Skill = ? + ?
Or, why learning is a lifelong project.
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
~Albert Einstein
In 2020, we took an anniversary backpacking trip in eastern Oregon to Ice Lake. Ten miles to hike up, we stayed for a week or so at the most beautiful lake, ten miles back down to some burritos and margs in Enterprise, OR. While we were at the lake, my husband assembled a little rock patio in front of our tent, bringing order to the wilds. A ranger came by and told him to disassemble the thing — bummer, as it was really helping us keep some dirt out of our tent — because it wasn’t ‘natural’. Folks wanted things to be ‘natural’ up there at the lake. And nothing spoils the wilds of nature like the order of man-made.
It’s a natural impulse humans have to set things in order. Rough rock patio, cathedral, flower garden or farm. How elegantly and graciously human order fits in with the complexity of natural order obviously varies.
Nevertheless, we, all of us, try.
Doctors work to restore order to damaged human systems; hoof trimmers restore working order to hooves1; farmers and chefs provide order to our food growing and preparation, respectively… Every profession exists as it ostensibly generates more order.2
Regardless of profession, we can only ever put things in order to the extent of our understanding and knowledge base. That is, to the extent that we are skilled in a particular area.3 A renowned surgeon can put order back into the most defunct of human systems. Most of us, not being skilled in this way, cannot.
Many of our skillsets naturally evolve over time, though require some additional attention along the way:
A child can build a simple block tower, a builder can put together a house.
A child can assemble a lego machine; an engineer can put together the plans for an airplane.
I can bake a cake; a professional baker can make a cake that looks like my dog and tastes like a dream.
It’s easy to shame ourselves for lacking skillsets. For not knowing enough, or not doing enough, even not saying enough.
Recently, I heard psychologist and parenting expert Dr. Becky say something to the effect that we don’t shame folks for going to school to learn a trade, or taking a class to learn or improve on a skill. We expect folks to seek support for different issues they’re experiencing. And yet, parenting is one of those things that does sometimes carry shame when folks seek help.
And for what? No good reason. To improve on any skill, be it cake decorating or parenting, we need to improve our understanding and deepen our knowledge base.
From birth through our thirties, we’re accumulating skill after skill after skill. Walking - check. Speaking - check. Putting pants on and tying our shoes - check. Cooking - hopefully check. Reading, writing, arithmetic - check x3.
You get it.
You did all these… and more besides.
And yet it’s easy, as we settle into year after year of routine, to become complacent in terms of our understanding. Our skillsets, or ability to set things to order according to our understanding of them, languish in service to ‘I know enough.’
Curiosity is, I think, an untapped fountain of youth. Ongoing learning allows us to (sorry for the cliche) innovate, even if it’s ‘only’ our dinner menus. It also helps to build self-concept alongside the learning and skill improvement. I’ve really enjoyed Evan Cooper’s videos on Instagram for just this reason — he shares the process of trying new things, a skill worth developing in and of itself. Through his trials and experiments, he learns, deepens his understanding of not only the thing he’s doing, but also of himself in the process.
There are a million pieces of content vying for your attention at any given moment (Hi!). The more intentional you can be with your curiosity, the more selective you can be with your intention, and the better able you’ll be to solve (prevent?) the problems you come across.
ICYMI, YouTube has an assortment of delightful hoof-trimmers; the HoofGP is my fave.
Granted, a few professions are arguable here… but generally speaking…
Those are the blanks — knowledge and understanding.