In the past week, I have been through things that made me learn a few lessons. Lessons about patience, determination, consistency, and the most important lesson that I learned is how to learn new things! So, what exactly did I do the past week you may ask. I was working on a video, A video that I wanted to make since I saw that one scene in a movie long time back. With no idea how to achieve it, I wrote down the idea and thought about the possible ways I could achieve that result. And just started working on it. Anytime I faced a problem just went to the internet and googled my problem because these problems were so specific I couldn’t get any tutorials on youtube about it. I was going on forums and reading blogs about it written by others who faced similar problems. I never liked forums it was just a boring way to learn something because there is so much to read! But this time it was something different, this time I didn’t mind reading long articles and digging deep into forum threads to find the answers because if I didn’t find the solution I wouldn’t have gone to the next step and the video wouldn’t have been completed. While I was struggling through those problems I realized a few things which I am going to share with you all in this blog.
Main goal
The main goal suddenly was not making that video but to solve the next problem that comes up. Video making as certain steps and each step had its own problems. I was doing this complete VFX scene for the first time. These problems for me were on a higher scale. Though I had some experience with the software, I didn’t know a lot about the process of the project I was dealing with. Like I talked about in my last blog (“Anything is possible”) that all the problems get easier when broken down into smaller tasks. I started to look at myself as not a video creator but a problem solver and that completely changed my workflow. I would talk about this specific phenomenon of seeing yourself as something different to solve a problem in some future blog. But I was solving problems! Back to back...I was learning new things, new concepts, and not even realizing it. All I cared for is to solve the problem I was facing at that moment.
That gave rise to my realization that the best way to learn was “The Problem Solving Way!”.
Why?
This way works the best for me because I had never gained so much information in such a small amount of time and the retention was almost 99%! I learned new concepts without realizing I was learning it. That’s the point I want to focus on in this blog. I am not trying to compare it to the education system or anything but a way that you can learn about things that are beyond that. This could be learning to play the guitar, learning to use a software, learning how to code, or basically anything because problems are everywhere!
LEARNING THE PROBLEM-SOLVING WAY
The best learning is when you have a motive to learn it, in my opinion. It isn’t that difficult to see that you cant have a better motive to do something than having a problem to solve. Having a problem is like a leaking tap and that leaking tap is your only source of water.
The problem: It’s leaking.
The conclusion: The leaking should stop.
Now you have a clear motive for the knowledge you are about to search! You know the reward that you’ll find when you’re done with the job. That would be an instant boost for you to learn the required techniques or gain the required knowledge. In short, you have a destination for your journey. But you cant even take your time with it. The water is running out, you don’t wanna waste that either. Now, there is this new element of a sense of urgency added to your pursuit of that knowledge. This will make sure you are consistent with learning, even if that requires you to go beyond your comfort zone. Since you have that feeling that your water is running out you try to find the most optimum solution, suddenly trial and error methods don’t seem so tiring. You start using different materials to stop the flow, different adhesives to stick them, etc. You are trying out things you are failing but still not giving up until you find what you exactly need. Your main focus is on solving that problem, you don’t even realize that you learned so many ways of doing it wrong. You just keep on doing it. When you struggle with a certain problem for long enough or the problem is quick but you put in a lot of thoughts solving it when you finally solve it or find that optimum solution to it, the sense of accomplishment that you get from it is that high and seems more satisfying at the end. It helps you to keep at it and increases your confidence in learning new things and you don’t fear learning something new.
The Main Reward
But you know, it’s still not the best thing that you get from learning the problem-solving way. The best thing is, when you face a similar problem to that, not only do you know exactly know what to do but also what is not to be done. Even if somebody asks you why this specific solution was undertaken, you will be knowledgable enough to answer that question. Hence, people would trust your direction as you have not just gained that information but you have experienced the failures.
Even in my case, I felt this constant urge to solve the next problem. I was getting more and more confident with every problem I solved and finally finished it!
This was my experience with a single video project! Did you have any experiences like this? Tell me in the comment section!
The link to the video I have been blabbering throughout the blog:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQShYyHapR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link