Levelling up: Shuhari = Bloom’s Taxonomy = Dreyfus Taxonomy

/

By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Reading Time: 4 mins


Summary: “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” - Picasso. If you want to level up, shred everything others have done while also simultaneously doing units of creation (output). 


The models

  • Shuhari

  • Bloom’s Taxonomy

  • Dreyfus Taxonomy

Joining the models together

What is the point of this? 

  • That you can level up. That your abilities aren’t fixed. 

  • This is a form of growth mindset. 

  • For almost all mental areas you start at Level 0. And for many areas there is no ceiling, ie you can always continue to level up.

One can get better at levelling up… or level up at levelling up! 

  • I’m not so fussed at what level one is at, I’m much more interested in how fast one can level up without outside help. 

  • IMO the faster one can go from a novice to a master, from learning the rules to making the rules, from understanding what others do to creating a new high water mark the better. 

  • I think there are broad meta strategies that you can apply to try to level up in new fields. Some high level ones are Shuhari and Bloom’s taxonomy. 

  • One key strategy for where to start: understand what people are doing now and why. I find when you properly understand what is currently occuring, normally you can find ways to level up. 


All models are wrong, some are helpful. Using these models in a different way

  • Another strategy to level up: I think you can normally ‘create’ really early on. 

    • Like when you are Level 1. 

    • Your ‘creation’ at Level 1 is normally very low quality, but I find that creating is a key way to level up to Level 2. 

    • Normally, each unit of levelling up requires a unit of creation... I know this is ‘breaking’ the model above! 

    • One way I find to level up is to do each component of bloom's taxonomy. 

    • Hopefully, each time you cycle through the components, you level up. 

    • So 1 unit of each of Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate & Create = 1 level up. 

      • Level 0

        • Do a Unit of Remember => Understand => Apply => Analyse => Evaluate => Create

        • ==> Get to Level 1

      • Level 1

        • Do a Unit of Remember => Understand => Apply => Analyse => Evaluate => Create

        • ==> Get to Level 2

      • Level 2

        • Do a Unit of Remember => Understand => Apply => Analyse => Evaluate => Create

        • ==> Get to Level 3

      • Etc etc. 

    • Effectively how fast you can cycle ≈ How fast you can level up. 

    • Each time, hopefully what you create improves. I used to think that you didn’t create until you were eg a ‘Master’. But now I think you can almost never become a master without much creating. Effectively you have Level 1 creating / output. And you have Level 50 (master) creating / output. In my experience, output levels up, you don’t level up to the point where you can do output. 

  • Another lens: reading, thinking, talking, writing & building

    • I think these are the main modalities for getting up the curve in a knowledge field. 

    • To level up, do a unit of each of the modalities. IE to go from Level 1 to Level 2 do 1 unit of reading, 1 unit of thinking, 1 unit of talking with others, 1 unit of writing and 1 unit of building. 

    • I use to mega over index reading and do almost zero writing. With the benefit of hindsight I was hindering the speed I leveled up at. 

    • Hopefully at the end of this you are at Level 2. Then repeat ad infinitum! 

  • Jingle: I don’t want a level life, I want a life where I level up! 


Other relevant blogs: