I learned that it was wrong to casually point a firearm at someone before I had the experience of firing a gun. I also first learned to direct my visual focus to the front sights. Knowing that rule enabled me to then gain more nuanced skill and helped me avoid building bad habits.
After 8 years in the software industry, I dearly wish that I’d been able to find such guidance about software estimation when I was starting out. At this point, I’m going to need some sort of therapy to be able to give software estimates.
But its subtle things that make all the difference between average and really good in something, these ones you can’t really learn without gettyhands dirty and making own mistakes. Even though often it seems different looking backwards, but it’s nothing more than a curse if knowledge.
I strongly agree here. It was the subtle things about breath control and muscle-tension control were what I learned while practicing marksmanship.
It is simultaneously true that a person starting out can sometimes see they need guidance to learn the 'trivial common knowledge' that others in a field are already familiar with. These things that seem 'trivial' to experts are things that help them avoid the "many ways to fail at getting good at something while doing it a lot."
