, you get fresh insight on a level that someone new to whatever activity simply can't appreciate because they don't have X years experience with which to consider things. I know that I now love teaching bash shell and C. I know that I am not the most talented shell guru or C programmer, but a lot of my knowledge now comes from answering questions from beginners that I hadn't previously considered (in bash, e.g., how can I tell within a script if the standard input comes from a keyboard or a file, or in C why don't you require the argument to return to be in brackets?) Questions that aren't necessarily hard, but that I hadn't asked when I was learning and now need to figure out the answer to on-the-fly. I now love teaching beginners because there's going to be the chance that they ask a really interesting question and I'm going to learn something myself. 10 years ago I would have hated that, because I wasn't comfortable in admitting what I didn't know - partly because I was still finding out that I didn't know things on a daily basis. Learning has now become a delight, rather than something to be achieved to get to the next thing.

mjmahone 14y ago
I wonder if it's the fact that you're willing to explain that makes you better, that gets you over the "7a" hump, or if it's that after you grow out of the "7a" hump you become more willing to explain? Because in my experience, there are definitely certain individuals who, no matter what level of expertise they are, are happy to field questions, and if they don't know the answer, they thrive in seeking it out with you. It would seem that those are the kind of people most likely to keep learning until they become one of the top in their area. Maybe there's a good reason most professors are required to teach classes with students far below their level of expertise.
pretoriusB 14y ago
>At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to people who don't know anything. By forcing yourself to redo the basics, you get fresh insight on a level that someone new to whatever activity simply can't appreciate because they don't have X years experience with which to consider things. I'm not sure it works that way. I'm very good at one or two things myself, but I don't really find that any additional knowledge now cames to me from explaining the basics to newcomers. Rather, it's one of these (depending on the person): 1) when you become really good, you realise how much you still don't know, so you don't find it insulting of hilarious that other people don't know even the basis... 2) people motivated and devoted enough to get really good don't really care for the politics and the elitism anyway. They just care about the subject matter, and have no problem explaining it to a newb (and some love their field so much, you can't get them to STOP explaining it!).
tripzilch 14y ago
Sounds to me you became really good at explaining. And skill in explaining stuff is a much better predictor of not-being-a-jerk than mastery of anything in general. It's pretty difficult to explain things well and be a jerk at the same time! (although my pope-hat's off to those that manage to do both ;) )
Tarential 14y ago
I had the opportunity a few years back to work with Jeremy McGrath (many time motocross/supercross world champion) on a commercial shoot he did at our local motocross track. He was modest and pleasant to talk to. He treated me as just another rider, despite the obvious difference in our skill levels. I also later had a chance to meet Jean Sebastien Roy, a slightly less famous but still top level rider, when he came to do a promotion for KTM. You'd never know from either of them how good they were until you actually saw them ride. This contrasts heavily with some of the "experts" I ride with every weekend during the summer. I once had a competitor refuse to shake my hand and scoff at my attempts to introduce myself. It is a huge difference in attitude. By the way, hello HN crowd. I've been a daily reader for several months but never found a topic where I felt I had something useful to post. I hope this has been relevant and useful. P.S. I ended up beating the guy who wouldn't shake my hand, which gave me a petty feeling of satisfaction. Childish, perhaps, but I'm not perfect.

by nagrom 14y ago

mjmahone 14y ago

I wonder if it's the fact that you're willing to explain that makes you better, that gets you over the "7a" hump, or if it's that after you grow out of the "7a" hump you become more willing to explain? Because in my experience, there are definitely certain individuals who, no matter what level of expertise they are, are happy to field questions, and if they don't know the answer, they thrive in seeking it out with you. It would seem that those are the kind of people most likely to keep learning until they become one of the top in their area. Maybe there's a good reason most professors are required to teach classes with students far below their level of expertise.

pretoriusB 14y ago

>At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to people who don't know anything. By forcing yourself to redo the basics, you get fresh insight on a level that someone new to whatever activity simply can't appreciate because they don't have X years experience with which to consider things. I'm not sure it works that way. I'm very good at one or two things myself, but I don't really find that any additional knowledge now cames to me from explaining the basics to newcomers. Rather, it's one of these (depending on the person): 1) when you become really good, you realise how much you still don't know, so you don't find it insulting of hilarious that other people don't know even the basis... 2) people motivated and devoted enough to get really good don't really care for the politics and the elitism anyway. They just care about the subject matter, and have no problem explaining it to a newb (and some love their field so much, you can't get them to STOP explaining it!).

tripzilch 14y ago

Sounds to me you became really good at explaining. And skill in explaining stuff is a much better predictor of not-being-a-jerk than mastery of anything in general. It's pretty difficult to explain things well and be a jerk at the same time! (although my pope-hat's off to those that manage to do both ;) )

Tarential 14y ago

I had the opportunity a few years back to work with Jeremy McGrath (many time motocross/supercross world champion) on a commercial shoot he did at our local motocross track. He was modest and pleasant to talk to. He treated me as just another rider, despite the obvious difference in our skill levels. I also later had a chance to meet Jean Sebastien Roy, a slightly less famous but still top level rider, when he came to do a promotion for KTM. You'd never know from either of them how good they were until you actually saw them ride. This contrasts heavily with some of the "experts" I ride with every weekend during the summer. I once had a competitor refuse to shake my hand and scoff at my attempts to introduce myself. It is a huge difference in attitude. By the way, hello HN crowd. I've been a daily reader for several months but never found a topic where I felt I had something useful to post. I hope this has been relevant and useful. P.S. I ended up beating the guy who wouldn't shake my hand, which gave me a petty feeling of satisfaction. Childish, perhaps, but I'm not perfect.