**The Value of Observation and Mindfulness in Learning**

I recently read a phenomenal book about playing pool and billiards that is not actually about playing pool or billiards, but about changing your physical relationship with the ball. What it's really about is understanding the importance of observation and mindfulness when learning any new skill.

When we're first starting to learn something, such as playing tennis or using a tool, we often think that we need to intellectualize everything. We try to understand the mechanics of how things work and analyze every detail. While this can be helpful in some ways, it's not always the most effective way to learn. Tim Galloway, a former tennis pro, had an epiphany while teaching someone about tennis. Instead of explaining the technique to his student, he simply showed them how it was done without explanation. When the student tried to follow along and execute the shot themselves, they got much farther than they would have if Galloway had spent hours breaking down the technique for him.

This experience highlights the importance of observation and mindfulness in learning. By watching someone else perform a task, we can learn new skills and techniques more effectively than by trying to analyze them on our own. When we watch someone else use a machine with high precision, we can learn about the nuances of their technique without needing to intellectualize every detail. In fact, this kind of observation can be just as valuable as learning through intellectualization.

**The Importance of Receptivity in Therapy**

In a related context, Sigmund Freud's approach to therapy emphasizes the importance of receptivity and mindfulness when working with clients. When Freud was first writing about conducting therapy, he emphasized the need for therapists to listen carefully to their patients without worrying too much about remembering every detail that they said. Instead, Freud advised therapists to focus on being receptive and open-minded, allowing the conversation to flow freely without interruption.

Freud's approach highlights the value of mindfulness in building trust with clients and creating a safe space for them to express themselves. By putting aside intellectualization and over-thinking, therapists can create an environment where patients feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. This is especially true when working with complex or traumatic issues, where patients may need to process difficult emotions and experiences.

**The Challenge of Remembering Everything**

However, this approach to therapy can be challenging for some therapists, particularly those who are naturally detail-oriented or analytical. My wife, a practicing marriage and family therapist, has shared her own experience of trying to balance the need for receptivity with the challenge of remembering every detail that a client shares.

While it's natural to want to remember everything that our clients say, this can actually be a hindrance to effective therapy. When therapists try to memorize every detail, they can become bogged down in analysis and intellectualization, rather than allowing the conversation to flow freely. By contrast, when therapists focus on being receptive and open-minded, they can create an environment where patients feel safe sharing their thoughts and feelings.

**Learning through Observation**

Finally, I'd like to talk about a technique that has proven effective for me: learning through observation. When I first started working in my shop, I had trouble mastering certain skills because my instructors would constantly stop me and explain what I was doing wrong. While this may seem helpful on the surface, it actually hindered my progress.

It wasn't until I asked one of my instructors to simply show me how something worked a few times, without explaining the details or stopping me along the way, that I finally began to grasp the technique. This experience highlights the importance of observation and mindfulness in learning, as well as the value of finding a balance between intellectualization and receptivity.

**The Power of Video and Description**

In recent years, I've found that watching someone perform a task on video or having them describe their technique can be incredibly valuable for learning. By observing someone else use a tool or machine with high precision, we can learn new skills and techniques more effectively than by trying to analyze them on our own.

Having the person who is performing the task provide a detailed description of what they're doing can also be helpful. This allows us to understand the nuances of their technique without needing to intellectualize every detail. In fact, watching someone use a tool or machine with high precision and having them describe their technique can be just as valuable as learning through intellectualization.

**Becoming a Tested Member**

If you're interested in supporting our work and getting access to exclusive content, we invite you to become a tested member. Our members receive all sorts of perks, including advanced words behind-the-scenes photos of some of our projects, the opportunity to ask questions during my live streams, and exclusive video content that includes unbroken, unedited shots of me working in the shop.

