Learning is a process of trial and error. You try something. It fails. You identify what went wrong. You try something else.
Learning progresses quickly when you can reliably identify what went wrong. The best way to guarantee you’ll know what you did wrong is to isolate a single variable. Start with a process that works. Change exactly one thing. If the new process works better you’ll know exactly why. If the new process fails you’ll know exactly why.
The hard part is “start with a process that works”. Suppose you want to be a magician. “Start with a process that works” means “perform a magic trick guaranteed to fool your audience”. But if you’re not a magician yet then you cannot perform a magic trick guaranteed to fool your audience. You cannot learn misdirection from books alone. You must practice on real people.
You cajole your friends into watching you. You perform a magic trick you read about in The Amateur Magician’s Handbook. It falls flat. Why? You don’t know. Maybe you goofed up the mechanics of the slight. Maybe your misdirection is mistimed. Maybe you are boring.
Magic tricks are finicky Rube Goldberg machines. The whole deception shatters if you get just one critical component wrong. There is no guarantee you did just one thing wrong. Novice magicians often do everything wrong simultaneously.
A better approach is to learn acting first. Acting is simpler than magic. Actors have to entertain an audience and direct the audience’s attention but actors don’t have to do it while palming objects and messing with invisible string. Acting involves fewer variables than magic. If you learn acting first then when you learn magic you’ll know you’re not failing to entertain your audience or direct their attention. If the trick falls flat you’ll know it’s because you did something wrong that’s specific to magic tricks, like goofing up a sleight.
Acting is prerequisite skill to magic tricks. Magicians are a subset of actors; all magicians are actors but not all actors are magicians. It is possible to learn magic and acting simultaneously (I did) but it is more efficient to learn acting first and then magic.
Prerequisite Skills
Learning is a process of trial and error. You try something. It fails. You identify what went wrong. You try something else.
Learning progresses quickly when you can reliably identify what went wrong. The best way to guarantee you’ll know what you did wrong is to isolate a single variable. Start with a process that works. Change exactly one thing. If the new process works better you’ll know exactly why. If the new process fails you’ll know exactly why.
The hard part is “start with a process that works”. Suppose you want to be a magician. “Start with a process that works” means “perform a magic trick guaranteed to fool your audience”. But if you’re not a magician yet then you cannot perform a magic trick guaranteed to fool your audience. You cannot learn misdirection from books alone. You must practice on real people.
You cajole your friends into watching you. You perform a magic trick you read about in The Amateur Magician’s Handbook. It falls flat. Why? You don’t know. Maybe you goofed up the mechanics of the slight. Maybe your misdirection is mistimed. Maybe you are boring.
Magic tricks are finicky Rube Goldberg machines. The whole deception shatters if you get just one critical component wrong. There is no guarantee you did just one thing wrong. Novice magicians often do everything wrong simultaneously.
A better approach is to learn acting first. Acting is simpler than magic. Actors have to entertain an audience and direct the audience’s attention but actors don’t have to do it while palming objects and messing with invisible string. Acting involves fewer variables than magic. If you learn acting first then when you learn magic you’ll know you’re not failing to entertain your audience or direct their attention. If the trick falls flat you’ll know it’s because you did something wrong that’s specific to magic tricks, like goofing up a sleight.
Acting is prerequisite skill to magic tricks. Magicians are a subset of actors; all magicians are actors but not all actors are magicians. It is possible to learn magic and acting simultaneously (I did) but it is more efficient to learn acting first and then magic.