Tirth's Blog

Make whispers in the hall where giants speak.

How to benefit when you are beginner at stuff.

We oftentimes feel like imposter when exposed to people of much higher stature in both skill and experience than us. It seems like sorcery what they do. A sense of hopelessness and defeat engulfs us. At such moments our gut reaction is to defend our pride and act in favor of our ego. The reaction might be to "fake it till you make it" or to garble up envy within you - exuding it out onto others "below" us. The reaction might be innocuous and benevolent such as - to better oneself in the zest of gaining powers of such mystics. Might I suggest a better alternative?

Become and embrace the amateur in you.

How is it better for you?

You are released from the inclination of having to be someone you are not - the very thing that causes feelings of inadequacy. Having realized and accepted your shortcomings you can work on them. Acknowledge said people as experts and yourself as a beginner. Don't stop at that, ask away. In this pseudo social construct of mentor and mentee, you have at disposal the very resources you would need to purge the sense of inferiority. Try to learn from them on as many reasonable occasions as possible.

Don't misjudge a situation of polar skill/knowledge/experience dynamic as unfortunate. It is actually better. If you are the smartest in the room, you are in the wrong room.

How is it better for experts?

There is something for the experts too in this interaction. A symbiotic relationship so to speak. After having a considerable amount of practice into something and having developed mastery by extension, it gets difficult to extract a new perspective from a familiar situation. With you at service to ask questions, they get access to a new perspective, a fresh outlook. We can also claim the platitude "teaching is the best form of learning" to incentivise our point.

In the sea of experts become the beginner