EEE — Educate, Exposure, Experience
I wrote a little about my process under my 10 Rules for Jewellery but I want to take this time to dive deeper into my learning process. Big fan of alliteration, this is my next alphabet series.
Previous series: AAA (woah I can embed the post here)
Why do this?
As Confucius said, by three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Life ultimately is about gaining as many experiences as possible (to me), so as to gain wisdom. It is what I personally strive for. I even have my own documentation of Experiences Badges that’s just for me. The only thing I’m certain about life is death. We will all die, no matter who we are, where we live in, how we exist. We will die. So as I travel along my journey towards death, I’m all about collecting experiences, like some Pokemon game catching all the Pokemon. I’d like to live 5 lifetimes in my 1 single lifetime.
Reverse thought process (thinking like an economist): if my goal is to collect experiences, ideally I just want to experience the best version of it. That means in my limited time (only constraint), I want to find way to experience the best experience (objective function). That means in my input, I have to gather as much useful details as possible to use my limited time to achieve the best experience. The variables will therefore be education and exposure.
Thus, this new system I have created.
Education
The first step is education. I enjoy going into deep into new topics. Continuous hobbies (may I classify them this way) that I dive in and out of includes (and keeps growing each year), and each year gets more subdivided because I have so much more knowledge of them:
World history
European history (specifically western europe)
Chinese history
Ancient history
Egyptian history
Caliphate history (I’ve started to dive deeper last summer)
Second best collection (Second Best)
Gold / gemstones / jewellery / diamonds
Fashion and styling
Natural fabric
Stitching methods and cuts
Leathers, leather types and tanneries
Art
Impressionist art
General oil on canvas
Watercolour painting
Sculptures
Best version of oneself
Ballet
Posture
Fine Tableware
Bone china, fine porcelain
Flatware / tea-ware
Crystalware
Hardwood
Rosewood
Teak
Ebony
Strength training
Body care
Skincare
Haircare
Face care
Cooking / food / recipes / ingredients / cooking gadgets
Personal development
Gardening
I need to stop at 11 major categories. There are too many systems in my life that I can’t show them all in 1 post here. The point here is to identify topics I am very interested and rather passionate about then take time to learn about them. I am someone who enjoys doing such research so that if I make a mistake, I have a better way to debug and learn from it.
To learn, these are the channels:
Videos on youtube: history, second best collection, ballet, cooking, strength training
Online forums and blogs: reddit is quite good but I’m switching over to substack (fashion), purse forum
Wikipedia: especially for topics that no one writes too much about (e.g. wood)
Books: world history, art, personal development
Speaking with an expert on the topic in museums or shops or craftsmen making the piece
Museums or exhibitions
Theatre (ballet)
Dinner parties / chats with friends
The more I learn, the more I learn what I don’t know hence the list keeps growing. Nonetheless, it’s always so fascinating and fun!
Exposure
I said in my 10 Rules for Jewellery that I will view jewellery and see them with my own eyes to learn about them personally.
This could mean travelling to ancient cities and marvel at them, going to museums to learn more about a topic or sign up for a workshop / class to learn about a specific topic. I find it so wonderful to go into a shop that specialises in something and end up talking to the craftsman about his craft for an hour. That happened so often to me and I feel so grateful that they give me time of their day to just share their knowledge. It’s not only a privilege to learn from them, but it is such a delight to watch their eyes light up as they speak about their work. I also enjoy going to museums and speaking to the docents.
(Window) shopping is also another great way to get exposure. I enjoy just taking a stroll into shops and looking at their collection. It’s funny that the sales associates like to ask “what occasion are we shopping for today?”. It has NEVER occurred to me to shop for an occasion. I shop because I love collecting beautiful things. I also have many beautiful things that I will absolutely NOT shop for an occasion, lest someone has the same piece as me. Looking at the pieces or items and comparing them is such a useful method to build up intrinsic knowledge. I’m learning to identify embroidery by hand and machine embroidery.
Experience
And Leonardo Da Vinci said wisdom is the daughter of experience.
After doing the homework with education and exposure, it’s time to actually experience. That means buying the piece or doing the thing. After watching ballet and admiring people who do ballet, I finally started my ballet journey. After learning about porcelain, I went to the porcelain city and learn more + bought a few more pieces. I am now very cautious when buying clothes and leather goods because I check for so many aspects and provenance of material. I can also better critique my previous experiences / purchases to as to make better decisions next time. E.g. my mistakes in making oxtail stew pasta helped me make better stew the next few times.
I believe very much in high quality low quantity. So this EEE method works for me. It’s not a linear work, it’s a continuous educational process as through experience, you learn more knowledge that you lack and you keep honing it.
Here’s to more beautiful things.
Love,
L