These videos are often described as "weirdly meditative," but they can be a great way to practice mindfulness and observation. By watching someone use a tool or machine with high precision, we can learn new skills and techniques more effectively than by trying to analyze them on our own. So if you're interested in learning more about our work and getting access to exclusive content, I invite you to join us today.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: endungeon master v says time and again i see you using ca glue accelerator on your projects i found that not all accelerators work with all glues i have found the same i have also found that sometimes when glues get old their ability to be affected by accelerator is diminished um are there a couple of brands you stick to well i'm i sort of have a fealty to zip kicker because it's the first accelerator i ever used um it is frankly now that they make so this is the other one stick fast um i've purchased several different versions of the stick fast system i have they're thin they're thick some bigger bottles some smaller bottles and it's fine um i have to say again sometimes it can be a little slow for consistency's sake my favorite accelerator is baking soda it's not perfect for every application but frankly for doing styrene construction i use it as a gusset material is almost like a mechanical uh i use it almost mechanically and it works fantastically so i don't really have a specific preference for you i keep the spray accelerators nearby because they're convenient um and they're more convenient to me than the zip kicker and they i think they actually put out less volatile chemicals because i'm able to kind of get it right in there whereas with the zip kicker spraying it out of this bottle and it's like it's getting all over the place i don't mind the smell but i have worked with model makers who are sensitized to the smell of zip kicker and it causes an allergic reaction that is no fun um yeah john dumontel also says what is your favorite tool that can only do one small task but does it extremely well well whenever i'm talking about this i have to say i get into the realm of the like the the alligator pliers so i have three sizes here this is a a six inch that's an eight inch and this is a ten inch i believe yep um and i have to say i use these things maybe once every two or three months but every time i do there is not many other things that could get you there um along the plier grabber thing this is a fish hook remover i learned about these from jamie heinemann there are very few uh long necked pliers that have a more robust grip than these weirdly stamped sheet metal tools like this tool feels cheap it does not behave cheap it is a real nice robust grip because it's for pulling fish hooks out of fish jaws yeah that is one of those very rarely used tools that like i make sure i keep top of mind and when one breaks every now and then uh you put these under enough force and the plier can get busted or it can get open and then it's hard to make it close again um i immediately buy a new pair when that happens i've broken i guess three of these over the last 20 years eric meyer asks how do you treat learning from watching a video versus learning from an instructor where you have the advantage of the in-person experience it is really true an in-person experience is unparalleled and that's actually one of the reasons we started our oculus build series for tested um because when norm and i were first messing around with this was like five years ago four years ago um both of us were astounded having spent lots of time in front of workbenches watching people work how immediate the experience in vr is and if you've got an oculus go look up tested's build videos because there is it's just fundamentally different than watching a youtube video of somebody's being there in 3d really makes a difference i still do most of my learning watching people do stuff on videos not to say that that's the better method because i mean back when i was first starting out and working with mitch romanowski you know watching the sensitivity of what he was doing i think when you're with someone you're not just looking at their hands and the materials they're working with you're getting an entire philosophy of work from them right the way in which they approach the care the mood that they're in all of these things are instructive when they're happening in front of you yeah really i mean i have also had teachers who spent so much time explaining stuff i didn't learn a damn thing because it's not necessarily about the explanation as it is about about what you're witnessing um years and years ago i came across a piece of writing that said the best book ever written on pool and billiards was the inner game of tennis by tim galloway and so i immediately bought the inner game of tennis and read it and it's a phenomenal book and the reason i and i agree with this assessment it's one of the best books about playing pool and billiards and it's not about that it's about playing tennis but what it's really about is changing your physical relationship to the ball because when you're beginning playing tennis or you're playing pool you think that this ball is your enemy and you've got to get it to do what you wanted to do and you got to learn enough to get it to do that whether you're hitting it with spin with your tennis racket or you're trying to put a little english on it to make this shot and leave your cue ball where you want and what tim galloway describes he was a tennis pro is it was a tennis pro who had an epiphany while teaching someone where instead of explaining to them the technique he simply said all right instead of explaining to you this technique i'm just going to show you and he showed them how he did something and then he said without any back and forth go ahead and try it and they were they got much farther just watching him without intellectualizing it than from