
Road to Understanding – Day 24
30-Day Writing Challenge
I’ve never been a fan of learning through memorization. This is a tactic that I used in early education, but everything I memorized popped out the other side of my head once I finished the exam. This strategy is great for multiple-choice tests, but when you need to apply this knowledge it’s useless.
With that said, there is a place for memorization… Whenever you jump into a new field or area of research you’ll quickly realize the people in this niche circle speak a different language. The language varies by circle, but some common hurdles you’ll run into are formulas, acronyms, numbers, and historical jargon.
When you’re confronted with this new language, one of two things will happen directly relating to your determination and interest in the field…
- Run towards it – If the area you’ve jumped into is genuinely interesting to you, there’s a strong chance you’ll happily run face-first into all this jargon, without hesitating. Knowing that’s just a matter of time until you’re speaking and understanding the lingo.
- Runaway – This is when you’re overwhelmed, but more importantly less interested and unwilling to scale the massive learning curve you’ll inevitably run into. There’s nothing wrong with this response and it’s something you should take into consideration, asking yourself if this is really something I’m doing out of interest.
I’ve just run into the complex web of language and numbers but have happily decided to run face-first into it. 🙂
To truly understand this world and the terminology used there will be some memorization needed… There’s a journey we all go on when learning something completely new, similar to infants. This journey usually starts out memorizing the baseline language, once you’ve grasped the basics, then you’re able to make connections between concepts.
Currently, I’m going through this process and realizing the importance of memorization for the fields that are heavy in different lingo – Specifically, I’m diving into the world of cybersecurity, which is heavy in network engineering and that’s blanketed in complex jargon.
Remember, if you’re genuinely interested in the topic, being confronted with all this jargon shouldn’t deter you, instead, it should excite you. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, you should get a sense of excitement and eagerness to jump face-first into this pile of complexity.