Educating yourself on a new niche

Whenever I find myself in a new opportunity in an industry or niche I am unfamiliar with, I first calibrate myself by finding two answers:

1. What skills I can already bring to the table today
2. What I need to learn to be able to apply these skills

When asking the second question, it is useful to first take the perspective of the end-customer before diving into the supply-side specifics.

What is it that they really want out of the arrangement? How much effort do they need to expend right now to solve this problem?

It is important to take the perspective of the end-customer first so you don’t end up falling into the trap of finding a problem for your solution.

Do the opposite: find the solution for ‘a’ problem. This is one of the keys of being able to communicate effectively in good marketing. It follows the logical, chronological, and causal chain that ends up connecting with your customer and that makes them have that “aha!” moment where things click and makes sense.

If you start questioning things from the supplier-side first, you’re inherently more likely to start looking for confirmation bias.

This brings me to my main point:

The order in which you learn, and think over things is important.

Similar to how you would take a college course that graduates you from Algebra I to Algebra II, educating yourself on a new niche needs you to think things over in terms of the structure that is going to benefit your lasting learning before diving in.

Generally speaking, you want to start with as many fundamentals as possible to build a solid foundation. Doing this, I find it important to be able to have a tangible understanding of the industry and niche is.

If you find yourself in heavy machinery, it will be useful for you to view some videos of how they are used in action. Our brains can have a difficult time processing abstract concepts, and keeping them so is not to your long-term benefit.

Alongside that, I would follow your natural curiosity. What are the questions that some part of you wants answered, even if you’re not sure why? Our natural curiosity stems from a part of us that is hunkering to make connections to put things into perspective and a way that we can understand.

Try to always grow properly towards complex topics, taking the right steps to be able to truly understand them.

You are better off integrating knowledge, taking its high-level lessons with you as part of your general understanding, than desperately trying to cling onto individual factoids.

Divide your understanding into two different categories:

1. What do I need to know to move forward today
2. What do I need to learn tomorrow

Then, just start.