"If you want to master something, teach it" ... is this true!?
Mohamed AlSawaf
Spearheading EMEA Key Accounts & Merchant Success with Strategic Commercial Leadership and Vision
"If you want to master something, teach it" ... is this true!?
This is the famously wording of Richard Feynman the American theoretical physicist reflecting on his purpose of life. later on, people adopted it as words of wisdom and shared it with fancy frames on social media adding some interpretations by their own.
But think about it for a second, does it make any sense!? Do we really gain knowledge by teaching? and what is the nature of this knowledge? Can we consider teaching a way to practice what we theoretically learn? and What makes an individual qualified to teach?
I say we master by Practicing and performing what we know, not by teaching primitive theories to others! you may say teaching something helps to memorise and easily retrieve the information, and surely for a period of time then vanishes unless you practice it..
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A person who knows everything about matter and teaches it is an expert not Master. Master is someone who is expert?and done some extra mile than expertise.
A pottery teacher split her class into two halves.
To the first half she said, "You will spend the semester studying pottery, planning, designing, and creating your perfect pot. At the end of the semester, there will be a competition to see whose pot is the best".
To the other half she said, "You will spend your semester making lots of pots. Your grade will be based on the number of completed pots you finish. At the end of the semester, you'll also have the opportunity to enter your best pot into a competition."
The first half of the class threw themselves into their research, planning, and design. Then they set about creating their one, perfect pot for the competition.
The second half of the class immediately grabbed fistfulls of clay and started churning out pots. They made big ones, small ones, simple ones, and intricate ones. Their muscles ached for weeks as they gained the strength needed to throw so many pots.
At the end of class, both halves were invited to enter their most perfect pot into the competition. Once the votes were counted, all of the best pots came from the students that were tasked with quantity. The practice they gained made them significantly better potters than the planners on a quest for a single, perfect pot.
In life, the best way to learn a skill, is to make a lot of pots!