Making pizza dough from scratch has changed the way I think about learning, knowledge, and what it means to "know something". A thread:
2/ For the past few years, I've made pizza for my family almost every Friday night. I make the dough from scratch, and over the years I've given the recipe to a quite a few friends.
Inevitably, they say something like, "It turned out okay, but it wasn't the same as yours."
Inevitably, they say something like, "It turned out okay, but it wasn't the same as yours."
3/ The first few times I made the dough, I also wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. I had to make it at least 5-10 times before I really felt like I knew what I was doing.
That's because making pizza dough (and bread-making in general) involves a lot of *tacit knowledge*.
That's because making pizza dough (and bread-making in general) involves a lot of *tacit knowledge*.
4/ Tacit knowledge is "know-how". It's all the stuff that you can't — or can't easily — express verbally (or write down in a recipe).
Drawing a portrait, playing piano, throwing a football: these all involve tons of tacit knowledge. Reading about them doesn't get you very far.
Drawing a portrait, playing piano, throwing a football: these all involve tons of tacit knowledge. Reading about them doesn't get you very far.
5/ Even things that are considered "knowledge work" — like being a programmer, research scientist, or CEO — require huge amounts of tacit knowledge. It goes by different names: skill, experience, perception, intuition. Or we just call it *talent*.
6/ Ultimately, what matters to me is being _skilled at X_ — and not just _knowledgable in X_. The pizza dough is a vivid reminder that there's a big difference between the two.
So what does this mean for learning?
So what does this mean for learning?
7/ When we think about learning, we usually focus on explicit knowledge, aka "the content". We look for ways to make it more relevant, relatable, interesting, and memorable.
This almost a kind of salience bias: we focus on the most visible/legible aspects of learning.
This almost a kind of salience bias: we focus on the most visible/legible aspects of learning.
8/ So one interesting question is: what kinds of tools and structures can improve our ability to acquire know-how?
@andymatuschak has thought a lot about this; he calls them _enabling environments_ (notes.andymatuschak.org/z244xx3kMf1v8U…).
@andymatuschak has thought a lot about this; he calls them _enabling environments_ (notes.andymatuschak.org/z244xx3kMf1v8U…).
10/ This makes me wonder: what are the essential features of learning-by-doing? To what degree are these features specific a particular domain (e.g., music performance, sports)? Are there patterns for learning more abstract concepts in the same kind of way?
11/ The concept of "deliberate practice" (Ericsson 1993) is relevant here, but afaik most of that research focuses on things like music performance and sports.
It's not clear to me how much of that applies to different kinds of learning, e.g. learning a programming language.
It's not clear to me how much of that applies to different kinds of learning, e.g. learning a programming language.
12/ But, I suspect that some things are similar. E.g., the importance of informative feedback on the results of the performance.
Interestingly, in baking most of the feedback is not immediate. It's hard to judge until it comes out of the oven.
Interestingly, in baking most of the feedback is not immediate. It's hard to judge until it comes out of the oven.
13/ Also, deliberate practice as studied by Ericsson typically involves expert instruction, a known "best method". In many learning scenarios, we have neither.
https://twitter.com/dubroy/status/1345411164021411840 ∙ Archived on 2025-03-28.