the intellectualization and it it's a it's a it's a lovely epiphany to have because i think there's there's a place for both there's a place for the intellectualization i read lots of papers on tools and metrology and other things in order to expand my horizons about them but at the same time just watching someone use a machine with high precision is itself so much interesting information and if you there's a way to take it in there's a way to take it in and it's oh wait okay the way i want to talk about taking it in freud when he was first writing about conducting therapy when he was first writing about conducting therapy talked about sitting there listening to your patient talk about themselves and he says in one of his writings that the therapist can feel anxious sometimes listening to a client talk because they're trying to remember everything the client is saying the client's giving them information about their childhood about their outlook on things about things that happened to them and freud cautioned the therapist the analyst to not over worry about remembering every last thing that their client said rather he instructed the analyst to put their head in a mind of just recep receptivity just sit there and let them talk and really instead of trying to remember what they're saying just let the let the conversation go over you and my wife is a practicing marriage and family therapist and describes that yeah that is a fundamentally different thing to do than to try and remember everything they said and it gives you much more access to the full scope of the story that they're telling which i think is really and in a way what freud is describing in this is a specific kind of sort of meditative mindfulness of just being in this state of awareness where you are paying a high level of attention but to the gestalt of the whole thing rather than lots of little details rather than bothering your brain like put this in that slot put this in that slot put this in that slot and i think the same thing is true bringing this all the way back around to tools to what you learned from watching someone do something i've had people try and now i'm remembering i won't name names because i don't want to i don't want to insult anybody but i do remember learning a technique from a teacher a few years ago and the difficulty i had with them is they stopped me every time i was doing something wrong so it was like three hours before i did the thing the first time because we were constantly stopping so that they could break down for me what i wasn't getting right and i eventually said to them can i just watch you do this thing a few times and then give me like half an hour to kind of wrap my head around it and that's when i finally was able to sort of get it and understand it um so that is the longest way of saying because that is the kind of answer i give uh that for me there is no equivalent to watching someone do something in front of you but watching them do it on video is pretty darn close uh and having them describe what they're doing is also has a utility but i think the most valuable thing is watching someone watching someone do it yeah thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next onedungeon master v says time and again i see you using ca glue accelerator on your projects i found that not all accelerators work with all glues i have found the same i have also found that sometimes when glues get old their ability to be affected by accelerator is diminished um are there a couple of brands you stick to well i'm i sort of have a fealty to zip kicker because it's the first accelerator i ever used um it is frankly now that they make so this is the other one stick fast um i've purchased several different versions of the stick fast system i have they're thin they're thick some bigger bottles some smaller bottles and it's fine um i have to say again sometimes it can be a little slow for consistency's sake my favorite accelerator is baking soda it's not perfect for every application but frankly for doing styrene construction i use it as a gusset material is almost like a mechanical uh i use it almost mechanically and it works fantastically so i don't really have a specific preference for you i keep the spray accelerators nearby because they're convenient um and they're more convenient to me than the zip kicker and they i think they actually put out less volatile chemicals because i'm able to kind of get it right in there whereas with the zip kicker spraying it out of this bottle and it's like it's getting all over the place i don't mind the smell but i have worked with model makers who are sensitized to the smell of zip kicker and it causes an allergic reaction that is no fun um yeah john dumontel also says what is your favorite tool that can only do one small task but does it extremely well well whenever i'm talking about this i have to say i get into the realm of the like the the alligator pliers so i have three sizes here this is a a six inch that's an eight inch and this is a ten inch i believe yep um and i have to say i use these things maybe once every two or three months but every time i do there is not many other things that could get you there um along the plier grabber thing this is a fish hook remover i learned about these from jamie heinemann there are very few uh long necked pliers that have a more robust grip than these weirdly stamped sheet metal tools like this tool feels cheap it does not behave cheap it is a real nice robust grip because it's for pulling fish hooks out of fish jaws yeah that is one of those very rarely used tools that like i make sure i keep top of mind and when one breaks every now and then uh you put these under enough force and the plier can get busted or it can get open and then it's hard to make it close again um i immediately buy a new pair when that happens i've broken i guess three of these over the last 20 years eric meyer asks how do you treat learning from watching a