According to Epstein, breath of experience, self-testing, and slow, seemingly inefficient trainings help enhance learning and performance.
A high-repetition workload negatively impacted performance. Years of experience had no impact at all. If not experience, repetition, or resources, what helped creators make better comics on average and innovate? The answer (in addition to not being overworked) was how many of twenty-two different genres a creator had worked in, from comedy and crime, to fantasy, adult, nonfiction, and sci-fi. Where length of experience did not differentiate creators, breadth of experience did. Broad genre experience made creators better on average and more likely to innovate.
…learning itself is best done slowly to accumulate lasting knowledge, even when that means performing poorly on tests of immediate progress. That is, the most effective learning looks inefficient; it looks like falling behind.
Training without hints is slow and error-ridden. It is, essentially, what we normally think of as testing, except for the purpose of learning rather than evaluation–when “test” becomes a dreaded four-letter word…Used for learning, testing, including self-testing, is a very desirable difficulty.
The types of training/practice that Epstein talked about are often uncomfortable and require effort and reflection. It is easier to do mindless repetitions and think that we are making progress. But in the long term, it is the progress and mastery that bring us satisfaction.
Human don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.
Sebastian Junger
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