On learning a new multi-faceted skill
It’s almost always hard in the beginning… without prep.
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Today, I learned how to turn on a snowboard. 🏂
It felt incredible to finally be able to do a thing that I had longed to do for so long.
Learning how to turn on a snowboard can take considerable amount of time. It is a multi-faceted skill. To start, you need:
strength,
a good sense of balance,
mental awareness of body and environment, and
mental will to make your body do the unintuitive.
There may be more things that I’m missing. Regardless, I had taken steps to practice as many facets of this skill as possible beforehand, before arriving at the slopes.
And it paid off.
There was mental preparation that spanned years, and physical prep that happened in the weeks leading up to my planned 2hr snowboard lesson today.
With proper guidance and incredible luck with weather conditions, things lined up.
Due to a fresh layer of powder snow, I got to feel my first turns in incredible slow motion.
And once I had felt the turn, it was easier to replicate in the future. The separate pieces of knowing had fused together into what I call Intuition v1.
Intuition v1 is the first version of being able to fuse together a complex set of actions in one flow. You still may have to think about it extra hard, but you’re able to execute successfully as long as it’s backed by full concentration.
Intuition v2, v3 etc. is based on ever-accumulating experience, and requires less System 2 (slow, calculating, conscious) and more System 1 (fast, intuitive, unconscious) thinking (Kahneman and Tversky)
The further you get, the more mastery you accumulate.
I’m also doing #ship30for30 in January! 🚢
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed a number of tweets related to Ship30. It’s a writing challenge where you commit to writing a small atomic essay (300 words) or twitter threads for 30 days, ideally consecutive.
Yes, I’m learning the tough skill of writing short pieces. It’s something I am terrible at.
The good news is that I’ve been practicing my writing since September of last year when I enrolled in a writing course called Write of Passage. From there, it was all about putting in the reps so I committed to writing a weekly newsletter (the one you’re reading now!)
I’m enjoying putting in the time to get better at writing short and concisely, because I see a happier me in the future who will have this skill more figured out.
The challenge started on Jan 8 and so far I’ve published 3 pieces.
Day 1: On Urban Planning
Day 2: On Personal Knowledge Management
Day 3: Great cities are additive (+).
That’s it for this week.
If you read something you liked, then don’t forget to like this newsletter! (Small gestures like that really does boost writer morale hehe)
Stay safe, and stay curious.
—Fei 🪢
YES! Oh the thrill of having command over a snowboard.
Great way to start the new year, Fei, by learning new moves on the snow board! I started by FINALLY signing up on Facebook; joining some groups related to my interests (e.g. poetry). A wonderful way to share and learn among like-minded people. Bonus is getting re-connected with friends and extended family scattered all over the world.