I am currently a dental student starting the clinical portion of my schooling. At the school where I attend, the beginning of the third year is when we start treating patients full time in the clinic. So far the hand skills portion of dental school has been harder than I expected. I found myself going into the simulation lab after hours multiple times a week to practice and yet still getting worse grades than my classmates who never practice outside of class. This is one of the first times in my academic career that I have really felt behind the curve. The skills have been slow coming and in addition to that, in 2 days I begin to start treating real patients for the first time.
I understand that each year thousands of doctors, dentists, and other health workers start treating patients for the first time. And to extrapolate that further, millions of people each year attempt to learn a skill, or take a skill that they have to the next level. Often this works out well as long as the individual sticks with it. … eventually. But is there a better way to learn? A faster way? More efficient? My first question is simply – “What is the best framework to develop and perform well at a given skill set?” There must be some individual variation, but to what extent? And as far as there are consistencies across inidividuals, what are the golden principles to hold on to?
My second question comes from Josh Waitzkins book “The art of learning” Josh is a master of building skill sets. He talks in his book about developing his skill in martial arts to the extent that in a fight he would time specific moves to when he knew his opponent would blink. To me right now that’s a level of mastery that seems impossible. I mean Josh is certainly not the average man. He had a movie made about his chess prodigiousness by the time he was 13. He has mastered multiple disciplines to the level of virtuosity. Obviously people like him exist – just look at the Sistine chapel, or the Chicago Bulls run in the 90s. But can that level of virtuosity be taught to someone considered to be normal? Can I, a very normal guy in my late 20s, also develop skills to this extent? So I guess my next question is if anyone with the right approach and correct tool kit can attain the level of mastery in their field that Josh has achieved in his? And if not, what is the top level of mastery that the average person could hope to attain?
I don’t know where these questions will take me. But I know that a lot of people must feel the same as I do – to have a need to be excellent at a skill that they feel weak at, and to feel like they are lacking a compass to guide them. I hope that any insights I gain on my own path to skill mastery will be helpful to others in their own struggle. Most of all I hope that what I learn and share here will help to teach people not to fear. Unique skills are the keys to opportunity, and so with proper training there is no need to fear the future.
