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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Skill & Knowledge Plateaus

            Long ago, I started monkeying around with Excel. And when I learned the vlookup formula, I thought I was an Excel master! I could rule the world with this knowledge . . . until I got a handle on the offset formula.
            The same was true of programming. I could record a macro, cobble together a few lines of code, and I was awesome. Spend a little more time with it, learning new, better ways, and I realize I didn’t know anything.
            Writing! You can put together a basic sentence vs complex compound sentences that can stretch for an entire paragraph. And then I learned to invert word orders, punctuation, and other structures to create specific voices.
            Certain levels of knowledge and skill open up new avenues, new ideas. It’s a tired and old metaphor about how far the light reaches, but it’s true. If you have a candle, you can only see so far, only envision so much. Upgrade to a flashlight, and wow. Bring in a lighthouse, and now you’re talking.
            So, from this are two things:
1.      Learning never ends. There’s always something more to learn.
2.      It’s to your advantage (and mine) to keep climbing up to those higher plateaus
Doing these opens up the mind to new possibilities; this is always a good thing, except if you open up the Necronomicon.



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