Ignorance, Flexibility and the Myth of Beginner’s Luck

One of the most interesting phenomena around learning a new skill is how often beginners seem to pick something up very quickly.  We have all witnessed a rank beginner having an amazing round of golf on their first time, being able to ride a motorcycle within a few minutes of getting on it or making a sale on their first call.

A friend of mine loves to tell the “jujube fishing story”.  He another friend were on a popular Canadian river fishing for trout.  By all accounts the weather and conditions were perfect.  They are seasoned fishermen and were using bait and lures that they had carefully prepared and had used countless times before with great success.  Well on this day, they caught nothing.  Not even a nibble.  The frustrating thing was that they could see the fish clearly in the river.  They were there, they were just not biting anything that was being thrown at them. 

Other fishermen were having the same results.  Then something so astounding happened that my friend loves to recount.  A boy of about 10 came to the riverbank, cast his line out and almost immediately caught a fish.  Then another, then another.  He seemed to be catching an endless number of fish while the other fishermen were left speechless.

The “Skill” of a Boy

Now this is where the psychology of adults versus children’s learning gets interesting.  One by one, every fisherman on the river began to see this little boy’s success, but not one of them asked him what he was doing!  They just watched.  And watched and watched. 

The boy would pull occasionally pull something out of his pocket when the bait on his hook fell off, re-bait the hook and cast.  Without exception he would have a fish on the line within moments.  Finally, my friend realized that the boy was using jujube candies as bait.  Now I have been fishing since I was a small boy but had never before (or since) heard of jujubes being good trout bait.  Clearly, neither had any of the others on the river that day.

Children Ask (and Ask and Ask!)

There are two interesting observations.  The first is that if the situation had been reversed, in all likelihood the boy would have asked for help from the adults.  What equipment were they using, what bait, where in the river where they casting, etc.  And, the adults probably would have given the boy advice even if he did not ask as a way to help him.  Children are much more open to asking basic questions and receiving guidance, but somewhere along the way, we become adults and do not like to do the same.  Like the rest of the fishermen on the river that day, we are content to look and wonder why something is occurring rather than ask for guidance.

As I have mentioned in another post, very often the solution to something is simply to ask.  Ask a person who is doing what you want to do and having the results you want, what they are doing.  Most people are very happy to tell you as they realize that there is enough abundance in the world for everyone. 

Imagine if someone had asked the boy what he was using that day, gone to buy some candy and shared the information with all fishermen on the river.  Me friend stated that there were plenty of fish and that any caught would have been immediately released back into the water.  What a fun day it would have been for everyone there as they caught fish and shared in each others success! 

The “Rules”

The second observation is even more jarring.  Why was the boy so successful that day?  The simple reason is that he did not know the “rules” of fishing.  He probably took his fishing rod and a bag of candy, went to the river and fished.  It is unlikely that he knew that fish do not eat candy.  As a boy, I did the same, experimenting with cold hot dogs, kernels of corn and even hard, old bread.  I can tell you that every one of those worked amazingly well and on multiple species of fish, not just trout! Apparently the fish did not know the rules either!

This is less beginner’s luck and more experimenting with things outside the norm of the activity you are pursuing.  Sometimes not knowing that something is not supposed to work can be advantageous.

Follow Basic Rules

Does that mean that when we start a new hobby or activity that we should throw out the rules and just do anything we want?  Naturally not.  We need to follow basic rules or else we jeopardize any success at all. 

If the boy had jumped into the water to get closer to the fish, no bait would have helped him as they would have scattered and left the area.  If a new golfer kicks the ball or throws it instead of using his clubs, he is not really golfing.  If a new rider guns his motorcycle in 5th gear, it will stall, and he is going nowhere.  If a new salesperson spends his whole day calling children instead of adults who can buy the product or service, he will not sell a thing.

Be Flexible

The point is to be more flexible and open in our approach as the boy was with his choice of fishing bait.  A new golfer might try to use different clubs that better suit him for a particular shot.  Even if a long shot requires a bigger club, he may be more comfortable with a smaller one he can shoot straighter with, even if the ball does not go as far.  This approach may be more successful for him alone at the early stage of his learning the game.  He may not know that using the “wrong” club is not supposed to work.

A new rider may wish to go on a deserted, straight country road and take a long ride on the motorcycle to get used to the feel of operating it.  Most instruction suggests getting familiar with a motorcycle on paper first, then riding it, however often doing is more effective than analyzing.  He may now know that just riding until you are comfortable is not supposed to work.

A new salesperson may wish to begin calling a list of leads from his company without preparing much of a script.  This way, they can make notes on what speaking points work on the phone and are most successful.  Then, once he is comfortable speaking on the phone, the script can be refined based on the calls already made.  Most sales cultures advocate knowing exactly what you are going to say and that sales is a numbers game.  The more people you call the more you will sell.  Calling people with a strong belief in the product or service can be just as effective even if it seems haphazard and unprepared.  He may now know that just calling and chatting with people is not supposed to work.

Athletes Do It Too

Athletes often see this occur when they completely change their exercise schedule or even abandon it all together.  I have had this occur to me a number of times.  The summer that I was 17, I worked for 2 months in construction building houses for 10 hours a day, Monday to Friday.   I had been lifting weights for 2 years at the point and had added 20 pounds of muscle and become much stronger.

That summer I did not touch a weight and the only exercise I got was on the job-site.  When I restarted weight training that September, I was stronger than I had ever been, and I had lost 15 pounds of fat without losing any muscle.  I should also mention that I did not follow any special diet at all.

If you were to ask most trainers, they would probably tell you that this was an unusual occurrence unlikely to be repeated, but I have had it happen to me personally on 2 occasions.  I have also met a number of elite athletes who have taken several months off from their training, done something totally different physically, and still maintained or even improved their abilities against all “rules” of physiology. 

Often, when we begin a new activity, if we do not overthink the rules and “the way it is” and just begin, we can make more progress because we do not know that we are making any mistakes or that the results we are getting are not typical and highly unexpected.

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