So much lately seems to be fitting this pattern for me:
- bumble around doing stuff kinda randomly
- study very hard, learn a lot, systematize your practice
- ultimately go back to bumbling around doing stuff kinda randomly
Maybe the second one is more like “spend a long time developing your intuition”; focused studying is one way to that but perhaps not the only one.
…but don’t be disingenuous and claim it’s merely bumbling around
(This is related to cargo culting outcomes.)
One thing that gets my goat is when people who’ve been through the whole process represent the work to get there as itself bumbling around. Just saying “chop wood carry water” to someone in that active seeking phase is discouraging and unhelpful. They need support!
Imagine sitting down for a piano lesson with Herbie Hancock, and you ask “I’ve been really struggling to improvise, can you help?”. And his response is “Oh all you have to do is just mash around on the keys, watch this” and then jams the fuck out. Cool, but shitty teaching!
I want to believe it’s because it’s hard to relate to the striving once you’ve let the striving go – but I think for a lot of people, it’s because they want to be some kind of wise sage, and get sucked into the performance :/
I’ve seen Zen stories of “monk asks reasonable question, master is rude / hostile / provocational, monk is enlightened” inspire this kind of behaviour. You don’t always have to surprise people to help them, and if you do, it doesn’t have to be by being a jerk.