Ultralearning Ch. 12 - Principle 9 - Experimentation
Explore Outside Your Comfort Zone
Results? Why, I have gotten lots of results ! I know several thousand things that won’t work. — Thomas Edison
The author discusses the artist Van Gogh’s story. He started late, but still became one of the most famous painters of all time. He wasn’t very good at drawing, at first. Despite having attempted formal schooling, Van Gogh was self-taught, capturing only brief moments of more traditional education.
How does someone who starts late, with no obvious talent and many handicaps, nonetheless become one of the world’s greatest artists, with one of the most recognizable and distinctive styles? Experimentation.
How Van Gogh Learned to Paint
Van Gogh’s response to this challenge was a pattern that would repeat throughout his life. First, he would identify a learning resource, method, or style and pursue it with incredible vigor, creating dozens, if not hundreds, of works in that direction. After this burst of intensity, aware of his still-existing deficiencies, he would apply himself to a new resource, method, or style and start again. There is a parallel between this pattern and the one used by successful scientists: hypothesis, experiment, results, repeat.
Perhaps his aggressive, experimental strides into painting allowed him to mature into not merely a proficient painter but an unforgettably unique one.
Van Gogh did not have much luck with traditional avenues. Therefore he turned to self-education, pursuing home-study courses that promised to teach him the basics of drawing. He turned to books mainly. Copying was another strategy Van Gogh employed early on that he would continue late into his artistic career. Van Gogh studied from other artists, friends, and mentors.
There are two important things to note about van Gogh’s experiments in art. The first is the variety of methods, ideas, and resources he applied. Since he struggled with many aspects of painting, the author believes that variation was important to his eventually finding a style that would work for him — one that would take advantage of his strengths and diminish the significance of his weaknesses. The second important thing to note is his intensity.
Like all the ultra learners the author has discussed so far, Van Gogh was tenacious in his efforts to become an artist. Despite receiving much negative feedback and discouragement, he pursued his art relentlessly, sometimes producing as much as a new painting every day. These two factors, variation and aggressive exploration, enabled him to push through his early obstacles and produce some of the most iconic and brilliant works ever painted.
Experimentation is the key to mastery
As your skill develops, it’s often no longer enough to simply follow the examples of others; you need to experiment and find your own path. A second reason for the value of experimentation as you approach mastery is that abilities are more likely to stagnate after you’ve mastered the basics.
The difference between a novice programmer and a master isn’t usually that the novice cannot solve certain problems. Rather, it’s that the master knows the best way to solve a problem, which will be the most efficient and clean and cause the fewest headaches later on. As mastery becomes a process of unlearning over accumulation, experimentation becomes synonymous with learning as you force yourself to go outside your comfort zone and try new things. As creativity becomes valuable, experimentation becomes essential.
Three Types of Experimentation
- Experimenting with Learning Resources
- Experimenting with Technique
- Experimenting with Style
The Mindset of Experimentation
Have a growth mindset. To get into the right mental space for experimenting, you need not only to see your abilities as something you can improve but understand that there is a huge number of potential avenues to do this. Exploration, not dogmatism, is the key to realizing that potential.
How to Experiment
- Tactic 1: Copy, then Create
- Tactic 2: Compare Methods side-by-side
- Tactic 3: Introduce new constraints
- Tactic 4: Find your superpower in the hybrid of unrelated skills
- Tactic 5: Explore the Extremes