#deliberate practice

Do Now:

Turn and talk.

Examine the change in artistry between @dailysheepart's first sheep and most recent sheep (after a 2 year break). Discuss how deliberate practice has made real differences in their craft over time without sacrificing their artistic voice. What can 2 years of deliberate practice do for you and your art?

Then, pick your favorite of the 49 sheep in their archive and rebloge them. You may reblog multiple sheep if you choose.

Day 1 (Sep 18, 2022)

Day 13 (Sep 30, 2022)

Day 48 (Jan 22, 2025)

Day 50 (Jan 24, 2025)

Hi, there is always an open space on the web where you can start again. At least, that is what I think. And, to be honest, I need to think that way, because if I wouldn’t, I couldn’t change myself in any way.

And what I need to start again, is to simulate my own graphic design study. I say simulate because I already have a degree for my thesis about how one could structure symbols and semiotics in space for living on Mars. One of my wilder things I have been up to in the past years.

So, it did take me around six years to actually get my degree, due to what turned out were physical, rather than psychological health issues, and I actually wonder about how I even got a degree in the first place (looking back, I didn’t feel precisely conscious at the time).

Why I am telling you this? Because I have been building a system for myself to go beyond what I have actually learned (and still recall) in my graphic design study, and in order to do that, I sort of need to “simulate” a study I did not have in the first place. Well-rested, not distracted, that sort of foundational situation, a foundation I did not have between 2017 and 2023. So, if you should have health issues, you should get help if you can, health seems to be a holistic state, a broken part affects the whole, as well as all the other parts, if you can get that.

The system I came up with is really simple: you take ECTS and GURPS as your basis, add in the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition, Bloom’s (revised) taxonomy, and deliberate practice research by Ericsson et al.

And, what you might end up with, can sort of look like this: something sort of an RPG system for skill advancement.

Level 0: Novice

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) No systematic knowledge; relies on rules or external guidance Typical Practice Focus Orientation, following instructions, foundational knowledge Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 0–20 hrs

Level 1: Advanced Beginner

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) Recognizes patterns; starts applying basic principles; low situational judgment Typical Practice Focus Guided exercises, rote practice, structured examples Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 20–100 hrs

Level 2: Competent

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) Can plan and troubleshoot; applies knowledge with some independence; moderate judgment Typical Practice Focus Deliberate practice on specific skills; small projects; self-correction Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 100–300 hrs

Level 3: Proficient

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) Holistic understanding; intuitive decision-making; adapts principles to context Typical Practice Focus Stretch projects, problem-solving in novel contexts; reflective practice Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 300–700 hrs

Level 4: Expert

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) Deep tacit understanding; high adaptability; can innovate; self-directed Typical Practice Focus Advanced deliberate practice, cross-domain integration, mentoring others Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 700–1500 hrs

Level 5: Master, or Authority

Cognitive & Behavioral Profile (Dreyfus/Bloom) Recognized innovator; internalized skill; creates new paradigms Typical Practice Focus Leading projects, high-level synthesis, research/teaching others Typical Hours for Breakthrough* 1500+ hrs

*Hours indicate target deliberate practice hours; total invested time may be higher due to passive learning, casual exposure, or repetition.

If you check out what I have written about that before, I was musing about how you can get a bachelor’s degree in the same amount of time it took me, using self-study, you can see what the flaw was, or rather is: that just putting in the hours does not guarantee progress.

You need deliberate practice, DP for short. But how much?

Well, way I figured it, for each level you are looking at the following target deliberate practice hours, and monthly DP goals, as a rough guide for everyone, especially the people stuck in /beg/ hell, like me:

Level 0: Novice

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Remember/Understand; follows instructions Deliberate Practice Focus Foundational rules, definitions Stretch Task Focus Simple guided tasks Target DP Hours 0–20 Monthly DP Goal 2–4 hrs

Level 1: Advanced Beginner

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Apply/Analyze; begins pattern recognition Deliberate Practice Focus Structured exercises, error correction Stretch Task Focus Small independent projects Target DP Hours 20–100 Monthly DP Goal 5–10 hrs

Level 2: Competent

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Apply/Analyze/Synthesize; plans work Deliberate Practice Focus Targeted practice, self-correction Stretch Task Focus Moderate independent projects Target DP Hours 100–300 Monthly DP Goal 10–15 hrs

Level 3: Proficient

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Analyze/Synthesize/Evaluate; intuitive problem solving Deliberate Practice Focus Complex projects, deliberate reflection Stretch Task Focus Novel, high-risk projects Target DP Hours 300–700 Monthly DP Goal 15–25 hrs

Level 4: Expert

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Evaluate/Create; deep tacit knowledge Deliberate Practice Focus Advanced skill integration Stretch Task Focus Cross-domain innovation, mentoring Target DP Hours 700–1500 Monthly DP Goal 20–35 hrs

Level 5: Master, or Authority

Cognitive Shift (Bloom + Dreyfus) Create; paradigm-shifting Deliberate Practice Focus Leadership, teaching, R&D Stretch Task Focus High-level innovation Target DP Hours 1500+ Monthly DP Goal 25-35+ hrs

This is a community project, so you absolutely can add your own ideas, comment whichever way you like, use or not use this system. I even added double spaces so that copying is easier, lol.

