David Malan

And you realize, at least back in the day of actual phone books, like, oh, I've been using this the whole time.

I just didn't know what to call it.

And I think that's very empowering to use metaphors to create memorable moments that help students realize that even the seemingly most arcane topics are still very much within their grasp and perhaps not so dissimilar.

Even when we talk about binary for students.

We like to show them that, hey, here's a number like 123.

Well, why is it 123?

Because there's the ones place, the tens place, the hundreds place and so forth.

Hey, guess what?

Binary is the exact same methodology, but you just have the ones place, the twos place, the fours place and so forth.

And helping people realize like, oh, like that's all it is, I think is very empowering because suddenly they feel like they're part of the conversation and they actually know what they're talking about all the more, even when they thought that was a domain for those more comfortable only.

I think to an extent.

I mean, if it's still not sinking in after 100 times, I mean, frankly, I think good educational advice would be, like, maybe this isn't the field for you, and this is how you've been empirically figuring that out.

If it's just not clicking in a way that's exciting you, that's making you happy, then, okay, stop beating yourself up.

Like, find something else that's of interest to you.

But if you're struggling and you're thinking of getting up after two times, ten times, whatever,

49 times.

I'm not quite sure where the cutoff is.

Like you should probably continue to try to power through, not necessarily by taking that same approach, but find some other class, some other professor, some other teaching assistant, some other book to try a different perspective or angle on it, because maybe you're just not jiving with like the form of instruction or the style of the teacher, myself included.

So I wouldn't give up thinking it's you alone.

And I do think, too, that's really the secret ingredient is time.