Welcome to Mental Garden, a newsletter about creativity, focus, and systems for writing and building projects on the internet. To explore the full library, go here.
🏷️ Categories: Deliberate practice, Continuous improvement.
Steven Spielberg is one of the most influential film directors in history.
Movies like Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List made him one of the most recognized filmmakers in the world. His films have grossed billions and shaped entire generations of viewers (Barson, 2026).
But it wasn’t always like that.
Spielberg started making films when he was a teenager. He used a small home camera and shot improvised stories with his friends and family as actors. Those early works were rudimentary: lighting and sound quality were poor, and the cinematic technique was basic. In those early attempts at amateur filmmaking, he created short films and experiments of all kinds (Spielberg, 2000; McBride, 2011).
However, Spielberg was already doing something essential: learning from the best.
He admired classic films, studied how they were made, and dreamed of directing works like them (Spielberg, 2000; McBride, 2011). Despite studying professional cinema, he still didn’t have the technical ability to produce something similar. There was a gap between his knowledge and his skill. For years, he made dozens of short films and other small projects before having a real opportunity in Hollywood (McBride, 2011).
Over time, practice paid off—he began winning contests and gaining recognition (Barson, 2026).
His skill started to approach that of his role models, and he gradually gained access to better technical resources and filming equipment. Years later, he would direct some of the most influential films of the twentieth century (Barson, 2026). But there is one part of this story that I find especially interesting.
Spielberg took years to fully develop his skill.
He had become interested in cinema very early and studied it carefully. But understanding how those works functioned did not mean he could create something similar. There was a gap between knowledge and skill. And that gap—between knowing something and doing it well—appears in almost any ability we try to cultivate in life.
Yet it’s a detail we often forget.
Let’s see why it matters so much.
The gap between knowing and doing
We start doing things because we like them.
We like great films, great writing, great music, great sports. We see something done well and feel motivated to practice that same skill. We want to replicate what looks so appealing to our eyes. But something frustrating happens when we try it ourselves: what we produce isn’t very good.
We try to sing… and we sing out of tune.
We write… but it doesn’t convey the same feeling as the book we admire.
We practice a sport… and we feel much clumsier than we expected.
Psychological research on skill development tells us something you may already suspect: mastery is not something we are born with—it is built. Behind every expert there are years, sometimes decades, of deliberate practice (Ericsson et al., 1993; Chi et al., 1988).
You may already know that. But… did you truly accept it when pursuing your goals?
You can study the best. You can read all the books and understand the theory perfectly. But you will still go through your own phase of “doing it badly while learning.” Initial knowledge helps. It accelerates the path. But you will still have to go through that uncomfortable, long, and frustrating period of mediocre results.
And that’s okay. It’s part of the process.
However, many people quit at this stage because they don’t see results quickly.
The truth is that almost everyone who eventually becomes exceptional spends years in a stage where they can already recognize what is good… but still cannot produce it themselves. And that’s the secret: the great difference between the novice and the expert lies in time spent on deliberate practice, continuously analyzing performance, identifying mistakes, and maintaining consistency over years (Ericsson et al., 1993; Duckworth et al., 2007).
That’s what gradually closes the gap between knowing and doing.
Study the best in your field—but don’t forget to practice. Paint a lot. Sing a lot. Write a lot. Set deadlines. Create a routine. Reserve time to practice and time to study experts. Force yourself to finish something every week or every month.
Only through a large volume of work will you begin to close that gap.
Science is clear: practicing a lot leads to practicing well. Studies confirm it again and again (Ericsson et al., 1993; Jung et al., 2015). It sounds simple, but here is the hard part: How many times have you abandoned something because you got bored and didn’t see improvement?
With time, what you produce will begin to match your ambitions.
This requires patience. It can take time—sometimes a lot of time. But that’s natural. If it didn’t take time, everyone would be an expert at the skill you want to develop. The real challenge is to pass through the phase where most people quit out of impatience—because daily practice seems to lead nowhere.
What made you start
We all begin doing something because it attracts us.
When Steven Spielberg was young, he filmed homemade movies. He already had an interest in cinema. He could recognize a great film when he saw one. But it took years of practice to learn how to make them himself. And, as you can imagine, that can be frustrating.
I believe you and I face a similar challenge.
I’ve been practicing calisthenics for a year. I can recognize good technique when I see it, but when I try to execute it myself, I still struggle. I learn from the best, carefully observe how they perform the exercises, and always ask them how they train… even though my execution is not yet at their level.
I’ve been writing in Mental Garden for two years. I can recognize a great work when I read it, but when I try to produce brilliant words myself, it’s still difficult. I learn from the best and share what I learn in Mental Garden—you’ve probably seen that already… even though my execution is not yet at the level of the greatest geniuses.
And this happens with almost any skill in life.
There is always a gap between apprentice and master.
The apprentice has knowledge—but not yet skill.
The master has even more knowledge and skill.
It is easier to recognize beauty than to create it.
You become good enough to realize that you’re not yet good—but not yet good enough to create something extraordinary. When you find yourself in that frustrating middle point, the challenge is not to forget what brought you there.
Remember what made you start: Your passion. Your interest. Your love.
That’s why you’re here.
You are part of the craft—even if sometimes you feel that what you produce has little value. Your knowledge may already be extensive even if your skill is still developing. Just commit to the process, and you will eventually become good.
You must get used to being invisible before dazzling everyone.
Close the gap between knowing and doing.
Thanks for reading.
Want to learn more? Here are 3 related ideas to go deeper:
Lessons from Michael Jordan about success and deliberate practice
Threshold Theory: Intelligence doesn’t predict success in life (and what does)
✍️ Your turn: How much focused practice and study do you dedicate to the skill you want to master?
💭 Quote of the day: “Trying things they cannot yet do, failing, and learning what they must do differently is exactly how experts practice.” — Angela Duckworth, Grit
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Barson, M. (2026). Steven Spielberg. Encyclopedia Britannica. URL
Chi, M. T., Glaser, R., & Farr, M. J. (2014). The Nature of Expertise. En Psychology Press eBooks. URL
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101. URL
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406. URL
Jung, R. E., Wertz, C. J., Meadows, C. A., Ryman, S. G., Vakhtin, A. A., & Flores, R. A. (2015). Quantity yields quality when it comes to creativity: a brain and behavioral test of the equal-odds rule. Frontiers In Psychology, 6, 864. URL
McBride, J. (1997). Steven Spielberg: A Biography.
Spielberg, S. (2000). Steven Spielberg: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi.
sigh ...