Crossing the Learning Curve
When you start out there is always a curve to climb. It starts off slow and quickly ramps up. Ramp up can also be a slide down for those who decide to give in, landing in a heap at the bottom never to embark on the journey again.
If you want to avoid the slide to the bottom, here are three tactics you can use to continue climbing the curve.
But before we get to those, lets define this curve. It isn’t really a curve, but a gap. A lack of knowledge and skill that can only be gained through experience. Gaining the experience feels like fighting an uphill climb, hence the commonly used curve metaphor, but in my opinion it’s more like building a bridge to cross the chasm.
That bridge can be a steel structure that will last 100 years, or a rope shot by arrow and shimmied across. Either way the result is the same, you made it to the other side and can do what you never could before.
Now that I’ve confused you with metaphors, let’s dive into three ways to you can build your bridge.
Define the Goal
Knowing your end state will dictate the type of bridge you need to make. Is your goal to learn to swim with the intention of enjoying a dip in the pool or are you learning to complete a triathlon? If your goal is to float around and occasionally tread water your training can be slight, but a triathlon requires a much bigger bridge to cross that huge chasm.
Since this is a woodworking blog lets take another example. Do you want to get into woodworking to build small items to give away as gifts? Things like cutting boards and coasters will require a few basic tools and limited joinery knowledge, so focus on perfecting panel glue ups for cutting boards and grab yourself a pin nailer for the joinery.
Or do you wish to turn bowls, vases, and Christmas ornaments? Better invest in a lathe and work on those skills.
Now if you want to teach those things you better build a stronger bridge so you can let other people cross with you. You’ll need to know more and spend more time on hand rails to keep everyone going along safely.
The end dictates the journey. What do you need to bridge the gap and how do you do it as quickly as possible to achieve your goals?
Keep the Load Light
Once you know the goal your task becomes crossing as soon as you can. You could grab every single item you could possibly ever need, or you could shed the pack and carry the essentials.
Say you are learning to drive a car. Do you really need to know how to change the oil and brakes? Do you have to research how an internal combustion engine and transmission work to power the wheels? No. You need to learn how to steer, accelerate, and brake safely and how to obey the rules of the road.
Keeping your scope small will allow you to reduce the length of the gap you have to cross, making it easier and faster to do.
The good news is, once you are across you can decide to dive deeper and explore other gaps to cross. Maybe you find you love working on cars and want to learn all about how they work and that’s great, but separate that goal from the first to lighten your load.
Crawl, Walk, Run
Pre-work bench, assembled on the floor, then holes filled and painted to cover up the ugly.
You wouldn’t expect a baby to go from crawling to running in one go. It takes time, years even, to develop the skills to first crawl, then walk, then run. Take the same approach with your endeavor.
I have taken the crawl, walk, run approach with my woodworking. I started off making small items. One of the first things was a pocket holed together MDF baby changing station. It was super simple to make and came out not square, but it was a start. At the time I had a skill saw, drill, and purchased a pocket hole jig specifically for the project.
This project showed me what was possible, so I stepped it up for my next project. I purchased a table saw and wanted to make Christmas presents for family. Finger jointed tea boxes. It was a great learning experience and one that inspired me to keep going. The boxes were intentionally difficult. I had never made anything without screws or nails as a fastener, but I wanted to test myself. Did they all turn out perfect? No, far from it, but they were all hand made and meaningful presents.
In those boxes I learned valuable lessons about milling wood flat and sanding the insides of boxes prior to assembly, which I carried forward into a more recent build making a display cabinet, an example of a jog. I’m still not running, but I’m getting there.
The benefit of this approach is you get to learn as you go. You may know the end goal is to build fine furniture, but you can’t get there immediately, you have to build your tools, capabilities, and skills along the way.
If you haven’t begun, have you read my article on how to remove the barriers standing in your way?