Know What You Know

I was sitting around thinking today...we'll actually staring at my wall, in my cubicle at work. Half zombie state and half daydreaming. Not because I was bored, but rather I was having an epiphany. Or more like some stroke of bizarre enlightenment, perhaps some alien felt sorry for me and shot some ideas through his inter-dimensional comm-link right into my brain.

You see, this alien may have beamed in a thought about knowledge. No, not actual knowledge but about knowledge. Geeks call this meta-data, normal people call this wisdom, I call this a lucky guess...

Here's what the little alien sent me: Know what you know.

Understand completely your knowledge. Seeking new knowledge is great, I recommend it. What this bit of absurdity is about is once you've learned something new, try to understand it completely.

One little trick I use when exercising something I know, is to act as if I'm teaching it to someone. In your mind, answer their questions. You would be amazed at how all the little details smooth out and you now, know what you know.

Being the master of your knowledge is very powerful! It allows you to break the rules. You can build new concepts which others may never formulate.

What this has to do with photography is fairly obvious. Understand everything you know about about your camera. Whatever you know about composition, explore it completely. Know something about light? Be the master of this little bit. Even if it's minimal. You'll add more as you explore.

This parallels my other passion: Jiu jitsu. We have noobs who want to learn everything in short order but fail to learn what they already know. I'm at the point where, I drill stuff I've done since day one. Know what you know is a force which is unbeatable.

A master is only a beginner who has mastered the basics.

Thanks to a little alien, I now know a bit more about my knowledge :)


-play
MArk