The Big Think

Excellent essay about beginners and experts that’s well-worth the reading.

MAKE | Zen and the Art of Making: “”

(Via .)

“Once you get enough experts together, that’s when the in-fighting usually starts. Even The Beatles fought with each other about who was the best. Experts start to see the tiniest differences between each other and (usually) fork their efforts. It might be over-phrasing or titles of efforts, what licenses they use or don’t use, who is more pure than someone else. Beginners don’t know enough to care about these things yet — it’s the freedom beginners enjoy, even if it’s just for a short while. Beginners tend to see what they have in common with each other; experts can only see the differences. Many experts don’t want to share their knowledge, and beginners don’t have anything to share yet other than encouragement and enthusiasm for other beginners. Experts like to defeat each other, often publicly; beginners conquer themselves and their own challenges, and the experience cannot be taken away by anyone. Beginners don’t have strong opinions — they can’t effectively bother each other yet.”

This is one of the reasons that I rarely share any of my work online (except here where only 30 people read regularly). I don’t have the time, patience, or inclination (or the thick skin) to publish my woodworking exploits on a woodworking site only to have sixteen people tell me where I did it wrong or where they would do it better. My attitude is always yeah… so why didn’t you? Like I said: I’ve got no time for that. I’d rather use my limited hours building stuff than defending against people I don’t know or who’s opinions I don’t care about.

“I think the new discoveries and joys of learning are the crux of this beginner thing I’ve been thinking about. Sure, when you’ve mastered something it’s valuable, but then part of your journey is over — you’ve arrived, and the trick is to find something you’ll always have a sense of wonder about. I think this is why scientists and artists, who are usually experts, love what they do: there is always something new ahead. It’s possible to be an expert but still retain the mind of a beginner. It’s hard, but the best experts can do it. In making things, in art, in science, in engineering, you can always be a beginner about something you’re doing — the fields are too vast to know it all.”