Saturday, September 12, 2015

Taking the Plunge or Thinking Twice?

By Leon Ricardo Fernandez

What kind of learner are you? Do you immediately take the plunge or think twice first before mastering the skill? When we are learning skills – whether it is playing the piano, drawing a special person’s face, or creating a software – it takes time to learn them and especially, to master them. There are two different ways to learn a skill: one is the so-called "dive-in" method, and the other is the "head first" method.
            
The dive-in method revolves around the motto ‘just do it’. In this method, one just, makes attempts in learning a skill. If an attempt does not work out, make another attempt.
            
The head-first method follows the procedure of thinking before acting. In this method, actions are made after carefully considering the consequences. This method gives assurance to those who are worried about the consequences of their actions.
           
But! Before using any of these methods, one must assess the skill to be learned to find out which of these methods will work better.
            
Take for example this situation. You are trying to learn how to fly an airplane,   you cannot just expect that you will learn how to fly through trial and error – it would be disastrous if you do that. That’s why you should go through careful planning and calculations before making actions. Therefore you must use the head-first method.
           
If you’re trying to learn how to ride a bike on the other hand, you do need to know the complex mathematics to do this. You just need practice to do so. In this case you can use the dive-in method.
          
But no matter what learning method you choose, it will take some time to learn. It may take you a long span of time or just a little while. Would you choose the dive-in method, where you immediately take the plunge no matter how risky, or would you take the head-first method, where you would think twice and asses all possible strategies and outcomes first?  But no matter what skill one has to learn, he needs tons of determination to accomplish his goal. Are you ready to start learning now?

No comments:

Post a Comment