on practicing
I’m taking a Drawing I class this semester. We cover a variety of non-color media. Here’s the score this week:
Charcoal: 7
Doug: 0
Practicing can be fulfilling for its own sake; it can also be the most efficient way to get better at something, if you happen to be practicing correctly. And therein, as the poet wrote, lies the rub.
If we imagine the world of techniques as a two-dimensional landscape, and the success of a particular technique as the elevation above the corresponding spot in the two-dimensional world, we’ll have a version of what is called a “fitness landscape.”
If there’s one best way to do something, then the elevation above the spot corresponding to that best technique will be the highest of the whole terrain, the “top of the mountain,” if you will.
If you imagine yourself as on this fitness terrain, improving means heading uphill. Sometimes, it’s obvious which way is uphill, and sometimes it isn’t. Or the direction that’s uphill where you are now might not be the direction to the top of the mountain.
This metaphor supports a lot more nuance, but even at this level of broad strokes, it should be clear:
To improve, practice may be necessary, but it isn’t (necessarily!) sufficient.