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How to get better at anything: Scaffolding · insyed; cozy psychology

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  Welcome back to INSyed. I'm Syed. And every week,
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  I take real academic research and bring it closer
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  to the life you're actually living. Like a diary
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  that did psychology. Let's take a peek. INSyed.
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  This week, I started working on my dissertation.
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  10 to 15 thousand words. I sat at my desk staring
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  at my laptop screen with tabs too many to count,
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  trying to do everything at once. I had accidentally
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  overwhelmed myself. I thought I could do everything
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  I wanted to do, but I sat there, frozen. Everyone
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  knows the story of Icarus and his wings of wax.
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  Some read it as a story of overconfidence, arrogance,
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  or naivety. Who knows? They all may be right.
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  But all I knew was that in that moment, I was
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  Icarus. What's something that you're good at?
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  I say I can write decently. At least that's what
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  I tell myself. Because sometimes you do need
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  that positive outlook on yourself. But alas,
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  I am human, and I think to myself that I'll never
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  be as good as the people I look up to. Austin
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  Kleon, Brianna Weist, Bianca Asparacino, I owe
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  my return to the written word to them. I see
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  them so far away. Yet, I forget that they're
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  human too. We eat, drink, sleep, and share the
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  same big cheese in the sky we call the moon.
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  But most importantly, they all started the same
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  way that I did. Not knowing a thing. What you
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  can do now is all that you're capable of. Now.
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  That one word carries more weight than one might
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  initially imagine. You will never be bound by
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  what you can do now because you can always see
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  where you can grow when you have the right help.
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  In educational psychology, we learned there's
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  a concept that names this. The zone of proximal
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  development. Although it sounds sci -fi, it's
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  much simpler than what you'd imagine. It's the
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  range of what you can do with and without help.
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  Recognizing the zone aligns you with what you
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  know you can do and where you can learn to improve.
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  But at the same time, we have to make sure we
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  pace ourselves right. Our brains may be sponges,
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  but even a sponge can bleed water when soaked
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  enough. We'll take a short break here. Sit with
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  that for a moment. Welcome back. Looking at the
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  data, research points us to scaffolding, a process
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  where we look for support in the form of people
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  like teachers and mentors. or tools like the
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  internet that'll help us expand our zone of proximal
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  development. Scaffolding helps us lighten our
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  cognitive load with the amount of water that
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  our spongy brains are holding. There's still
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  some nuance to it all. What researchers found
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  was that the best way we can lighten our cognitive
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  load is if we deal with tasks that are complex
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  and with high levels of scaffolding. Like its
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  name, scaffolding gives us more support. So like
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  a building, we don't have to carry all the weight
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  on our own. It's why I say I was Icarus. He perished
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  because he was too close to the sun. Without
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  help, he tried going beyond his ceiling and paid
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  the heavy price. He didn't know where his zone
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  ended. Taking a step back from it all, I decided
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  to try again, this time doing things step by
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  step, incrementally. By scaffolding, I was slowly
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  able to build on what I knew, which admittedly
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  was not a lot, but because I started on a blank
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  slate, I could slowly build up my knowledge and
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  have a better understanding what I can do. Now
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  although I'm in the early stages of my dissertation,
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  I'm way better and happier than how I initially
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  began. So I invite you to look for your proxy,
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  find out what you can do with and without help,
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  see where you can get better, and find small
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  steps to making your circle bigger. By scaffolding,
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  we'll be able to build a stronger foundation.
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  And before you know it, Where you were then is
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  going to look so far from where you are now.
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  And that is growth. And that brings us to the
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  end of this week's insight. Thank you for spending
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  your time here. If something today stayed with
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  you, the best way you can support it is to share
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  it with someone it may reach. You can also follow
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  the show wherever you listen. And if you have
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  a moment, leaving a review genuinely helps more
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  people find us. Until next week, Remember that
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  there's always more INSyed.