The Path of Learning and Finding a "Good Teacher"
That is exactly why "finding a good teacher" matters so much. Once you meet someone who makes you think, "Ah, what this person says really helps!" or gives you a fresh realization—"Oh, so that's what it meant!"—your skills will visibly improve from that point on.
Just as working through practice problems after learning methods for math or classical Chinese at a cram school is entirely different in speed from wrestling with problem sets on your own, there is a limit to stubbornly sticking to your own approach and just reading on and on.
For example, it's hardly easy to make Drucker's theory fully your own by reading just a single book on "Management." In that case, once you understand Drucker's theory in your own way and then attend an expert's lecture on it, getting a wider and higher-level view of the critical parts, your understanding will deepen considerably. (p. 29)
We keep learning our whole lives. That's how it should be.
There are many ways to learn. We learn through direct experience in the real world, and we learn even more through books.
There is one thing that matters on this path of learning: finding a "good teacher." When you're learning something, a good teacher can show you the "way" that is hard to get to by reading alone.
Everything has its "core" and its "essence." A teacher can distill and convey these in their own words. The moment you grasp that core and essence, your learning can take a qualitative leap. Learning from a good teacher can lift your level in a fraction of the time that going it alone would take.
In fact, plain data and information are endlessly available online these days. Data and information alone no longer mean much. To build the ability to choose what you need out of them and interpret it well—especially early on—a teacher is important.
If you've started studying something, it's a good idea to find a "good teacher" first, whether directly or indirectly.
▶ Yeh Byung-il's Economy Note - Twitter: @yehbyungil / Facebook: www.facebook.com/yehbyungil
