The high of learning a new skill

I vividly remember the first time I wrote some code to make an LED light blink. I felt like a genius robot engineer, as if I had just discovered a superpower. Recently, I took on a MIG/MAG welding course; a year ago, I did a bricklaying course. These courses have had the same effect on me as that first introduction to embedded software long ago.

It's clear that I am not a master welder now, but I can lay a decent weld for a beginner. The most important thing, however, is that I have gone from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, and for me is the most fun phase of learning.

It's like a world opens up during this transition, while I remaini incompetent, I am very slowly becoming conscious about this fact, and its the part just before you are really aware about your own incompetence that I call the High of learning a new skill. You start seeing possibilities with this new skill you are learning, a world in which you have not failed ...yet, you can still dream about all the things you can now build or design.

This new skill has changed your perception of the world, you are no longer just seeing a brick wall, a wood frame, a welded piece of steel, or even a piece of software, from now on you see things you can copy, or something that inspires you to build.

So my advice is this, learn builder/maker-skills, whether its sewing, nitting, coding or carpentry, learn something that opens your mind for new ways you can create things. Its truly mind altering.