Some people think that it takes decades to become an expert in something. I’ve read some estimates that say that with concentrated effort you can become an expert in any field within three years. I advocate that there is a fast track to become an expert in anything that involves a process. It occurs through understanding.

By understanding, I don’t mean having empathy for someone else and neither do I mean a negotiated agreement on something. I mean having such a total knowledge of something that you know how it works. Most events have a cause and an effect and in between them is some form of mechanism - an integrated system of components that operate together through a process. If you understand the mechanism, then for a given input you can predict the output and vice versa; for a given output you can predict the initial input. In my opinion, human beings are obsessed with prediction. It gives certainty and it removes risk and these are primal, instinctive survival drives, but understanding gives us even more than this.

When you have knowledge of a process, you can perform it and get a desired result. However if the mechanism used does not suit the application, or if something breaks within the mechanism, then without understanding you are powerless to do anything about it. This is the great problem with most forms of education. They convey knowledge of processes but not understanding. Thus when the student can’t get the desired result he or she doesn’t know what to do next. This results in feeling impotent, confounded and inadequate - the very things that we most want to avoid. This might be what Einstein was alluding to in his quotation that imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is inert. The ability to think through a process, using your imagination, is much more powerful.

If you understand the mechanism, then you can adapt it to suit new applications and if anything breaks, or ceases to function properly, then you can repair it. For example, if you have a television set and you know how to switch it on, change channels and adjust the volume, then you have knowledge of a process to get a desired result (seeing a TV program). However if the set breaks, you are rendered powerless to get the result that you want. Alternatively, if the signals to the TV change and it needs new components or adjustment you are also powerless. If you had an understanding of how a TV set works and of all of the components within, plus some rudimentary technical skills, then you can repair the television, adjust it and even adapt it to operate under changing conditions.

This, in my opinion, is what it takes to have full expertise. You can develop it very quickly if you focus intently on the cause and effect mechanisms at play in any subject or field of endeavor that you choose to study (assuming that a process is involved, which is not always the case, e.g. a history expert needs to remember facts and those facts are inert, i.e. they are not part of any process). Once you know the mechanisms, then you can predict a future outcome, or reverse engineer it to find an original input. This is the beauty of the scientific method. It seeks to achieve prediction. This is the beauty of a theory. It speculates on cause and effect and is adjusted to suit the findings that come through experimentation.

Once you have understanding, then very often you don’t need to learn more about the subject. Instead you can focus on applying the knowledge in practical ways and then refine the depth of your understanding. You can cut down the amount of knowledge that you have to remember because you know how things work from first principles.

When you understand something then you immediately develop the foundation of competency and adequacy. You can predict results and make them happen. The effectiveness of your results might depend upon the level of motor skills needed that you have, or the depth of experience required for subjective endeavors, but understanding will enhance all of your efforts. For subjects where no new motor skills or long experience is needed, expertise comes instantly with understanding. It’s the fast track to competence.

When you understand something you find it easier to persist with a difficult course of action, because you know that it is possible in principle, it’s just that you have to develop better abilities. You might get frustrated, but you remain confident that a desirable result is achievable. Without understanding you flounder, because you don’t know what it takes to get the result that you want. Giving up is the common result, because you have no idea what will work.

That’s one of the great strengths of the theory that I have developed for understanding how emotions work and what causes them. Once you understand it, then you can predict what emotions you will feel for a given set of circumstances, or else if you feel a lot of emotion, then you can work backwards and identify very clearly what caused that in the first place. If you don’t like the results that you get, then you can change the inputs (in this case, what you desire). Alternatively you can change the mechanism; by developing your own personal levels of competency, you can get the results that you desire.

So, how do you achieve understanding if you don’t have it?

1. Identify the process that you want to understand.
2. Consider the input, or starting conditions, that you want to start out with.
3. From your current knowledge of the process imagine what will happen as you go through each step of the process and thus estimate what the end result will be. At this point you have, in effect, created a theory about the cause and effect mechanism.
4. Carry out the process in reality using the starting conditions identified.
5. Record the final results.
6. If you got the result that you imagined, then you have a working understanding of the process (but it’s best to repeat this several times to ensure consistency of results).
7. If you didn’t get the result that you imagined, then assess the difference between the actual and imagined result and attempt to find out where in the process things began to vary from what you imagined would happen.
8. Adjust your knowledge of the mechanism according to these real results.
9. Go through the above process again. If the result is still not what you predicted then look at the next part of the mechanism where the real result varied from the imagined result. Keep repeating until your knowledge of the mechanism is accurate enough to give you the level of predicted outcome that you seek on a consistent basis.
10. If possible, work the process backwards and see if, for a given output, you can define the original input. If you can do this, then you have a very robust understanding of the process.
11. See if you can improve the efficiency of the output. Use your understanding of the process and the components within it and see if you can change a component, or the process, to get a better output for the same given input.

The above method, is essentially the same as the scientific method and the final step is taken to develop new knowledge of processes. The fewer the number of components, or variables, in the process, the easier it is to gain understanding, so for complex systems, attempt to isolate a small part first and understand that before moving onto another part. I find it a lot of fun to speculate in this way and to test the logic of my ideas. On occasion, you can make remarkable breakthroughs. Once you understand something it becomes a part of you. It changes your thinking, and so it changes your actions and this changes your results. When they change for the better, that’s a wonderful thing to accomplish.

Understanding something strengthens your inner core. It gives you a robust resilience that few other people will ever know, because when events happen, you know what the outcome will likely be and you can use that to your advantage. You will know where to stand to receive benefits and where not to stand to avoid getting knocked down.

Finally, if all else fails, then try Plan B:

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