How hard could it be?
Is there a thought more infamous? More foolhardy?
I should know better by now: I can't count how many times I've asked myself this rhetorical question and then been bludgeoned by the cold reality.
And yet—and I'm not sure what this says about me—I keep having it, and keep getting knocked down.
My most recent misadventure:
How hard could it be to learn Javascript for InDesign scripting?
Well, if you know Javascript already, then it won't be too bad!
But if you don't know Javascript? If mathematics and logic were subjects you ran away from the moment you entered college? Well, then you're in for a real rude awakening.
I'm chastened, I must admit. One error I see now is that I mistook a skill for knowledge. Javascript isn't merely a collection of knowledge to hoover up and then start using: it's a skill. It's a way of thinking, and you can't learn a way of thinking in a few hours on a Friday afternoon.
I mentioned "pain" in the post title, and that's not quite right. The type of learning I face doesn't hurt so much as it exhausts and depletes. Learning new concepts and context, as opposed to data (which is merely trivia on its own), is the mental equivalent of wind sprints. I could hardly answer an email (or write a blog post!) after a few hours of focused learning.
I'm reminded, with a gasp, of why school was so hard.
I see the learning of high school and college through rose-colored glasses. Yes, learning full-time was wonderful—but it was also running wind sprints day-in and day-out.
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