Okay Taste

There’s a tantalizing in-between skill level that you eventually reach when you’re learning things, which you reach when you’re just capable enough to understand that you’re still absolutely terrible at whatever it is you’re trying to learn. It’s not the same as being beginner-bad, because beginners are supposed to be bad. It starts when you’ve been learning for a while, and you’ve done enough learning that you begin to think you’ve got it all figured out.

That’s a blissful phase to be in. But as you gain more experience at whatever it is you’re doing, you start to see the finer distinctions between where you’re currently at and where people who are at the next level are, and that doesn’t feel blissful at all. You realize, “Oh, I’m still terrible.” But this humbling moment is also the start of something exciting, because your vocabulary and worldview have expanded. It’s a miracle to suddenly be able to note distinctions that you didn’t know existed the day before.

You might not know exactly how to get better at the thing you’re learning, but you can now tell what better looks like, and you’re able to see the work in a new way. New concepts and words are learned that allow you to think about the work differently. You’ve entered a world that you didn’t have access to previously.

When you’re in the “I still suck at this” phase it’s understandable to feel a moment of disappointment, but think of it as a connective experience. You’re linked to all of the other people who once struggled to learn this, and went through this phase themselves. Use the realization that you’re still not very good as the impetus to keep getting better.