It’s tempting to imagine that if you see something, everyone else does too. After all, in our interconnected world, we tend to be reminded every day just how good other people are. This makes it easy to imagine that any supposed “insight” you may have has already been thought of before. Without the right mindset, this can create a situation in which you do almost no creative work, since you’re worried about wasting time on something that has already been done.
I think a lot about the process of learning, both in my experience and when I am teaching others. I find learning to be a fascinating topic, because it’s what lets us improve and become better at a variety of tasks, skills, and subjects. I’m also interested in the difficulties that are present when learning. In particular, are there things we should do or avoid while trying to learn?