This one tiny moment highlights something that is a huge struggle for me. When I think about laying down plastic wrap now, I think “I need some spray oil”. I don’t think “I need something that’ll make this plastic wrap stick to the surface better.” There’s a subtle distinction to be made there; in the former case, I’m just aping something someone else has shown me. In the latter, I’m thinking critically and creatively about solving a problem. I’m pretty confident in my abilities to replicate something; I follow directions well, and can compensate for error in small but significant ways. This entire project, for example, isn’t much more than me following directions. This extends to other areas in my life as well: at work, I can learn something taught to me by someone, tidy it up, and internalize it. But in most cases, I need the seed of this idea to be planted in my head before I can expound on it. It’s very often that I’m taught something, internalize it, and then assume that ‘this is the way it’s done’…I stop critically-analyzing it. Such is the case with using oil to hold down plastic wrap — I learned it and now I just default to ‘this is the way you do this’ rather than ‘this is A way to do this’.
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psychology
human thought
habits
ux design
