Glenn's blog

There is this moment of realization that happens in the process of learning. Learning something new, something that requires grasping a new concept or framework, is hard work.

And it often seems unachievable.

But then all of a sudden it clicks, the framework is in place - and it's as if you always knew it. From that point on its just a matter of refinement, of adding to the framework, but the basics are a part of you.

One personal example is when I learned to read. Learning to read is incredibly difficult. It's year's of work, hundreds of hours of being read to, of phonics, of sounding out words, of memorizing sounds.

I hated the whole process. All the practicing, the repetition, the frustration.

But I still remember one day picking up a book and being able to read it. It had clicked. From then on it wasn't a struggle at all. There was work learning spelling and new words, but because I knew how to read I had the framework in place to learn more.

From then on it was just refinement.

How often do we stop short of that moment, and why?

Once we grow up we forget what the process is like - which probably means we miss out on a lot because we're afraid of the effort involved in learning something completely new.