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Per Swenson
08-03-2006, 8:27 AM
This is a great article, it's long but informative.

But Per, is it going to make me a expert?

A grandmaster of wood? Nah. Just a great article.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945&pageNumber=1&catID=2

Per

Bob Childress
08-03-2006, 3:43 PM
What the heck, Per. That's why I hang out around here. It's my "effortful study" that forces me to tackle challenges beyond my current abilities. (Which is plenty.) :D

The article concludes that training is more important than innate talent for creating experts, and I have to agree. I think you could stand out in the shop all day by yourself tinkering with wood and in five years you might be slightly better than you were at the beginning, but still not very skilled. The same amount of time spent reading, studying, hanging out at the Creek, watching Norm and then applying what you learned in the shop will raise your skill level much faster. We woodworkers today are fortunate to have access to information that a hundred years ago could only be passed on in person by master to apprentice. Now masters and apprentices can be miles apart and still benefit.

When I was a child, my father "made" me help him in the shop. (I hated it.) As a result of that reluctant exposure, projects I undertook as a young man were crude and the results highly unsatisfactory, even though I had by then come to enjoy the workshop. Now I realize I would have had more success if I had made that "effortful study" when I had the chance. In the end, frustrated, I stopped doing actual physical woodworking for 10 years while I studied, read, watched, learned, thought. When I started back (although I am still not highly skilled), my output was 10X better than it had been, even from the git-go.

Now, each project is a little better than the last. Do it, study it, see what others are doing, think about how it could have been done better, apply that to the next project. It's work of course, but not really. Just read Mark Singer's signature line.:)

Andy Fox
08-03-2006, 4:48 PM
I think you could stand out in the shop all day by yourself tinkering with wood and in five years you might be slightly better than you were at the beginning, but still not very skilled.

Hey, I resemble that remark! :)

Bob Childress
08-03-2006, 5:00 PM
Good. I had you in mind when I wrote it. ;)

Tyler Howell
08-03-2006, 6:17 PM
Expert
X = unknown quantity. Spirt = drip under pressure.

Expert = Someone 25 miles away from home...with Power Point Slides.:D

Mark Singer
08-03-2006, 8:43 PM
An expert is someone who has read everything about sex ....knows all the technical aspects (Like Kinsey).....but can't get a date:rolleyes:

Ian Barley
08-04-2006, 2:12 AM
...I stopped doing actual physical woodworking for 10 years while I studied, read, watched, learned, thought. When I started back (although I am still not highly skilled), my output was 10X better than it had been, even from the git-go....


Hate to break it to you Bob but at least some of the improvement was because you were 10 years more patient than before. I know that I learned kinda late that working at everything as fast as is physically possible is not necessarily a good idea.

Vaughn McMillan
08-04-2006, 5:17 AM
Very interesting article, Per. Thanks for the link. There were a lot of points made that I could relate to. In my past life as a musician and guitar teacher, I saw some people who did seem to have innate ability, but they could be surpassed by others who simply did more effortful study. For example, an old acquaintance of mine, who went on to play guitar for a lot of people (Rick Springfield, John Waite, and others), started out taking lessons from some of the same guys I learned from, and in the beginning, he had no apparent talent for music (according to his teachers). All he had was unending drive, and lots of time. He worked harder at at than anyone I knew in the business, and became a very good guitarist.

I also saw evidence of talent blooming at younger ages, but I attribute at least some of it to better instruments and instruction being available. (I realize the "better instruments" argument doesn't apply to chess players.) In my own musical training, I realize any success I had was a combination of some built-in abilities, plus many years of practicing things that were just a little harder than the day before. As soon as I stopped pushing myself to play harder stuff than I was capable of, my skill level plateaued.

In something like woodworking, which seems to be a combination of technical skill, artistic interpretation, and clever problem-solving, I think it's important to continue raising one's own bar and keep trying to push the limits of experience.

- Vaughn