Humans are apes. We imitate. We do this to learn, to try and become the person we want to be.
Watching an expert work, they often seem fast, confident, and even casual in their approach. They break rules. They joke with the people around them. They move faster, yet with more precision, than you can do even with total focus.
This can lead to big problems when we’re trying to learn from them. Because we’re not experts in their subject, we’ll mostly notice the most obvious, impressive aspects of the expert’s demeanor. For many people, that will be their rule violations, their social poise (and sometimes aggression), the shortcuts they take, and their raw confidence and speed.
It’s these attributes that lend the expert their social status, and make them attractive targets for imitation. Unfortunately, aping these qualities works directly against our own ability to acquire expertise.
Apeing The Experts
Humans are apes. We imitate. We do this to learn, to try and become the person we want to be.
Watching an expert work, they often seem fast, confident, and even casual in their approach. They break rules. They joke with the people around them. They move faster, yet with more precision, than you can do even with total focus.
This can lead to big problems when we’re trying to learn from them. Because we’re not experts in their subject, we’ll mostly notice the most obvious, impressive aspects of the expert’s demeanor. For many people, that will be their rule violations, their social poise (and sometimes aggression), the shortcuts they take, and their raw confidence and speed.
It’s these attributes that lend the expert their social status, and make them attractive targets for imitation. Unfortunately, aping these qualities works directly against our own ability to acquire expertise.