When I tackle a specific problem, such as revising my WordPress themes, I can be like a dog gnawing on a bone. But as I was learning my way around my first Mac and the new version of WordPress, I noticed that I was spending a lot of time looking at a picture in my head of where things are now. Often pushing to get things done wasn’t as effective as taking a moment or two out to look and get oriented. It reminded me of rats in a maze, trying different paths and making a mental map of their new surroundings.
In a classic study of latent learning researchers let a group of hungry rats explore a maze for ten days with no food rewards. When those rats were rewarded with food on the eleventh day, they quickly negotiated the maze as rapidly as rats who had been rewarded from the start. They had learned a great deal during their period of unrewarded exploration.
I can learn from that. Becoming proficient in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is going to take a long time. The rules are complicated, and trying to rush will be counterproductive. So I’m doing a lot of time exploring, seeing how different authors have done their WordPress themes and noticing similarities and differences. It doesn’t matter that I don’t always understand what they’re doing…I am starting to recognize patterns. I’m also reading some books on the subject, and parts are becoming more clear. The important thing is not to feel frustrated by what I don’t understand. Latent learning is going on…I can trust the process. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
What about you? What are you learning? What have you learned that you weren’t aware of at the time? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Thanks to David, bikehikebabe and Robert for commenting on last week’s post.
Jean, this is an excellent learning lesson for all of us. Whether we’re aware of it or not, our minds are always processing whatever they come across. Once we learn to tap into that – wow!
Thanks for the lesson, Jean!
I have a “light bulb” moment when a solution suddenly is realized. And why didn’t I think of that before? Because latent learning happens first.
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You have a great attitude. Wonderful! What am I learning? I’m learning how to write — and I’m learning how to blog. Simple? Only in theory, in practice it’s challenge. Anyone can write, just like anyone can cook. But to become a master chef takes a long time, hard work, and patience. Stay up!
Robert,
Glad you liked the post. As I’ve said before, I love your WILF series and look forward to it every month.
bikehikebabe,
🙂 Often our conscious minds are the last to know what’s going on. It behooves us to have a bit of humility.
Bamboo Forest,
I agree, mastering a skill takes persistence and patience. I think people cheat themselves when they become too goal-oriented… for me enjoying the process is the only way to go. It saves a lot of frustration!
Jean,
Yes, it is amazing how we can learn without even realizing we are doing so, but your post also brought another thought to mind. It made me think about how we tend to wander about in a maze of confusion until we find true meaning in our lives. Once we find that important purpose, we can navigate much better through situations that might have seemed confusing before. Purpose is clarifying.
I don’t know…just a thought! Great post–we could all stand to learn a lesson or two from lab rats!
Lisa
Lisa,
I agree that having a purpose makes navigating a lot easier. But sometimes we have to do a lot of exploring before we figure out that purpose.
🙂 As the saying goes, “Sometimes we have to kiss a lot of frogs before we find our prince.” Thanks for coming by!
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