[gens]

My 2 moneys.

I worked in construction a while ago. I was always slow, pedantic, and the work i did usually reflected that (usually, some things benefit from being done fast). Everybody kept telling me that i was slow so one day i said "f it" and started working faster. The quality of work went down, for obvious reasons, and never got to the quality that was before (for most of it, some work like cutting things to size stayed precise). But if you, for example, paint a hundred windows really fast, you will probably not find many windows painted nicely. (mind you that nobody notices the little imperfections in construction, like, for example, a drop of white wall paint on the white radiator pipe)

Of course doing more means learning more, but so does thinking and experimenting.

Pottery, i never tried, but i assume it is more about the "feel" then anything else. While programming benefits a lot more from learning random stuff. It's easier to write a huge mess of code that works fine then it is to make a huge pot that doesn't fall apart.

All in all, why not bout ? Hack some 100 programs quickly, and write a couple programs with lots of preparation and research.

[jdietrich]

The heart of craftsmanship is understanding tolerances. Making something practically perfect is often remarkably easy if you throw enough time and effort at it. The hard part is making something just good enough. A master craftsman knows exactly what constitutes "good enough" for any given task and knows exactly how to achieve that goal with a minimum of time and expense.

[vosper]

Do you think there was any change in quality from the first window you painted after you decided to start going fast, versus the last one? Like, did you get better at painting windows quickly, even if they weren't up to the quality of the pedantic, slow one?

[gens]

It was a long time ago and i did do more of the heavier construction then stuff like painting.

Biggest thing i learned from doing things quickly is where precision matters and where not. For example if i'm painting the ceiling it doesn't matter if i touch a wall as i will paint that wall later (unless i splat a bunch of it, ofc), but it does matter if i touch the ceiling when i'm paining the wall. Of course painting things quickly brings the risk of spraying paint around, especially when using a roller. Painting things too slowly can also be bad if the paint is highly viscous, like with the paint for outside metal surfaces (railings) as it ends up being obvious where you stopped to detail something else. Or wall paint if you cba to do it in two layers so you mix thicker paint and do it in one.

With windows specifically (and doors and such) you would put the.. paper tape (idk how to translate it) (edit: masking tape) some 2 or more cm wide on the edges so you would have a nice margin of error. With paining fast there is a bigger risk of going over it, and that can be bad (oil based window paint on a wall is really bad, wall paint on a window easily goes away with a wet rag).

In most construction it doesn't matter if you are little off, it was just me being anal.

TL;DR I learned where it matters to go a bit slower and where i can go fast without consequences.

edit: Forgot to answer the question. Yes, i did get better. Mostly because i learned where i can go fast and where i need to pay more attention. Learning to not wave brushes full of paint around like a figure skater also had a bit to do with it. I did also learn that some things come out better by default if you do them fast.

[bcook]

As someone who spent ~10 years in construction (log homes mostly), only newbies and weekend warriors seem to have this mentality. Yeah, always do quality work, but unless you are an artist, you've gotta get shit done quickly.

I've tried to paint my own house and my professional painter friends can absolutely destroy me in both speed & skill. A major problem I have is smooth caulking. It takes me forever to shittily caulk a window while a pro can make a few quick swipes and be done.

[vosper]

Learning when you can go fast and when you should go slower, with more care, seems like a valuable thing to learn (not just in construction, I'd think)

[kaybe]

The word you're looking for is masking tape.

[cosinetau]

I think this is the best answer. There is no silver bullet to learning, and we need to get away from thinking there is.

On the other hand, coming from construction too, I would assume your coworkers were teasing you, rather than really fuss over the speed of the new kid. ;)