Below is essential reading material, if you want to read for yourself:

A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition

A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview on JSTOR

Deliberate Practice and Acquisition of Expert Performance: A General Overview

ECTS User's Guide 2015

Mechanisms of Skill Acquisition and the Law of Practice

Repealing the power law: The case for an exponential law of practice

The European Qualifications Framework: supporting learning, work and cross-border mobility, take special note of the spread on pages 18 & 19

The Influence of Experience and Deliberate Practice on the Development of Superior Expert Performance

The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance

Why expert performance is special and cannot be extrapolated from studies of performance in the general population: A response to criticisms

So, that’s what I’m going to do now. Better six years late than not, if you ask me, life-long learning and all ;)

I better update my journal now.

Deliberate practice is a systematic approach to improvement. After conquering the initial learning curve, it's easy to plateau and stop developing. But when it comes to storytelling, there's always more to learn.

This week, I want to challenge you to spend at least an hour working on a short story based on the conflict between humans and nature.

Human vs Nature Explained

Conflict is the driving force of any story. It's the struggle your characters must overcome to reach the resolution. A typical story, even as short as a flash piece will contain several different types of conflict.

It comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From being embarrassed (human vs self), your phone dying at the wrong moment (human vs technology) to a full-on war (human vs human).

This week, we'll focus on another common type of conflict: human vs nature.

Nature is a powerful force in the world that affects us all every day. Our struggle against nature can range from inconvenience (rain on your way to work) to the extreme (a hurricane that wipes out an entire town).

Here are some examples of humans against nature:

a holiday ruined by bad weather

rabbits raiding the lettuce in your garden

an avalanche burying a snowboarder

a community struck by a terrible flood

a ship sailing through a massive storm

a post-apocalyptic scenario triggered by a meteorite impact

As you can see, you can write a novel based on human vs nature. Many successful stories use this type of conflict to drive the plot (Jaws, The Old Man and the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, The Day After Tomorrow).

The Challenge

For an hour or more this week, work on a story that includes humans struggling against nature. It doesn't have to be the only type of conflict in the story. For example, bad weather can lead to your characters fighting and breaking up during a holiday (human vs human).

When you start writing, you'll naturally layer various types of conflict. Your protagonist is struggling with something, and everything else around them seems to be going wrong. This is one way of adding progressive complications and building towards the crisis.

By writing this story, you'll be putting what you've learned into practice. You'll experiment with it and get a feel for how well it can work. You may even be inspired to include some human vs nature into your current or next WIP.

Practising is super important. All it takes is an hour.

I will not dissect each line on his email. I will just write here what stayed with me for days.

The concept of deliberate practice is very much appealing to me. It is the conscious and intentional striving that one may be better in things that are difficult and often unpleasant to the self. According to Sir Jesse, he read somewhere that deliberate practice is actually one of the elements of a person's success. Because more often than not, we will find ourselves in the middle of things that we do not want, but we need to do. He said that if we would always stop doing things just because it doesn't make us happy, we will end up nowhere. Because there will always come a time where things will be boring, and hard. Actually, even if we started off as happy and contented with what we are doing, there will come a time where we will eventually lose our fire.

It is a painful reality, but it is so damn true. If I keep leaving things behind, just because it's not enjoyable anymore, I would end up nowhere. How? Think about this: Supposed that you started learning how to play the guitar, but then one day, you suddenly felt unhappy with it. With your calloused finger tips, and stiff hands, you become demotivated because you think it is too difficult. You already studied it for a month, but then you decided that it is not just for you, because it doesn't make you happy anymore. So, you tried to find another hobby that could make you happy again. Upon hearing the sound of the piano, it made your heart leap. And so, you thought to yourself that maybe, you are meant to be with the keys, not with the strings. So you started off with it. As days passed, you discovered that learning piano is not that easy too. The sound of the keys became monotonous, and your frustrations eventually deafened you. And just like the strings, you left the keys again. This cycle goes on and on and on. This is humanity's vain search for happiness.

But do you know what's the most unfortunate part of this grueling cycle? That person searching for happiness, he became master of none. He cannot even be considered as Jack of all trades! Because long before he can absorb the skills that might be useful for him in the long run, he already left the training ground.

You know. I think, the road to success is a straight but rocky path. It is a difficult one, and often it seems so so loooong. But actually, it is much longer if a person makes so many unnecessary detours in his life. Like instead of just going straight down the rocky path, he turns to the far right, to the left, turns around and run in confusing directions. All because he is searching for what makes him happy (but is often disappointed because happiness goes away faster than a bubble). So right now, I want to take the shortest route to success. The straight but rocky path. And to do that, I need to deliberately practice the difficult things that I never wanted to do. Because in the future, I would often find myself in the midst of difficult places and I won't ever progress if I keep running away from such destinations.

Right now, the concept of deliberate practice has been guiding my every day. Even just once each day, I try to identify the things that I do not want to do, but I need to. However small. I try my best to accomplish it deliberately. With full consciousness, concentration and intention. So that, when great discomforts come my way. I can already face them and triumph over them.

Some expressions practice with Mary Poppins ft. my obvious weakness at drawing hats