Why is learning hard?

Learning is an activity that moves you from a state of incompetence to one of competence.

That feeling—not knowing something—is uncomfortable. It’s why we avoid it. It’s almost physically painful at times, and we’re naturally wired to avoid pain.

It’s much easier (read: less painful) to be entertained by an online video “course.” At some point, learning requires doing. And when you do it the first, second, or tenth time, it sucks. It’s a painful process. The quality is poor.

MasterClass is popular for a reason: it’s full of high-quality videos of famous people who tell you how to do interesting things… without you ever doing the hard work of learning.

Do you really think that you can become a world-class screenwriter or negotiator by watching a video? Of course not.

You become a great screenwriter by writing screenplays. You become a great negotiator by negotiating with people over and over again. The first screenplay will be terrible. You will lose your first negotiation.

Learning content can give you new ideas and techniques to implement. But you have to actually implement it.

There is no learning without doing.

It’s not the job

It’s the ambiguity. It’s not knowing what you’re doing or what’s expected of you. Uncertainty about the next right thing.

It’s the feeling of incompetence, not being sure that it’ll work or if you’re even capable of it.

Most jobs can be quite fulfilling, but not knowing what needs to be done, or how, robs us of that satisfaction.

And in the Information Age, with ever greater numbers of bullshit jobs and technology advancing faster than ever, that uncertainty becomes more prevalent each day.