Am I Explaining [It/Myself] Correctly?
Yet Another Meditation on Mastery
In medical dramas (which is to say, insofar as medical dramas take cues from actual medical institutions that exists), there is a common idiom of “See one, do one, teach one.” It is the standard progression of a professional when it comes to completing a certain procedure:
See how the procedure is done by someone who is capable of doing it.
Do the procedure yourself.
After you have done the procedure enough times, to firmly display mastery of the skill, you may be able to convey that knowledge to the next person.
It’s a simple progression. It’s a sensible progression. It’s not the progression I view master in a slightly more granular form.
Do something poorly.
Do something.
Do something well.
Do something effortlessly.
Collaborate poorly.
Collaborate.
Collaborate well.
Collaborate effortlessly.
Teach poorly.
Teach.
Teach well.
Teach effortlessly.
Now, is this system in line with my constant obsession with the twelve motif? Yes, but it also captures the progression in a more honest way, and in a way that you can sort of about it less from a linear process of See One/Do One/Teach one, and more a foundation of “these are things you must be able to do to proclaim mastery” because these three interdependent skills that happen at their own rates and have their own ceilings.
Part of this is rooted in that one Adventure Time clip.
Part of this is rooted in me rewatching the anime Medalist, as Tsukasa, something who never achieved the individual level of competition is sought who then puts it in the work and effort to become a teacher to help his student Inori succeed.
I guess I’m also thinking about IVs and EVs from Pokemon (these are Individual Values and Effort Values, which is a convoluted way of the game making different Pokemon of the same specifies different from each other, and mostly only come up in competitive play), which is to say I’m thinking about innate talent and hard work.
When I say I’m good at something, I usually mean it insofar as I am capable of doing it effortlessly and collaborating effortlessly. I don’t usually mean it to mean that I can teach it effortlessly. I don’t think there is anything i can effortlessly. I know it can be done though. I know there are people who can explain things with simplicity and nuance that I am not capable of. I know that I am capable of teaching well, but not effortlessly and I think that’s my next goal is to become good at that final pillar, that final rounding out of the stat/skill tree.
Can I really say I’ve mastered something unless I can explain how and why I did it? It’s easy to claim that I am good at what I do, but is good enough? If you’ve been reading this newsletter/blog thing long enough, you’d know the answer is no. We strive not for perfection, but for the complete version of the thing, and part of mastery is having to do the unnatural and explain how something that comes easy as to you as breathing to someone who is grasping for air.
Trying to translate the taught unconscious to teach consciousness. It’s a noble goal isn’t it?
This was supposed to be about my history with game mastering, but it turned out I needed to write all of this first, so I guess we’ll save that for next month.