I would love to be a painter. Even a good sketcher. A decent doodler. I have plenty of appreciation for art that really captures a moment well—that invites you to share the wonder or the pain in a face, or the windswept endurance of a place—but I can’t do it myself. My pen on paper can create lines that are just about recognisable, but I know people who can translate the full magic of a moment into brushstrokes, and I’m in awe of that skill. I don’t understand how their fingers can move with such confident precision and grace. And yet, in another way, I do understand—this is the result of practice. I’ve seen enough to know how it works. The skills that appear the most effortless are the ones that come from hours and years and maybe decades of hidden effort.
Continue reading The Skill That Unlocks Other Skills