Range by David Epstein I love a non-fiction holiday read - being away gives me the headspace to explore ideas. David Epstein writes about desirable difficulties and environments that foster learning especially long term skill acquisition. He says:

“Frustration is not a sign that you are not learning, but ease is.”

Being in a foreign country and not knowing the language is the perfect example. My school girl French isn’t much help, but do I struggle and embarrass myself or use google translate?

It depends on your goal. Mine was ice cream. I thought it would be better to practise ahead of ordering, but Google couldn’t work out what I was trying to say. When I got to the ice cream parlour, repeating my rote phrase just left me puzzled at the reply. I couldn’t understand anything.

Ease just got me more stuck.

Better to be frustrated by my lack of language, to stumble and embarrass myself and the server to reply at a level I can understand. I might have been an idiot but I learned more that way. And next time I ordered ice cream I could apply what I learned.