Learning with videos…

This week, I’m repairing a wall that I had to take apart to address a plumbing problem, and since it’s not too large an area, I’ve decided to do it myself, by learning through YouTube videos and asking my son, who knows his way around drywall, for advice. 

It’s not the first time that I attempt to learn through videos, and depending on the task involved, the results vary vastly, both in time and quality. But plastering (or muddying, as experts call it) isn’t as easy as it appears on a computer or phone screen. 

It requires hours if not years of practice. A few years ago, I had covered the obvious truth about the time it takes to acquire a skill, aka “the 10,000 Hour Rule”, that proves that learning almost inevitably takes much more time than we would like to think or admit. 

So, on Monday, as I began my week with that project, I was quickly reminded that without a teacher available to correct me on spot, I was a lost soul, struggling like a rank beginner, even though I had seen hours of video, prior to getting my hands dirty with plaster. It's therefore much easier to observe than to literally gets one's pair of hands dirty! 

As a result, the next day, I decided to start the day by watching more video, in attempt to see what I was doing wrong the previous day and get a tiny bit more productive...