When does a beginner cease to be a beginner?

Trolling the ME forum as I do frequently it occurred to me that I have posted many times on the beginners section.

I have been doing model engineering for about 3 years now but still consider myself a beginner.

I have been in engineering all my working life (50+ years) and have come to the conclusion that the more I learn the more I find how little I know, so on that basis I will always be a beginner.

Bill D.

"For the more I learn it's the less I seem to know"

Rosie, Fairport Convention

Neil

Good question maybe you stop being a beginner why you stop asking questions and start to answer them

My first point was serious - as you progress, you tackle new challenges and you discover there is a lot more to things you thought you knew how to do. I've been 'modelling' for over 40 years and 'model engineering' for over fifteen. I'm much more aware of gaps in my knowledge and skills now than I was ten or twelve years ago. I know I learn things from every issue of MEW I edit, and also a lot from this forum.

I think you cease to be a 'beginner' when you start to learn your limitations. You know when you can just start up and do a competent job, and when you really need to check the details. It's also a balance of knowledge and skill. For example, I know many of the hows and whys of arc welding, but after about 5lbs of 3mm rods, I still have plenty of skill to develop!

Neil

Experience teaches us how little we know, perhaps this is why teenagers know everything.......

I've been a beginner for 69 years, a standard which I will no doubt maintain for the rest of my life!

Edited By V8Eng on 09/09/2014 19:50:24

.

Please spare us the details

MichaelG.

Bill

I've been interested for the past 55 years, had a workshop for maybe 35 years, worked ( and got paid!) at a retirement job in a mechanical workshop for five years - and I'm still a "beginner" ! I find the main attraction of the hobby is that there is always some thing new to learn.

As an approach to posting " advice" here my attitude is that if I have done it and it works I will say so, If I've not done it but I can see a way that I would do it I will say so, if I've not done it and I don't know how I would approach it I will watch with interest and assess other folks advice.

I'm not concerned with labels and have no desire to be an "expert" I fully expect to continue as a "beginner" all my life!

Just enjoy it.

Regards

Norman

The expert knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.

Mike

The problem for this hobby is you know you're not going to live long enough to learn or do all the things you would like to do or achieve

So in some respects we will always be beginners

I think you will always be a beginner at certain aspects of engineering but you get better at disguising the mistakes.

brian

I always thought it was until you lost at least 3 fingernails ?

This hobby is infinitely diverse and limited only by the imagination, initiative and abilities of the participants. There is no limit to either the learning or the manifestation of dreams and ideas, hence we are all beginners in a state of constant transition somewhere on the never ending learning curve.

I can't believe I said that!

I'm still a beginner (4 & 1/2 years) but I knew I was getting somewhere when, at the Midlands ME show, I was talking to the guy behind a tool stall and saw he was trying to force an ER collet into the nut without giving it the little twist it needs. I took it from him, popped it in, and handed it back. Neither of us said anything, but I was conscious of a feeling of personal progress!

Regards,

John.

Depends how soon the next mistake is.

When You can help out another fix THEIR mistakes.

.

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Mark Twain

Nick

I've heard of ' once a beginner always a beginner' or words to that effect.. been in the engineering business all my working life from apprentice to retirement, now that I have the time to put into model engineering (?) I'm still learning, it's amazing how often I've said to myself ..'now why didn't I think of that or... b****y hell I'd forgotten about that, did it years ago, you still keep on learning all your life... until you pop your clogs! ... so in effect you're always a beginner,a lot of beginners know more than others, some less ... just enjoy!

George

> a lot of beginners know more than others, some less ...

A beginner - someone who hasn't learnt bad habits yet.

Neil

Neil, on that basis I must be a real whiz-kid. Started with the bad habits 60 years ago when I was 14. Still got some!

Cheers Dek.