Perceived & Actual Learning Curve

[Gabler]

I was reminded today of this graphic about learning to paint. It seems to me that it's not just true for painters, but for any art, craft, or otherwise creative endeavor.

A Graph I Made Describing the Learning Process in Painting

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Basically, as you learn an art, there are periods where your ability to see will outstrip your actual technique, and that causes a mismatch in perceived and actual ability. Sometimes you'll think you're worse than you are, because you'll start to notice where your work has shortcomings. They're labelled "periods of frustration" on the graphic. Other times, your actual skill will catch up to your ability to see your flaws, and you'll get a false sense of confidence, since you won't see any flaws in your work.

Another example I found looks like this:

The wearability learning curve

Jo sews - and, among other things, blogs about it.

jo-sews-etc.blogspot.com

It's probably a good thing to keep in mind for bonsai. It's easy to get stuck at the "naively confident" stage for a while, since there's such a long delay in bonsai between applying a technique and observing the tree's response. I assume it has something to do with the widespread myths about growing bonsai which, for example, Hagedorn aimed to debunk in Bonsai Heresy.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

I agree with everything you said. As someone who works if aviation manufacturing that is verily true for learning “non-art” also. I also agree Bonsai suffers from some people making it more complicated than it can be. I think a lot of myths come from people wanting to add complexity so they feel smarter. Of corse bonsai is extremely complex, but people love creating barriers so they can feel better than others, and amplify their accomplishments.

 

[Cajunrider]

I was reminded today of this graphic about learning to paint. It seems to me that it's not just true for painters, but for any art, craft, or otherwise creative endeavor.

A Graph I Made Describing the Learning Process in Painting

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

imgur.io

View attachment 514702

Basically, as you learn an art, there are periods where your ability to see will outstrip your actual technique, and that causes a mismatch in perceived and actual ability. Sometimes you'll think you're worse than you are, because you'll start to notice where your work has shortcomings. They're labelled "periods of frustration" on the graphic. Other times, your actual skill will catch up to your ability to see your flaws, and you'll get a false sense of confidence, since you won't see any flaws in your work.

It's probably a good thing to keep in mind for bonsai. It's easy to get stuck at the "naively confident" stage for a while, since there's such a long delay in bonsai between applying a technique and observing the tree's response. I assume it has something to do with the widespread myths about growing bonsai which, for example, Hagedorn aimed to debunk in Bonsai Heresy.

The gap between perceived technical skill vs. actual technical skill is the bonsai kill zone/cemetery. With the exception of trees killed by natural disasters, all my dead bonsai died there.

 

[Tentakelaertje]

it's not just true for painters, but for any general learning curve

Fixed that, that graph is true for a lot of, if not most of, long-term learning experiences. After the peak of any learning curve there's -always- a plateau-ing of skills, in which timeframe the newly acquired skills are solidified through experience and increased handiness with the underlying frameworks. While these periods are often frustrating, they're immensely important to go through; if there's no establishing of the new quality baseline, there won't be enough coloured in to apply new knowledge to the puzzle. Often times that realisation is conscious and really helpful in tackling the negative feelings that prohibit learning. Duration and intensity of this 'frustration period' is largely dependent on existing knowledge, attitude and natural feel for the subject. And to make it all nice and meta, 'learning' also follows this curve, so your location on the learning-learning curve also matters a great deal. The further you are, the less conscious effort it will take to bust through frustration and disappointment.

The false sense of confidence you mention, coupled with all the common knowledge-related biases floating around and the egotistical consequences part of being better at something than most others are, and that is exactly why many people don't progress to unconscious competence (aka the master level).

I assume it has something to do with the widespread myths about growing bonsai

It's like the sun-earth-rotation debate all over lol! Wiping out existing false knowledge on a grand scale is difficult, hence the Catholic Church still believing the sun to be the center point of the universe, even though many civilisations before them had proved the truth. Especially the part about admitting the knowledge to be false and recognising a learning opportunity is hard. The proof can be irrefutible, but the receiving end of the knowledge transfer has to be willing to believe knowledge is subject to new insights and facts. It's not for nothing there's so many change management researchers and organisations. The longer and harder you believe something to be true, the harder it will be to accept it being false. Bonsai being an old-timer dominated passion field means certain pieces of false information will be in use way past the travelling speed of knowledge. No shade to anyone, just describing demographic tendencies. We're all human here (I guess) and all biases mentioned above apply to me too.
That being said, arboreal science is even less understood than several other complicated concepts mentioned so far, so expect tons of new myths coming forth as we unravel tree science and gene pool variability and apply that to bonsai, where everyone likes rare species, cultivars and other genetic inconsistencies. (Micro)climatic differences across practitioners doesn't really do the science part of bonsai very well either. Some things are just not as true on the other side of the planet as they are in my backyard, and vice versa.

There's more to the nuances of course but that's outside my ability to quickly write down. Learning concepts and brain science are so wildly complicated and subordinate to so many variables that there's no way to make it work for 100% of the population guaranteed. They however are largely general, so chances of not benefitting at all are basically 0.

 

[Cajunrider]

The gap between perceived technical skill vs. actual technical skill is the bonsai kill zone/cemetery. With the exception of trees killed by natural disasters, all my dead bonsai died there.

When the skills are about farming, reading history of the area of my ancestry, some people actually died in that gap due to crop losses.

 

[dbonsaiw]

The gap between perceived technical skill vs. actual technical skill is the bonsai kill zone/cemetery. With the exception of trees killed by natural disasters, all my dead bonsai died there.

Ditto. I've found the same with my comments here on BonsaiNut. At first I was totally clueless and asked clueless questions. Then comes the part where I believed I knew something and gave advice (sorry newer newbs). This is where my trees suffered and died. Humility sets in and I quieted down. I'm at the point where I hope I'm asking more intelligent questions and, other than real bonsai 101, I try not to give advice. Rather, I just share my experience and what I do and open it up for feedback.