Learning
One of the things I liked most about programming is that the profession is mostly about getting good at learning. You literally can’t fall back on the tools you’ve always used because they’re constantly changing underfoot. You get used to entering a new framework with different syntax and patterns to learn and figuring out how to comply with them to get what you want.
Learning cooking doesn’t feel so different in that respect. There’s explicit learning like the syntax of our recipes, which are written with more brevity than standard cookbooks. There are “debugging” techniques that we learn when we go to a teacher because something isn’t happening the way we expected. Maybe our onions are burning, and that could be because the stove is too hot or because we didn’t add salt so there’s no moisture in the pan. And we’re learning to organize our time, approaching the problem of a stack of recipes similarly to how I used to approach building a new feature. We map out what we need to do, estimate which parts will be quick or slow, and then try to assign out pieces of the work that make sense together. And just like in building features, the problems usually show up when our time estimation was wrong or we didn’t actually have all the ingredients we needed for the job.
Then there’s the implicit learning, which takes place deeper in the bones. This part isn’t much like programming, but feels more like learning to drive or learning a new sport. We watch a chef do a demo and our mirror neurons light up imagining those movements ourselves. We chop or peel and our hands begin to know that certain movements feel right. We develop a much more sensitive danger detector, automatically dismantling situations that could cause an accident. The only real way to acquire this kind of learning is through focused repetition until it all becomes unconscious. Chef Celine tells us that we’ll eventually associate our uniforms with our practices of safety and sanitation, in much the same way, I imagine, as a guide dog doesn’t run or play when wearing its vest.
School is a fraught landscape for most people and not always conducive to learning. Some of my classmates get upset about losing points for stupid reasons or interrupt a teacher to ask if what they’re talking about will be on our midterm. Our school system teaches the pernicious mentality that you’re winning as long as you can get away with scoring the good grades, so its understandable. Personally, I enjoy giving up control and relaxing into the structure, trusting that I will come out the other end better. I know I don’t have too long here though. I can already see the February horizon when I’ll have to take all this and transform it into the kind of work people will pay me for. So I try to keep my unknown future at the top of my mind and learn fast.