Dear Friends,
It seems to me, nothing is hard once you know the trick, the trouble is, figuring out the trick. Everything you do or try to do is effected by this expression. The old saying “he makes it look easy,” is based on that person knowing the tricks. From assembling a roller bearing to writing a novel every task is easy when we know the trick to it. This important to understand because it allows us to recognize our strengths. You can do anything. The most difficult operations are in truth easy once you learn the trick. The reality of life is that we are far more capable than we give ourselves credit for. How many times have you heard someone say, “I could never do that!” When you do, tell them they are selling themselves short. All they have to do is learn the trick. All anyone has do to is learn the trick.
This maxim is the basis for the theory of division of labor. In the theory of the division of labor, a process is made more efficient when the steps are separated and each is done by someone who specializes in each part of the process. Adam Smith’s pin factory is the classic example. By specializing in just one step, a person becomes not merely proficient but they learn all the tricks, and therefore the task they are assigned becomes easier and easier, while the quality of the work becomes better and better. You can use this wisdom to your advantage, and you probably already do, when you look up the best practices for a job, taping dry wall for example, in a book or on the Internet. Whenever you or I try to perform some process without looking up the “trick” it takes much longer and the result is always sub par.
The “trick” is not always a method that can be shown, it often needs to be practiced, soldering lead cable is an example. A person can be taught theory all day long, to the point of being an expert on the theory of it, but, until they actually hold a torch in their hands and see the change in the luster of the lead when the solder will phase change and before the lead itself melts, for themselves, they will never be proficient at it. Until they are able to gauge the solder’s slump, just as it is ready to be wiped, no amount of theory will keep them from burning through the cable. Unless the person wielding the torch can recognize the temperature of the solder and lead, and also the hand coordination to heat and wipe, they cannot be said to know how to solder, and thus know the trick. Some operations require experience to learn the trick.
Puzzles always have a trick to them. I made a bunch of wooden puzzles one time. The puzzle had six identical pieces of wood. They would assemble into a unit, if done right, but the puzzle had two tricks. The first trick was that the way it assembled was counter intuitive, and the second was it could only be easily assembled, when made into two pieces and put together as two halves of a whole. The thing was simple once you learned the trick but nearly impossible if you didn’t. Every task you have to do is basically a puzzle, once you learn the trick it is simple.
Technological advancement is all about figuring out the trick. Imagine telling someone from the past how the electrical wiring in your home works. Copper conductors coated with polymer transport the invisible electricity from the breaker panel to the lights switches, which open and close the circuit, but only on the hot legs, to activate the florescent bulb that produces light, photons, from the jump in shells by the electrons energized by electricity as it is passed through an ionized gas. They would look at you like you had two heads. We take it for granted and simply flick the switch and the lights come on but the whole process is a series of tricks discovered and added together. Travel to the stars will be the same thing. A series of tricks will be discovered, added together, and the result will equal interstellar travel.
Knowing the rules of writing doesn’t make someone a great novelist knowing the trick to captivating the reader’s interest does. The trick is not usually a form of general knowledge but specific knowledge applied to a particular situation. Like soldering lead or assembling a puzzle, all the general knowledge in the world is useless until you learn the trick to it.
The take away here is that everything is simple, once you learn the trick, but even if you do not know the trick, it is no less simple, you just don’t know the trick. There really is nothing you cannot do. Whether or not you choose to invest the time and energy into learning the trick is up to you. Sometimes it is not worth the investment to learn every trick and instead utilize the division of labor. Often it is more efficient to hire people who have learned some trick to do a task for you, paying them by using the tricks you have learned to make the money, thereby creating an economy. It is empowering to know that nothing is hard, once you know the trick…
Sincerely,
John Pepin
