Schooling teaches us to memorize paradigms and describe them in a format that is pleasing and correct. If you’re someone who loves exploring new ideas and learning the nuances between things like river mouths and gorges, the education system works for you.
And I was promised that learning in this way would lead to success in life. By following the steps of learning, repeating, and writing exams, I would become knowledgeable and competent and get the best jobs and recognition.
Learning isn’t skill
Discovering that all this learning didn’t translate into being wise, knowledgeable, and sought after by employers was a reality check.
People in the real world want to see what you can do and how you might add value, solve problems, soothe fears, and communicate. In programming, being able to build apps is a more valuable skill than being able to define what an API is, for example. Recalling facts and understanding concepts has little value unless it is applied through a skill. And if the skill is lacking, whatever knowledge you have is a bit useless.
Continuous skill building
Tech requires continuous learning, but to an almost crazy degree, because there’s always something new to become an expert in just to be considered mildly competent.
And if you want to branch out into a different area within tech, there is a whole lot of material to catch up on. It’s so easy to revert to the good student model and spend evenings reading coursework and grinding away at note-taking and memorization. Grinding is a noble pursuit, except it doesn’t mean much until you use that knowledge for something, to solve something, to teach something. And in tech, it might mean nothing at all if you can’t use the knowledge.
So despite my urge to grind away, memorize concepts, or do a course, I use my imperfect skill set to learn by trying. Just try AI. You don’t need to understand neural networks to use agentic AI, unless the goal is to build your own AI directly.
Grinding is not fun
Learning by trying something out for fun and curiosity is a lot more rewarding, but it is still really unfamiliar to me. The not-fun grind is fueled by an underlying anxiety of ‘not being able to get it’ rather than by learning through doing for fun.
Building skill requires repetition too, and it can feel like a chore, but seeing yourself improve by doing is rewarding. I’m still learning the difference between practicing and grinding.
Beyond exams
When there are no exams left to pass, building skills that stay with you is more rewarding, and more visible in the real world, than memorizing facts and doing courses.
What’s one thing you can enjoy trying today?