The Practice of Doing

The Practice of Doing is a fundamental emphasis on doing — not on planning, thinking about doing, practicing, or learning, but actually doing. Getting things done. Building. Creating. Finishing a project.

For so many years I was focused on practicing, training, and learning. I was in an intense, somewhat chaotic, broad, deep, and challenging phase of development. Over the course of those years, I knew that I needed patience because of how much I had to learn, and how far I could see clearly that I had to go.

Yet over the course of that decade, I always thought that the work would resolve itself into something of its own accord. It never did. It was then that I realized the difference between learning and doing. And that a completely different mechanism is behind each.

The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom

I came across an hilarious, simple, witty — but absolutely true — quote a few months ago on the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

I laugh every time I think about it. Partially because it is so silly, but all the harder because it is exactly correct. There really is no better way to explain the difference between the two. To intellectually know something is one thing, but the wisdom and experience is what actually gives a context to our knowledge, and gives it practical meaning in our lives.

In all of my years of study, I accumulated knowledge and skills. Extensive knowledge and skills. However, even my skills were somewhat theoretical, because I never actually applied them in a real way.

It is like I expected my education to create something for me on its own, without realizing that the thing would only be created once I had decided what to create and applied myself to it. I had learned all about the different kinds of fruit, but never actually held one, and never tried to cook or create things with the fruit — or with anything else for that matter.

Hence the idea of the practice of doing.

Doing vs Learning

The great realization that I had came to me when I essentially remembered that my greatest strengths resided in fluid intelligence (picking things up on the fly) rather than crystallized intelligence (intellectualizing, memorizing, and retaining knowledge). I was so focused on learning, that I forgot to do.

More importantly, I forgot that there is more than one way of acquiring knowledge. You can learn about a thing, and then make that transition to applying that knowledge later. But you can also decide to do something, and then learn as you go. You can learn all about the different kinds of fruit, or you can learn about the different kinds of fruit by making a fruit salad. Holding the fruit, tasting the fruit, picking the fruit, and exploring recipes.

The difference is that by the end you will have wisdom from experience, and — what is more — you will know about the thing and how to do it. While the person who learned about the thing, still won’t know how to do with it.

The Value Of Doing

From my perspective now, doing is the way to learn. Filling your head with knowledge is far less satisfying than building something with knowledge, and, as it turns out, you can also learning through the building process. Through the experience you will be building knowledge all the same.

You don’t need nearly as much knowledge as you think you do to get started. Anything that you want to achieve, is a lot closer than you think, and it is only fear that convinces you that you have steps in the way before you can get somewhere.

You can read 10,000 stories, yet you still will not know how to write a story by the end. There is a big difference between reading stories, and actually writing them, which you will only learn by trying — and failing — to write good stories. After all of your reading, you will learn quickly that it is not the same.

You can learn all of some computer language, and I can almost guarantee you that writing your first program is going to be just as hard as if you had only learned 1/2 of what you did.

Learning and doing are different. Thus in your learning, remember not to neglect the Practice of Doing. Build projects immediately in whatever you do, apply everything you learn as you go in some way, to constantly transform knowledge into skill, experience, and wisdom.