[The Rise]
In chapter 8 of The Rise, Sarah Lewis provides several examples related to this notion of "the deliberate amateur." At one point, she writes, "Shelving experience to remain open to new possibilities can make an expert look elementary. Yet the gifts from assuming this posture on the unfinished path of mastery can come no other way" (148).
What example or idea did you find especially useful or compelling from Lewis's chapter? Why? Please provide a page citation.
19 comments:
The idea I found compelling in this chapter was, "Of all the species, humans are the most neonateous; we have great potential to stay supple, flexible,and to retain qualities found in children throughout our lives, one of which is the ability to play (p. 157)." Humans continue to learn in life and can take in information like sponges. These newly learned things usually stick with people forever.
Lewis stated, "Innovation is an outcome. Play is a state of mind. Innovation is often what we her when we play." I found this particularly compelling because without play and creativity, innovation would be nonexistent. The fact that someone else can take such a broad topic of innovation, and what it means, and sum it up into those three short sentences is meaningful. Play takes on a huge role in the outcome of innovation. If play were not present then innovation would not be what it is.
The phrase that spoke to me the most is when Lewis said,"The amateur's "useful wonder" is what the expert may not realize she has left behind. p 151. After much research and practice in a particular field, an expert tends to overlook things because they have seen so much, not that they do not care overall. For an amateur, everything can contribute to findings; amateurs appreciate the little things. Overall this reminded me that the things we once used to pay attention to the most and now overlook, taught us the greatest lessons and brought us to the point where we are at in the present. In the future, we look back on something and don't realize how much of an impact something was true making.
The idea that was the most compelling was when the author writes, "An ever-onward almost is part of mastery, on the field, in the studio, and in the lab. The wisdom of the deliberate amateur is part of how we endure. Maintaining proficiency is best kept by finding ways to periodically give it up" (pg.151). This is compelling to me because I agree that to continue to develop and hone a craft one must be able approach it from a variety of different angles. Also, it is difficult for someone to do this if they falsely believe that they have attained all the knowledge there is about a particular subject. So, essentially one must stay open-minded and curious to avoid becoming stuck in a rut.
Right before the section mentioned in the post's prompt, a quote on page 147 stuck out to me. It reads, "The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert." I find that for a person like myself, it is a delight to constantly learn and seek and search; not only from the knowledge/wisdom of others but also with them. We can never be finished in educating ourselves and building up our intellectual development. It is a daunting task but a worthy one. On page 159, the author mentions a quote by Ross that says, "Innovation is an outcome. Play is a state of mind. Innovation is often what we get when we play." Have fun with educating and exposing yourself to areas that are unfamiliar to you and allow yourself to grow from it.
The most compelling to me was "The hand is in search of a brain, the brain is in search of a hand, and play is the medium by which those two are linked in the best way" (p.157). This just makes me think how both of them work together to make things possible. Play allows the mind and the hands to do creative things. I find it compelling because if you think about it, the hands are needed to explore, and the brain is needed to analyze. I can remember as a child and playing when I was younger, learning and experimenting, both leading to creativity.
What I found most interesting was on page 157-158 "For every fifteen minutes of play, children tend to use a third of that time engaged in learning about mathematical, spatial, and architectural principals." That quote reminds me of a discussion in my sociology class about how children are socialized into gender roles. If children spend that much time playing, what they play has a huge impact on how they grow up. If girls are given barbies and play house growing up they are given some subliminal messages about how women should act.
The most profound statement within this chapter is on page 151, "Experience... is what gets you through the door. But experience also closes that door."
I think this is such a powerful statement because many of us do not think this way. We are taught to be the best at our craft, but sometimes in doing so, we forget humility and the necessity to step back and truly learn something new about that particular item or ideology. Becoming stubborn or too prideful in your accolades can cheat of the opportunity to perform things in a better way.
The quote that caught my attention is on page 57, "Driven by impulse and desire, the amateur stays in a place of a "constant now," seeing possibilities to which the expert is blind and which the apprentice may not yet discern." I find this to be an accurate statement. Experts tend to believe they have all the answers and are not always open to new ideas. It's their way or the highway. Someone inexperienced in the field would have no place to start creating innovative ideas. An amateur has some knowledge of the subject and with a fresh set of eyes may see what needs to be changed and improved. As amateurs learn new skills, they bring together different ideas that the expert has already discarded.
The idea that I found compelling was on page 151 when Lewis says, "An amature is unlike the novice bound by lack of experience and the expert having too much". I thought it was an interesting idea that knowing too much or having too much experience can be a hindrance in certain situations.
I found her statement on page 151 to be the most interesting statement made in this chapter. she writes,"The amateur's "useful wonder" is what the expert may not realize she has left behind." I found this interesting because it is so true. When we begin something as an amateur, we tend to only see the positives in what we have accomplished . We are ignorant to our true potential. But as we move from that amateur level to being proficient or even master, successes are harder to come by and we forget the reason why we started our journey; to have fun.
The quote that i found most interesting about the deliberate amateur was on page 147. It says, "The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert." Being an amateur can always give you opportunities to learn something new or learn something you're not well at. This quote really interests me because it basically says don't be too prideful but go out and experience new things you don't already know and learn from them. It forces people to go out of their comfort zone and try something different.
As many others stated above, the concept of the "amateur's useful wonder" was most compelling to me. The author talks about how the more knowledge one gains, the harder it is for them to be successful with certain things that are new. The author attributes the loss of successes to bias due to our expertise within a certain subject (151). Another example that I liked was when the researchers stated that they did not want to read up on background information/old experiments because it could change their original thoughts or "hypothesis" (148).
-Belainesh Nigeda
THe quote that stuck out most to me was, "The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert." I am a firm believer that you should always be learning. Nobody knows everything. You may be a math expert, so go learn some history. There is so much information out there, there's no excuse for ignorance. Sometimes you must force yourself out of your comfort zone in order to discover something new.
What stuck out most to me is the quote that stated "Experience...is what gets you through the door. But experience is also what closes the door." This is such a radical way of thinking but makes so much sense. Especially in my field of study you come to realize how much creativity matters and as a society we have a way of picking one way we have learned and sticking with it. Without the experience you have nothing to base off of which forces you to think and come up with a plausible idea.
The idea that I found to be useful is on page 147 when she says "The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert." I found this compelling because it is absolutely true. Being in nursing school has been the biggest adventure of my life, and I've learned so much throughout the entire ride. I believe everyone goes through many adventures in life and whether or not they are enjoyable or worthwhile is up to the person experiencing it.
One of the most important ideas is that of play and how it is connected to every point of life. The physical aspect of play is so important that without it "danger is often close at hand" (Lewis 157). Play is so special that a study was able to be done with regards to homicidal males and how most of them were lacking play time. Play is often regarded as child's play but it is what makes a healthy adult. And though what play is defined as may change as we get older it is still very important.
The idea that she presented on page 147 stood out the most to me. She writes, " The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert". This stood out to me because ,as a college, I am currently in that position. The drive to understand, master, and apply the information I am learning is because I want to be an expert in my future career. The title of being an amateur is what pushes many people to continue to learn and to reach their goals.
I like the passage in which she states the amateur "seeing possibilities to which the expert is blind and which the apprentice may not yet discern" 151. I especially like this because often people look down on themselves for not being the expert but as she explains being in a place where you do not think you have mastered everything actually gives you an advantage to go beyond the experts knowledge.
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