Much Practice, Little Progress
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A lot of people say that they practice a lot but then they end up making very little progress towards the things that they’re trying to do. And often the reason why is that they’re not actually practicing anything.
They’re just spending time near the skill. They’re doing the cognitive equivalent of watching sports on TV and thinking that it’s turning them into a better player.
That’s what it’s like when you’re just watching a bunch of math videos and not working out problems, just looking at pretty images generated by somebody else who actually did the work.
See, good practice makes progress visible. And the work has to be hard enough to force improvement.
You gotta be breaking a sweat, whether that means physically, literally, or, or cognitively, because if you just keep doing things you already know how to do and can do reliably, consistently, you can practice for hours, days, months, years without actually getting any better.
And ultimately, that inefficient practice kills your motivation because you don’t see yourself getting any better! Whereas efficient practice that actually builds skill it creates visible progress and it really makes you want to keep going.
Further reading:
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