Learning 5/5 Teach It

This week, I've got a theme: Learning. There are five steps in the process of truly learning something and I'll be discussing one each day.
Choose to Learn | Don't Take Notes | Try it Out | Play with Alternatives | Teach It

Teach It (Part 5 of 5)
My evidence for the necessity of this final step is purely empirical, but I've so much of it that I am nonetheless confident. Why there are two always, a master and a student? Because you cannot be a master without a student. Er, because you cannot a master be, a student without?

It's funny, when we are taught in school that a blacksmith must start as an apprentice and work his way to journeyman before he can graduate to being a master blacksmith himself, it's obvious why the apprentice is taking on this arduous task despite the relative shame of being somebody's lesser for a decade or so (at least, that's how I imagine most Americans feel about it), but we don't really think about the master's motivation. Is she in it for the free labor or the pride of having a voluntary subordinate? Probably, but perhaps the larger motivation is that taking on and training an apprentice is the final requirement in becoming a master of the art, both in social perception and in practice.

Learning 4/5—Play with Alternatives

This week, I've got a theme: Learning. There are five steps in the process of truly learning something and I'll be discussing one each day.
Choose to Learn | Don't Take Notes | Try it Out | Play with Alternatives | Teach It

Play with Alternatives (Part 4 of 5)
Understanding, like skill, is as much about breadth as it is about depth. Have you ever beaten a player running the best deck in the room because he doesn't know what makes it the best deck? Have you met the artist who can draw wonderfully but can't paint to save her life? Or the medic who can save a stroke victim but can't tell the difference between a cold and a flu? Serious rock climbers tend to have tiny legs while serious bicyclists tend to have tiny arms. It's not uncommon in the human quest to be the best at something that we focus so single-mindedly on it that we ignore related skills because they don't directly progress our goal.

While there is clearly marketability and legitimate merit in being that good at anything, mastering an entire discipline offers a breadth of understanding and ability that will improve all of your related skills, beyond the point you could have reached otherwise. It's for this reason that a quick-draw artist also practices his aim, that a juggler will toss more than just balls, or a great Constructed Magic player will flex her muscles in Limited. By learning the things outside our specialty, we gain a new perspective on our specialty and that can only benefit us.

Learning 3/5—Try it Out

This week, I've got a theme: Learning. There are five steps in the process of truly learning something and I'll be discussing one each day.
Choose to Learn | Don't Take Notes | Try it Out | Play with Alternatives | Teach It

Try it Out (Part 3 of 5)
Some ideas are easy to visualize. You can imagine how they would look and work, as well as what would happen if you actualized the idea. For example, what if I made a Lego roadster? It'd be red and blocky, and it would have wheels that spin but don't turn. I could run it around on the carpet or I could push it forward, but it couldn't turn and if it fell, it would break pretty easily but still be easy to fix. If I give a Magic creature trample, I know that it will make very little difference on a small creature and will mitigate the value of chump-blocking for a larger creature but, unless the card has a damage trigger, not much else.

Learning 2/5—Don't Take Notes

This week, I've got a theme: Learning. There are five steps in the process of truly learning something and I'll be discussing one each day.
Choose to Learn | Don't Take Notes | Try it Out | Play with Alternatives | Teach It

Don't Take Notes (Part 2 of 5)
I remember one year in middle school (I think) when the staff took a couple days out of the regular course material to teach us all how to take notes. Those of us who had chosen to learn as much as possible, took the lesson to heart and made a serious habit of note-taking. It makes sense on the surface, write down the things you need to know so that you can study them later as much as you need. Turns out, that's not a very good way to learn.

Learning 1/5 — Choose to Learn

This week, I've got a theme: Learning. There are five steps in the process of truly learning something and I'll be discussing one each day.

Choose to Learn | Don't Take Notes | Try it Out | Play with Alternatives | Teach It

Choose to Learn (Part 1 of 5)
First you must choose to learn the subject at hand. This may sound like a no-brainer, particularly for those of you who have moved past school and really only ever study things that truly interest you, but I think this is actually the biggest differentiator between the A students and the ones struggling to graduate each year. I'm going to stick to the classroom analogy for consistency but all of this applies equally to workplace training, personal betterment and improving your Magic game.