Structures of Growth

When we set out to acquire a new skill, we tend to think about our development as a linear activity. We’ll practice and we will steadily get better and better. This mind-set can set us up for disappointment. Many activities do not follow a linear growth curve.

Some skills are acquired logarithmically. You get really good really fast and then hit a point of diminishing returns from continued practice. Everything is coming easy until you hit a wall and gains are harder and harder to come by. Think golf.

Other activities follow an exponential path. It takes years of toil mastering the basics before you have a sufficient foundation to see explosive growth. Many people give up pursuing these types of skills just before it is about to all come together. Calculus was this way for me. Painting also follows this pattern.

The important thing is to identify the structure of growth in the activity you are pursuing so that you can adopt an appropriate mind-set.

Don’t get overconfident in the early stages of a logarithmic activity and don’t quit right before it starts getting good in an exponential activity. Know what you are up against. Learning is rarely linear.