blog: learning to see

src/content/blog/2023-08-28-something-about-learning-to-see.md

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+---
+title: Something about learning to see
+date: 2023-08-28T14:32:49.131Z
+slug: 2023-08-28-something-about-learning-to-see
+author: Thomas Wilson
+
+---
+A younger, self-obsessed, version of me thought the details of "expertise" (completely devoid of context) were the secret.  I think that attitude actually helped lay a pretty solid foundation to my professional past-lives, but I have tried hard to move on from it.
+
+I missed a few things, like the context of not being a relatively wealthy man in a metropolitan area in the western world, and also, like, the absolute joy of doing things slowly. 
+
+But there's something in there that really engages my brain.  It's the same part that loves to watch strangers doing cool things on their laptops in public.  Like when I watched a guy do something that resembled gene sequencing or protein visualisation on a train, or watching someone who _really_ gets photo editing blitz through like a hundred photos in five minutes. 
+
+Most recently, it's been about looking at every detail of the bespoke suit jackets in my wardrobe (I am learning to make my own clothes).  
+
+Whatever I have become convincingly good at (making clothes, writing software) - it becomes about *seeing*.  About learning to see.  Things like:
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+- The order of assembly for a waistband: how has the lining gone under the waistband facing without showing through on the other side?
+- Setting pace in a run or cycle: seeing elevation gain now and over the next 1-2k, is now really the time to open the gas if the 14% incline coming up will bonk you, and run on to the next forty kilometres?
+- Seeing process as waste in software development: is getting "design sign off" a way of increasing value delivery to customer, or is it going to result in stronger segregation of responsibilities (i.e. reduced collaboration) and longer time-to-delivery of value (i.e. slower value streams).
+
+Learning to see the details takes time.
+
+What's worse, there are so many false-friends between ways of seeing - things that feel intuitive but are wrong.  The discipline of software development in particular is a minefield of "you'd think so, but it's actually completely the opposite".
+
+I have seen myself struggle with the most real-world truths: that going fast now in this one kilometre stretch doesn't mean that every kilometre after is going to be okay.  Adding in additional fabric to a pattern over here will cause drape *everywhere else*.  
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+On the plus side, I am pretty good at getting the abstract.
+
+I think this is good to remember: that the problems or frustrations or ignorance I have are probably connected.  The reason why the shirts I make are too loose is probably also the reason the trousers I make are too tight.  
+
+Which means that if I can *just learn to see better* - I will fix at least two problems at once.  
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+Or more likely: I'll stumble on the next problem.
+
+Learning to see differently is hard.  Which is sort of a circular reference: difficult things are the things where you have to look at the problems with a new (to you) way of thinking; things are easy when you look at them the way an athelete/engineer/designer would; it is difficult to learn a new way to see a problem.
+
+I did a PhD in chemical education - I spent four whole years thinking quite deeply about how seeing the world, and "seeing" the molecules in your mental model of the world, can help explain things.
+
+Look, learn to see, or try to change the way you see.
+
+And when you learn to see differently, know that you did a hard thing.  A really impactful hard thing.