The shit blog of Paul Chris Jones

The human mind is surprisingly good at learning new skills. Think of the number of times you've been impressed at someone else's skill - graphic design, juggling, drawing, playing an instrument, etc. To someone without the skill, it can seem unbelievable that the person can do that. But with enough practise, it can be second nature to you. It's all about the brain's neural pathways reconstructing, I guess.

Learning a new skill can take a long time. It takes children years to learn to read and write as well as adults do. Some skills can take a lot less time - it took me a week to learn to ride a bike without stabilisers.

There's always (a familiar feeling of) frustration involved, but something has to keep you coming back for more practise. There can be a number of motivations - some I can think of are: finding the skill cool or interesting, learning it to make life easier (or out of necessity), and aspirationalism. If you find the skill boring, then you won't engage with it and you'll struggle to learn it.

An interesting factor is, how long do you practise for? 20 minutes, then a break? I'm not certain, but I think that's a good amount of time.

Here's some skills I've learnt

I'll start with a few ones most people already have...

Talking (and making sense of others' speech)

An extremely useful skill that we pick up as early children. And not only did you learn to talk, you learnt a language, too, which is something a lot of adults struggle with when they try to learn a second language. Well done, give yourself a pat on the back.

Walking

Walking is 'controlled falling'. Toddlers can learn to walk remarkably quickly.

Reading and writing

This is a skill most people have, and probably wouldn't consider a 'skill'. You'd never see it on a CV. Yet it really is remarkable how you're making sense of what this says from a page filled with black messy lines (i.e. this text).

Riding a bike

This is the classic skill. People say, 'you never forget how to ride a bike'. You don't forget how to talk or read or write either, or forget other skills you've learned. You can become 'rusty' but you can usually 'pick it up again'.

Most people learn to ride a bike as children and society expects adults to be able to do this. Therefore, if you're thinking of writing a sitcom, include a character who can't ride a bike. Trust me, it'll be funny.

By the way, kudos to you if can ride a bike no-handed.

Touch typing

Shortly after I first discovered the internet, I learnt how to touch type so I could keep up with the flow of conversation in chatrooms. This is the skill I remember learning the most vividly. Touch-typing is very difficult at first and goes against your instincts if you only know hunt and peck. Basically each key has a finger assigned to it, and should only be pressed by that finger (each finger has more than 1 key). Your brain begins to remember the sequence of finger movements for common words like 'the' and in the end you can type without having to think of the positions of the letters on the keyboard. I can reach speeds of 70wpm, so nah nah nah.

Driving

Controlling a car is quite simple in theory (especially automatics) - essentially you just push down on the accelator and steer. Manual cars also require you to select the right gear using the gearstick and clutch. But I know this is a skill because of the learning curve I've been a witness to. Nowadays I can drive without having to think about it (in fact sometimes I just close my eyes and dream I'm on a beach). But in the early days, it needed a lot of mental effort.

Here's some skills I haven't learnt... yet

Juggling

Another classic skill. If you can't do it, watching someone juggle is impressive. So you give a go, and you find can't do it.

I tried learning it over a few days, and I started to think I was getting it. It was probably my imagination though so I gave it up.

Playing an instrument

Trying to learn the acoustic guitar at the moment. The trouble is, I rarely practise. It's partly because it's embarrasing to play it around other people when you're rubbish at it.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid

Epictetus

A second language

I've tried lots of tactics to learn another language  (German, or sometimes French). Classes, foreign chat rooms, trying to read foreign books, learning a word a day. In the end, none of them has worked. I have a suspicion that by far the best way to learn a language is to converse with someone who knows it. Even better, live in the country and force yourself to learn it to survive. You'll soon learn the word for bread when you haven't eaten for several days.

What's the boundary between 'skills' and 'knowledge'? For me, skills are something you can learn to do without having to think about what you're doing. Knowledge requires mental thought.

It photoshopping a skill? It's true that you can better at it, but does that come from knowledge instead? Such as learning which menu each option is nestled under, or know how to use each tool. I'm curious as to whether photoshopping, or programming, or accountancy, can be considered as skills.

Intrigingly, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award has a pdf file with a list of skills. People on the scheme are meant to choose a skill to learn. You can find it here (scroll down to the bottom of that page).

Can you think of any interesting skills? Preferably something that'll make me money.