>>Most things that are widely practiced, like cooking or drawing, have an "average" perceived level of skill that people of a given culture are expected to have.<<
But remember: sometimes different groups are expected to have different levels of skill, as with emotional labor, sports, home repair, math, etc. Then you may get a higher-level person berated for underpreformance, where a less-skilled person is exceeding al, expectations.
>>If you frequently invent new things and/or even trained people keep saying, "Wait, how did you do that?" then you may be an adept.<<
What if people keep acting like you are an expert, even if you are mostly osmosis-and-self-taught?
>>So we're talking a moderate level of expertise here -- tasks that could be done by an older apprentice or a journeyman. That actually is the lion's share of work in many fields, although some are more specialized. In blacksmithing, a lot of what people need is simple stuff like drawer pulls or campfire forks. In office work, a lot of it is typing. If I go into a hardware store, I don't need a master, I just need someone who knows the stock well enough to tell me which of the 10 products on the shelf is best suited to the project I want to do.<<
...hunh. My old volunteer place self-sorted out that way, but with situational authority (since we needed multiple different skills in use, often concurrently or even linked-in-tandem).
>>The bottom rungs on most learning ladders are plain old level-grinding, and the reason not many people are "expert" at them is they haven't put in the time. They're not incredibly difficult skills, they just take practice. <<
I guess I should start level-grinding some of my skills, then.
>>If you don't get the subskills and basic skills right, then the more advanced stuff won't work properly and you'll probably have no idea why.<<
Laugh-laugh-laugh. The absolute first skill I would like to teach kids in my care (before First Aid, EFA and so on) is healthy boundaries. How to recognize them, how to enforce them, how to sort problems into 'mine' and 'hand off,' etc, etc.
>>Some fields are poorly organized and taught, so you have to do all this work yourself. Others are very well deconstructed and your teacher or book will present them in a logical order.<<
Occasionally you also get stuff that is technically well-written, but not in a way that is a match for your needs. I wrote a book to fix that once...the people I was helping didn't have six months to practice grammar, they needed to be able to navigate stores and pleasantries and the occasional emergency /now/.
>>..you have little competition and can probably sell things sooner than if you were trying to write for a big popular genre like romance.<<
I want more romance with nice-and-realistic people and healthy emotional skills. Hence why I binge-watched the show I found with that as a feature, and it only took, what a few days?
>>Again, context matters: if you are on a wilderness expedition, people will care more that someone knows how to stop heavy bleeding effectively than whether they have credentials to do so. In a city they're fussier.<<
Also, how many people with your skillset are /willing/ to help the current situation? I've managed to be the 'expert' for explaining: - various specialized jargon that I am not foramlly trained in (car repair, carpentry, sewing, some medical, some educational) - how vaccinations work, and the ethics of if people 'should' be vaccinated) - How To Talk To Women Without Offending Anyone Or Starting a Fight - basic emergency skill (like calling in an emergency)
Sure, there's a million people in the world better/more trained at sewing, or auto repair, or tactfully explaining social skills...but it doesn't count for much if they are busy, unavailable, or unwilling to help.
>>Thinking about this, if it's really a standard, that would explain a lot about why people so often treat me as an expert even in areas of my least skill or interest. Because that is still way far above average. Comparing to all the people who read maybe one book a year, yeah, I'm a Renaissance man. Oh, and farmemory, I've permed a bunch of stuff from other lives, but that's less useful to most other folks.<<
You have 1) a useful array of skills, 2) are good at cross-referencing them, and you 3) can distill them into sensible, coherent, and useful chunks 4) which you then sometimes present in an entertaining way (i.e. stories).
>>Now let's talk about those three books. It matters which three books you pick, and I can think of several sets that would produce excellent results depending on the topic and your goals.<<
A good variety is useful, unless you want to super-specialize. If getting one book, an introductory one with a lot of samples is useful - think a homesteading book with each chapter covering a different skill, or my new art book with each chapter covering a different material. You can get more specific once you know what you need more help with or are more interested in (and yes those are different categories).
Also, if cost is an issue, you may be able to find low-cost or even free resources. Like, webpages, menus, those catalogues people are always getting in the mail. It won't work for everything, but it may be worth considereing.
>>Well, that's how I became an editor.<<
Or my language shenanigans. Also, you keep telling me to write down my ideas. (Yup, working on it...)
>>If you can reliably answer questions -- or even answer them more often than the asker can -- then people will tend to think of you as an expert. So then they'll ask you more and more things.<<
...which explains how I become The Reference Person. And at that one job, the Spanish-speaking Person. (My coworkers kept giving me funny sideways looks the first time they heard me chatting with the Spanish-speaking customers, which was actually kind of funny.)
>>Do note that not quite 100% of books are for text learners. There are visual manuals to most crafts and many activities. For instance, a crochet pattern can be in text or in symbols. A visual thinking will often learn better from the symbol version. Quilt blocks are pretty visual, and often taught through image tutorials or just a pattern to cut out and piece together. It's worth looking, or asking a librarian or bookstore owner, for references in your preferred learning mode.<<
This is also another use for art skills, if you have them or know someone who does.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-21 05:18 am (UTC)But remember: sometimes different groups are expected to have different levels of skill, as with emotional labor, sports, home repair, math, etc. Then you may get a higher-level person berated for underpreformance, where a less-skilled person is exceeding al, expectations.
