How To Learn A Very Hard Skill, Learn Something Really Difficult

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Maybe I'm getting old or becoming getting dull, too many things are taking me too long to learn. I have spent a large chunk of this year trying to acquire web programming skill. It's been pretty darn hard. I can't see an end to my learning. None of my university courses come close to this in difficulty.

I constantly find myself asking the question, "How am I going to learn this very hard skill?"

Recently, I came upon an answer. Not a very inspiring answer, yet a valid answer. It is the same answer that was given the man who asked, "How does one get to Carnegie Hall?"

Practice, practice, practice.

When it comes to very hard skills, you will need to rely more on your muscle memory than your conscious memory. You will need to immerse yourself into what your are learning such that you will pick up a large part of the skill before even acquiring the fundamental knowledge behind it. Like a seven year old learning to swim, ride a bicycle and drive a toy car. It requires some degree of unreasonable obsession and hard practice. You should get Bruce Li's quote framed on your bedroom wall: "The successful warrior is an average man, with a laser-like focus."

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You might have to make too much sacrifice in the beginning because you will be giving an unhealthy attention to the skill you are learning to the detriment of your health and relationships. 

Luckily, whatever is hard for you is hard for many other people and your putting in more effort to learn it than most of the many other people will set you profitably aside. You will even learn it on a more valuable level than those who took to it naturally. 

Everyday, I know that I am going to do great things with the web programming skill. I have been filling my ideas note. Once I get to learn it well enough, you would think there are 10 of me by the speed at which I will churn out web apps. 

For now, I just have to keep practicing. Whether my conscious memory grabs it or not. I have to immerse myself in it until it becomes instinct.


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