The best skill to learn (not just for artists)
The best skill to learn is reverse engineering.
The ability to look at something that has already been created and figure out how it was made is one of the keys to true mastery.
Learning to reverse engineer is learning to observe not just how things are, but what must have happened to get to that point. This is a concept that can be used in any field. Watching Claire Saffitz from Bon Appétit reverse engineer junk food is mesmerizing and hilarious. But you could gain more than entertainment if you reverse engineer how to reverse engineer from watching Claire.
“The reproduction of another manufacturer’s product following detailed examination of its construction or composition.”
Yes, this is a definition, but it is so much more than that. You can and should reverse engineer essentially anything you like. You can reverse engineer someone’s style, someone’s career. You sometimes learn more from watching people work than by being instructed by them. This is probably because teaching is hard. Often people don’t realise exactly how they do what they do because the habits and skills are so ingrained that they aren’t aware that they are doing them.
Cookbooks are notorious for missing steps because to an experienced cook or baker (the kind of people who often write cookbooks) the exact order of certain operations, how often to stir, and exactly when something is done is so obvious that it is left out from the recipe.
I leave you with a recipe for Scones from by way of illustration:
“Plain Scones
Take one pound of flour and a pinch of salt, rub in a scrap of butter the size of a walnut and add a heaped teaspoon full of baking powder. mix with either sour milk or buttermilk, using enough to make a soft dough. Mix the ingredients well together. Roll out, cut into rounds and bake in a flat tin in a quick oven”