video versus learning from an instructor where you have the advantage of the in-person experience it is really true an in-person experience is unparalleled and that's actually one of the reasons we started our oculus build series for tested um because when norm and i were first messing around with this was like five years ago four years ago um both of us were astounded having spent lots of time in front of workbenches watching people work how immediate the experience in vr is and if you've got an oculus go look up tested's build videos because there is it's just fundamentally different than watching a youtube video of somebody's being there in 3d really makes a difference i still do most of my learning watching people do stuff on videos not to say that that's the better method because i mean back when i was first starting out and working with mitch romanowski you know watching the sensitivity of what he was doing i think when you're with someone you're not just looking at their hands and the materials they're working with you're getting an entire philosophy of work from them right the way in which they approach the care the mood that they're in all of these things are instructive when they're happening in front of you yeah really i mean i have also had teachers who spent so much time explaining stuff i didn't learn a damn thing because it's not necessarily about the explanation as it is about about what you're witnessing um years and years ago i came across a piece of writing that said the best book ever written on pool and billiards was the inner game of tennis by tim galloway and so i immediately bought the inner game of tennis and read it and it's a phenomenal book and the reason i and i agree with this assessment it's one of the best books about playing pool and billiards and it's not about that it's about playing tennis but what it's really about is changing your physical relationship to the ball because when you're beginning playing tennis or you're playing pool you think that this ball is your enemy and you've got to get it to do what you wanted to do and you got to learn enough to get it to do that whether you're hitting it with spin with your tennis racket or you're trying to put a little english on it to make this shot and leave your cue ball where you want and what tim galloway describes he was a tennis pro is it was a tennis pro who had an epiphany while teaching someone where instead of explaining to them the technique he simply said all right instead of explaining to you this technique i'm just going to show you and he showed them how he did something and then he said without any back and forth go ahead and try it and they were they got much farther just watching him without intellectualizing it than from the intellectualization and it it's a it's a it's a lovely epiphany to have because i think there's there's a place for both there's a place for the intellectualization i read lots of papers on tools and metrology and other things in order to expand my horizons about them but at the same time just watching someone use a machine with high precision is itself so much interesting information and if you there's a way to take it in there's a way to take it in and it's oh wait okay the way i want to talk about taking it in freud when he was first writing about conducting therapy when he was first writing about conducting therapy talked about sitting there listening to your patient talk about themselves and he says in one of his writings that the therapist can feel anxious sometimes listening to a client talk because they're trying to remember everything the client is saying the client's giving them information about their childhood about their outlook on things about things that happened to them and freud cautioned the therapist the analyst to not over worry about remembering every last thing that their client said rather he instructed the analyst to put their head in a mind of just recep receptivity just sit there and let them talk and really instead of trying to remember what they're saying just let the let the conversation go over you and my wife is a practicing marriage and family therapist and describes that yeah that is a fundamentally different thing to do than to try and remember everything they said and it gives you much more access to the full scope of the story that they're telling which i think is really and in a way what freud is describing in this is a specific kind of sort of meditative mindfulness of just being in this state of awareness where you are paying a high level of attention but to the gestalt of the whole thing rather than lots of little details rather than bothering your brain like put this in that slot put this in that slot put this in that slot and i think the same thing is true bringing this all the way back around to tools to what you learned from watching someone do something i've had people try and now i'm remembering i won't name names because i don't want to i don't want to insult anybody but i do remember learning a technique from a teacher a few years ago and the difficulty i had with them is they stopped me every time i was doing something wrong so it was like three hours before i did the thing the first time because we were constantly stopping so that they could break down for me what i wasn't getting right and i eventually said to them can i just watch you do this thing a few times and then give me like half an hour to kind of wrap my head around it and that's when i finally was able to sort of get it and understand it um so that is the longest way of saying because that is the kind of answer i give uh that for me there is no equivalent to watching someone do something in front of you but watching them do it on video is pretty darn close uh and having them describe what they're doing is also has a utility but i think the most valuable thing is watching someone watching someone do it yeah thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next one\n"