The Learning Paradox

You might learn a new word, but you won't really know how to use it until you get a feel for it, and you won't get a feel for it until you use it.

I'm not sure how interesting this is. It seems like a common enough phenomenon that I thought surely there must be a name for it. But the closest thing I've found is the "entry level job paradox:" You need experience to get a job, but you can't get a job without experience.

If anything, I think the lesson here is that can't get good at things without doing them, which means you have to start doing things before you're good at them. In other words, mistakes are an inevitable and therefore necessary part of the learning process.

If mistakes are inevitable, that makes trying to avoid them futile and a waste of energy.