I hated sitting in a room writing down what somebody else was telling me, I wanted to test everything for myself. I learn by trying to build something, there’s no other way I can discover the devils-in-the-details. Unfortunately that’s an incredibly inefficient way to gain knowledge. I basically wander around stepping on every rake in the grass, while the A Students memorize someone else’s route and carefully pick their way across the lawn without incident. My only saving graces are that every now and again I discover a better path, and faced with a completely new lawn I have an instinct for where the rakes are.
Pete Warden’s article is for those of us who didn’t want to learn the way we’re supposed to learn in school, and set out on our own to learn and discover new paths.
Dale Dougherty 