Generally, mastering a certain body of knowledge or a specific skill in a field often involves three stages: Initiation, Refinement, and Application.
If a professional skill has not yet been initiated, or if it has obvious knowledge gaps, it is difficult to apply knowledge flexibly, and you will often encounter obstacles when executing tasks.
Early in her career, Anna was responsible for data analysis, but her foundational knowledge of statistics was weak, with clear gaps. She tried to compensate by completing a large number of complex tasks, but due to her weak foundation, she would often get halfway through a task and have to resort to looking at other people’s analyses and solutions. As a result, although she accumulated some execution techniques, her data analysis skills did not show significant improvement. Later, Anna decided to start from scratch. She spent a few months filling in her foundational gaps in statistics and began to form her own knowledge system. The obvious obstacles she faced when executing tasks disappeared, and her data analysis skills began to improve.
Definition: Initiation In this context, Initiation refers to the stage where you have mastered the basic learning methods and execution techniques for a field or a specific skill, and you understand its core concepts and key points. If you are given enough time, you should be able to master the fundamental aspects. If you cannot do this, you have not been initiated into the field, even if you have been working in it for a long time! Sometimes, if a field has many knowledge gaps or a weak foundation, you are also not considered initiated. If you have been initiated, you can, within a certain period, master the basic knowledge points and execution techniques. If you have not been initiated, you might spend a lot of time with little to no progress. If you are not initiated, you might not understand the key areas of the field and waste a lot of time on unimportant knowledge. Another possibility is that you don’t understand the necessary related knowledge and get involved with difficult points prematurely, getting stuck in a rut and forming “knowledge pitfalls.”
Definition: Refinement Refinement refers to the process of thoroughly mastering a knowledge point or a part of a knowledge base through methods such as intensive reading of documents, understanding and memorizing, deep thinking, and practice.
Self-Study and Mentorship Regardless of your career stage, you should make full use of all resources, especially the guidance of mentors or senior colleagues. You need to manage the balance between following a mentor’s guidance and self-study.
Initiation Stage: This stage primarily involves reviewing past documentation, reading a large amount of relevant material, and consulting with mentors and colleagues to clarify and memorize unclear basic knowledge points. The focus during this stage is on forming a holistic framework for the field and gaining a preliminary grasp of the key concepts. There is no need to delve into overly detailed or deep knowledge. When practicing, the focus should be on understanding and appropriate memorization; just getting a basic grasp of the execution techniques is sufficient. If you can’t complete certain tasks, don’t waste too much time; you can look at the solutions. Temporarily set aside techniques you don’t understand, but for those you do, write them down in a sentence or two in a notebook for future review. Speed is crucial during initiation. To gain a complete understanding, you can read many reference materials, but be selective and only focus on what is useful for the knowledge points you are studying.
Refinement Stage: This stage primarily involves listening to guidance, reading documents intensely by making connections, and consulting reference materials to thoroughly understand and accurately memorize the knowledge points within your scope of work. If there are still knowledge points you can’t understand after receiving guidance and reading documents, you can use related reference materials for help. Some materials may discuss the same topic from a different perspective or in more detail than your main documents, which can aid your understanding. If you still can’t understand, don’t give up easily; you can force yourself to memorize the knowledge point for now. During this process, avoid getting stuck on minor details. Once you’ve understood a knowledge point, there’s no need to keep reading reference materials; just make sure you have it memorized accurately.
Initiation Materials Definition: Initiation Materials Initiation materials are documents, reference books, and other resources used to guide you into a field. They help you understand the core ideas, form a holistic framework, grasp the basic principles and methods, and master some fundamental knowledge points. You should choose materials that are explained clearly and thoroughly. Some reference materials can simplify difficult problems, making them easier to understand. You can choose simpler materials for initiation, and if you can’t find them, you can just focus on the simple parts of the materials you have, as your goal is just to get initiated. The main purpose is to grasp the core essence of the field and its most basic knowledge, without delving into every fine detail. Sometimes, you may need to consult several different materials before you find the one that best helps you get initiated. Choosing Good Initiation Materials: Good initiation materials often have a clear structure and detailed content. You can use initiation materials to stimulate your thinking. In this case, you can choose reference materials that offer unique solutions. If your skill level is low or your foundation is weak, you can choose simpler materials with detailed explanations. Initiation materials can also be used for deep thinking. You can choose materials with a similar content to your main documents but a different narrative perspective. Some reference materials may not be great overall but have certain parts that are excellent. In that case, just focus on those parts. You should choose initiation materials that are closely aligned with your work requirements and the difficulty and direction of your actual tasks. This ensures you don’t waste time on knowledge that isn’t directly relevant.
Speed: For a beginner, speed is very important. You should read through the initiation materials quickly. Sometimes, one material alone isn’t enough, and you have to switch to several others to get a feel for the field. Flexibility: When reading initiation materials, think from multiple perspectives and make use of your existing knowledge for associations and comparisons. Repetitive Memorization: After you have understood the concepts, you should reinforce them through repetitive memorization and frequent review.
