Comment by jamesmcn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jamesmcn | Hacker News Reader

This is a special case of a more general rule: Do things.

I'm going to try to write more. I already have learned a lot by:

* photography. If you spend time thinking about the photographs you take, and use what you discover in that process to change how you take future photographs, you will learn a lot about the world around you. You start to see things that you previously ignored.

* painting / sketching / drawing. Totally different from photography. You are free to represent what you want how you want. Your work can range from highly introspective (can be great while your subconscious brain is solving some other problem) to very literal. I haven't kept up with this because the professional world doesn't look kindly on developers who are splattering ink across a page when they "should" be coding, but it was very helpful in my college years.

* music composition. You think you know something about music? Try to compose some! You will listen to music differently. The deeper you go, the more you learn. Music is an unimaginably vast subject and conventional music theory only gives you access to a tiny fraction of the space that music occupies.

* (audio) Field recording. Have you ever taken the time to listen? To really listen? Probably not. You can get audio recorder apps for your iphone, or use a standalone digital audio recorder. Take these recordings home, and listen to them on decent headphones. Then go back to where you made the recording. Think about how the recording and what you hear are different. We selectively filter out a lot of the world around us, particularly in the audio domain.

* electronics. In support of my audio hobbies, I've built several audio devices, ranging from simple synthesizers up to rhythm machines and modules for larger systems. In the software world, we lose track of the physical world. It is mind-boggling how much effort you have to put in to source parts for a moderately complex project.

and finally:

* Coding. Those of us who code understand software in ways that people who don't do not. It doesn't make it any easier to use other people's software (sometimes harder), but it does change the way you think about things.

TL;DR: Don't just learn stuff, try doing stuff as well.

I agree with all of your points above, and I very much agree with your final point that doing >= learning.

However, I'm going to argue that writing is nonetheless a special case.

I was trained as an architect. Unlike photographers, painters, composers, and coders, pre-architects cannot refine their understanding of architecture by doing it. They are confined to various simulations of architecture: models, drawings, renderings, animations, etc. While the emphasis of my course was heavily skewed towards the visual, I personally found that writing was by far the most valuable of all forms of simulation.

The reason is that writing has a unique ability to conjure worlds beyond itself. When I do a 2-point perspective drawing, your brain will conjure it into something greater: a three dimensional space. So far, so good. But can you tell me what the air feels like in that space? Is it perfectly still, or moving through a breezeway? Is it dry or humid? Cool or hot against your skin? Does it carry the sound of echoed footsteps, or birdsong, or traffic, or is it completely silent? Does it smell like rain, or concrete, or freshly-cut grass? Do you feel the radiant heat of stones that have been baking in the sun? Or the humid air which has been evaporatively cooled by a fountain or rich foliage? Can you imagine all these things in sequence, as you move through the space? Can you imagine what the space will feel like at night, or in the rain, or when it is completely empty or thronging full of people?

A single drawing can never convey all of this, and there are many things that drawings can never effectively convey at all. But a few paragraphs can easily conjure all this and more. This isn't the magic of writing, specifically: it's the magic of language: a powerful virtual-reality engine that is very likely hardwired into our neurons.

I found that the the pre-architects who wrote about their work -- and took the writing seriously -- were able to engage with their designs in a far richer capacity than the students who focused on the visual representations alone. This convinced me of the unique importance of writing. It is absolutely true that whatever you want to understand, doing it is better than just learning about it. But doing it and writing about it is best of all.

TL;DR: Doing + writing > Doing

You make an interesting and compelling point. I often write brief notes about the various creative projects I'm working on or half-formed ideas. I'll try to do some longer-form writing on my next project.

I am sincerely encouraged. My biggest block has been that writing is hard and I have been way too critical of my own work. Looking for the perfect method, etc has stopped me from progressing. Thank you for your comments

I used to teach tennis. When my boss was about to move to the next level with a student, he often asked the little kid the question: "Can you learn to swim without getting in the water?" Stuck with me for a couple years now and it applies to many other situations off-court, including this one.

Also make sure to do some less cognitive ones as well. Get certified in SCUBA, get your motorcycle license (take the MSF safety class), play a new sport. All these even if you never plan to pursue it after the cert/license.

The more the diverse your experiences and knowledge, the more interesting and fruitful leaps in abstraction you will be able to take.

I've done MSF which is incidentally GREAT as general driver's training. I've also got a US Sailing Basic Keelboat cert somewhere. Sailing has also had a big impact on how I think - learning to deal with forces much greater than you is very worthwhile.

If you live near a ski area, pickup the cheaper weekday season pass and do night skiing twice a week until you can handle the black diamOnds with ease.

Apply this to everything you find.

You should post this in a blog :) Agreeing with you 100% and want to thank you for going meta.

Thanks! I'm pretty erratic about blog posting. I'm sure I'll get to writing eventually, but I need to come up with a unifying theme to write about. Then I should be able to put out regular installments.

That which interests you and your thoughts about it are your unique unifying theme. Please write more.

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