Merlin Mann really gets shit and he’s more and more becoming one of my favorite people on this internet.
This is a 30+ minute video but I think it is absolutely worth watching and actually hit pretty close to home for me. He brings up the idea of a competency scale, in a way, and it’s something that I’ve thought personally quite a bit about. The idea that we progress from a novice to an expert in a given field (he gives the examples of butchering and cooking) and the only way to progress anywhere past an “advanced beginner” is just to get out there and do it.
I’ve often thought about how in many ways I’m a jack (advanced beginner) of all trades. I’m GOOD with computers, I’m GOOD at photography, I’m GOOD at graphic design, and I’m GOOD with my saltwater fish but I’m by no means great at any of those things. The only thing that makes me outwardly appear that way is that I know what I don’t know and I know how to find that information, i.e. I know how to use google.
Merlin also talks about how we go online and get this “Makebelieve Help” when we actually we need that guy whose been doing the job for 40 years to assist us. Personally, I’ve thought about this when it comes to college, why do we go? Aren’t we just getting “Makebelieve Help”? Why don’t we just go do apprentice type work with someone whose been in the business for 40+ years and figure out what we actually need to know?
Long story short, watch the video, it’s worthy of your 37mins.
Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) | 43 Folders
Remember when I said, “I hate being labeled as cynical for noticing serially profitable fake sincerity?”
Yeah. This.
[Sorry, if you already saw this elsewhere. I’m posting it in more than one place because a) 43f posts are rare, and; b) I think I said something important to me in exactly the way I wanted to say it, so; c) that makes this a rare thing for me — work I’m genuinely proud of. Thanks.]