When engineer Ethan transitioned to software development, he had only six months to learn a new programming language, which he had little prior experience with. He attended company training, but found it difficult to follow the mentor’s lectures. Ethan didn’t panic. He found all the beginner-to-advanced documents and spent a few days going over the table of contents many times. Then, he spent a month reading through all the documents, focusing only on the basic knowledge and skipping the details and difficult points. He quickly memorized information that only required rote memorization and focused on understanding and memorizing the foundational principles and key concepts of the entire field, asking his mentor for clarification when needed. He deliberately set aside the finer, more complex knowledge for later. A month later, when he attended the training again, Ethan found that he was mostly able to keep up with the mentor.
Memorization, Understanding, Practice, Thinking, and Application From one perspective, the learning process can be seen as a cycle of memorizing, understanding, practicing, thinking, and applying. Different fields have different priorities. For example, marketing places a high emphasis on memorization, software development on practice, and product design on deep thinking. Therefore, since software development relies heavily on practice, even if you understand and memorize the basic concepts and principles very well, you won’t perform well in your job without completing a significant number of “new tasks.” In contrast, marketing is more about memorization, and even if you spend a lot of time creating mock plans, your results won’t improve without precise memorization. You should allocate your time according to the priorities of your field.
Forming a Holistic Framework and Knowledge System Initiation Stage: You should try to form a holistic framework of the knowledge, such as a work outline. You must repeatedly memorize and be very clear about the key points of the outline and documents. This will make it easier to identify priorities in the next refinement stage and find a basic approach when executing tasks. One of the main reasons some people constantly get sidetracked on tasks instead of following a simple, direct path is that they lack a holistic framework. Refinement Stage: Tightly based on the framework you formed during initiation, you should refine each knowledge point, understanding it thoroughly and then memorizing it accurately. This will solidify each piece of knowledge and integrate it into the larger framework, forming a preliminary knowledge system. Through your work, practice, and review, you should identify your knowledge weaknesses. Once you find a gap in your knowledge system, you must fill it through repetitive practice, deep thinking, and precise memorization. At the same time, you should constantly summarize new execution techniques and find deeper connections between different knowledge points. As you repeat this process, your mind will form a clear network of knowledge points and techniques. Finally, by integrating the holistic framework from initiation with the network of knowledge points and techniques from refinement, and by consistently engaging in deep thinking and summary, you will be able to apply your knowledge flexibly.
Repetitive Cycles For a particular field, you may need to go through the cycles of Initiation, Refinement, and Application repeatedly.
Initiation, Refinement, and Application Work is a gradual process. To master a field or a skill, you must progress from basic to advanced. Most people will go through the three stages of Initiation, Refinement, and Application. During Initiation, the focus is on understanding the basics without getting bogged down in details. You learn the fundamental knowledge by studying case examples and doing simple exercises and then try to memorize some of the basics. The main methods for this stage are consulting with mentors, reading reference materials, and reviewing previous documents from various perspectives to find the “entry point” by making associations and imitating existing work. Refinement primarily involves making connections and thinking deeply to thoroughly understand the basic knowledge points. Through selected practice, you accurately memorize the basic knowledge points and execution techniques. Mentally, you must be confident and resolute when studying documents and working on tasks. If you consistently make mistakes in a certain area, it means your understanding is flawed, and you should go back to the Initiation stage to relearn the concepts from different angles. Application primarily involves practicing and thinking deeply to learn how to apply knowledge flexibly and to improve your speed and accuracy. You should work on “new” tasks you have never done before and read documents you have never seen to train your adaptability. When you find a knowledge gap or a weakness during your work or practice, you should immediately return to the Refinement stage to master that area.
The Stages of I, R, and A Vary for Different People and Fields For a specific field, based on your foundation and skills, it might take you two to three months to get initiated, or maybe just a few weeks or days. In some cases, you might not even need to be initiated and can move directly into the refinement and application stages. Therefore, you must determine the time required based on your own situation. Also, even within the same field, if the difficulty changes (e.g., you transfer from a regular company to a top firm) or the work requirements change, you might need to return from the refinement stage to the initiation stage.
Software engineer Brian had good math skills in college, but after joining a top tech company, the difficulty and complexity of the projects far exceeded what he was used to, so he had a hard time adapting. He changed his approach and stopped just jumping into tasks. Instead, he started from the beginning, repeatedly reviewing the foundational concepts, principles, and execution techniques he had learned before. This gave him a clear direction for completing basic tasks. He then gathered classic internal case studies, technical documents, and tasks he had previously made mistakes on, and chose typical problems of moderate difficulty to practice repeatedly until he was proficient. This process helped him form a clear system in his mind. He then began completing a mock project every day, noting down any new techniques he discovered. If he found a knowledge or technique gap, he would go back to the Refinement stage, find related tasks, and practice them repeatedly. When he encountered a difficult or complex task, he would think deeply about it.
Another software engineer, Colin, was always good at math in college because he enjoyed solving all kinds of technical problems, simple or difficult. He learned through practice. For him, there was no clear Initiation, Refinement, and Application process. As long as he had enough time and completed a sufficient number of tasks, his skills were excellent.