Practice Makes Perfect
Practice Makes Perfect
In James Clear’s excellent book, Atomic Habits, the author writes about University of Florida professor Jerry Uelsmann dividing students into two groups on the first day of his film photography class and explaining what he expected.
“Everyone on the left side of the classroom would be in the ‘quantity’ group and graded solely on the amount of work they produced. On the final day of class, he would tally the number of photos submitted by each student. One hundred photos would rate an A, ninety photos a B, eighty photos a C, and so on.”
He explained how students “on the right side of the room would be in the ‘quality’ group. They would be graded only on the excellence of their work. They would only need to produce one photo during the semester but to get an A; it had to be a nearly perfect image.”
Professor Uelsmann expected the “quality” group to produce better pictures than the “quantity” group. However, at the end of the semester, he was astonished to discover that the “quantity” group had taken much better pictures. Upon further reflection, the results made perfect sense. During the semester, the students took many pictures, experimented with various compositions, took photos in various lighting conditions, and experimented with different methods of developing their images in the darkroom. Over several months, the budding photographers learned from their mistakes and took better and better pictures. In contrast, the “quality” group discussed what it would take to create the perfect image but did not take pictures. Instead, they talked about taking pictures.
Clear observed, “It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle… We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action.”
The Bible makes a similar point: “…don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like… Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” (James 1:22-24, 27, NLT)
Learning is good, but applying what we learn is infinitely better. Professor Uelsmann discovered that teaching students about photography did not make them better photographers. However, as he taught them about photography and they practiced taking many pictures, they became better. The Apostle James made a similar point. Knowing what the Bible says is good, but “genuine religion” applies what God teaches us.
Possessing and consistently using some knowledge is far better than knowing a great deal but never using what we know. Applying the knowledge we have is more powerful than learning new information we never use.