>>If you frequently invent new things and/or even trained people keep saying, "Wait, how did you do that?" then you may be an adept.<<
What if people keep acting like you are an expert, even if you are mostly osmosis-and-self-taught?
>>So we're talking a moderate level of expertise here -- tasks that could be done by an older apprentice or a journeyman. That actually is the lion's share of work in many fields, although some are more specialized. In blacksmithing, a lot of what people need is simple stuff like drawer pulls or campfire forks. In office work, a lot of it is typing. If I go into a hardware store, I don't need a master, I just need someone who knows the stock well enough to tell me which of the 10 products on the shelf is best suited to the project I want to do.<<
...hunh. My old volunteer place self-sorted out that way, but with situational authority (since we needed multiple different skills in use, often concurrently or even linked-in-tandem).
>>The bottom rungs on most learning ladders are plain old level-grinding, and the reason not many people are "expert" at them is they haven't put in the time. They're not incredibly difficult skills, they just take practice. <<
I guess I should start level-grinding some of my skills, then.
>>If you don't get the subskills and basic skills right, then the more advanced stuff won't work properly and you'll probably have no idea why.<<
Laugh-laugh-laugh. The absolute first skill I would like to teach kids in my care (before First Aid, EFA and so on) is healthy boundaries. How to recognize them, how to enforce them, how to sort problems into 'mine' and 'hand off,' etc, etc.
>>Some fields are poorly organized and taught, so you have to do all this work yourself. Others are very well deconstructed and your teacher or book will present them in a logical order.<<
Occasionally you also get stuff that is technically well-written, but not in a way that is a match for your needs. I wrote a book to fix that once...the people I was helping didn't have six months to practice grammar, they needed to be able to navigate stores and pleasantries and the occasional emergency /now/.
>>..you have little competition and can probably sell things sooner than if you were trying to write for a big popular genre like romance.<<
I want more romance with nice-and-realistic people and healthy emotional skills. Hence why I binge-watched the show I found with that as a feature, and it only took, what a few days?
>>Again, context matters: if you are on a wilderness expedition, people will care more that someone knows how to stop heavy bleeding effectively than whether they have credentials to do so. In a city they're fussier.<<
Also, how many people with your skillset are /willing/ to help the current situation? I've managed to be the 'expert' for explaining:
- various specialized jargon that I am not foramlly trained in (car repair, carpentry, sewing, some medical, some educational)
- how vaccinations work, and the ethics of if people 'should' be vaccinated)
- How To Talk To Women Without Offending Anyone Or Starting a Fight
- basic emergency skill (like calling in an emergency)
Sure, there's a million people in the world better/more trained at sewing, or auto repair, or tactfully explaining social skills...but it doesn't count for much if they are busy, unavailable, or unwilling to help.
>>Thinking about this, if it's really a standard, that would explain a lot about why people so often treat me as an expert even in areas of my least skill or interest. Because that is still way far above average. Comparing to all the people who read maybe one book a year, yeah, I'm a Renaissance man. Oh, and farmemory, I've permed a bunch of stuff from other lives, but that's less useful to most other folks.<<
You have
1) a useful array of skills,
2) are good at cross-referencing them, and you
3) can distill them into sensible, coherent, and useful chunks
4) which you then sometimes present in an entertaining way (i.e. stories).
>>Now let's talk about those three books. It matters which three books you pick, and I can think of several sets that would produce excellent results depending on the topic and your goals.<<
A good variety is useful, unless you want to super-specialize. If getting one book, an introductory one with a lot of samples is useful - think a homesteading book with each chapter covering a different skill, or my new art book with each chapter covering a different material. You can get more specific once you know what you need more help with or are more interested in (and yes those are different categories).
Also, if cost is an issue, you may be able to find low-cost or even free resources. Like, webpages, menus, those catalogues people are always getting in the mail. It won't work for everything, but it may be worth considereing.
>>Well, that's how I became an editor.<<
Or my language shenanigans. Also, you keep telling me to write down my ideas. (Yup, working on it...)
>>If you can reliably answer questions -- or even answer them more often than the asker can -- then people will tend to think of you as an expert. So then they'll ask you more and more things.<<
...which explains how I become The Reference Person. And at that one job, the Spanish-speaking Person. (My coworkers kept giving me funny sideways looks the first time they heard me chatting with the Spanish-speaking customers, which was actually kind of funny.)
>>Do note that not quite 100% of books are for text learners. There are visual manuals to most crafts and many activities. For instance, a crochet pattern can be in text or in symbols. A visual thinking will often learn better from the symbol version. Quilt blocks are pretty visual, and often taught through image tutorials or just a pattern to cut out and piece together. It's worth looking, or asking a librarian or bookstore owner, for references in your preferred learning mode.<<
This is also another use for art skills, if you have them or know someone who does.