# Learning in Public: Embracing Vulnerability & Sharing the Messy Process of Growth > “Learn in Public; the practice of sharing what you learn as you're learning it, not a decade later once you're an "expert.” > > (note re: “expert”) A label you may never officially earn unless you're in a highly structured and bureaucratised industry that loves explicit hierarchy rankings. The rest of us are left to deal with perpetual imposter syndrome.” [Maggie Appleton](https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history) I know nothing. Seriously! The more I learn, the less I know. Which means that I am *always* learning. And learning is scary. It makes you feel inadequate. A beginner. Not good enough. Which is exactly why I refused to share some of my work in the past because I was worried about being judged by other people. And it is this fear that has led me to 'sharing my creative process' and 'learning in public'. *Wait…What?* Surely I am *more* likely to be judged for not knowing enough when I am being open in this way? Maybe. Maybe not. Let me explain... ## Benefits to Learning in Public (I hope) I have a few reasons for wanting to learn in public: ### 1. I will *not* be an expert I hate that word. Like, really hate it. And I want others to know that I am *not* an expert in any field (despite being called it many times). I simply put in the hours (and hours) to figure shit out. Honestly, no experts here! ### 2. There is no room for shame Sometimes there is a shame to not knowing something. We always feel that everyone else knows more than we do and will be judged for not knowing. But as Brené Brown said “If you put shame in a petri dish, it needs three ingredients to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in the petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.” Learning is usually done in secrecy. In silence. And often with (our own) judgements. But because I know I have the most amazing, empathetic people who follow what I do, I know there is no shame to me learning in public.^[Refer to point 1] ### 3. A source of truth We have all been trained to present ourselves a certain way in digital spaces. You know what I mean, right? Perfect. Clean. Filtered. But that’s not the truth when it comes to learning. Learning has rough edges. It’s messy. And disorganised. And scary. That’s why I want to learn in public and Share my creative process with you. To show you what's really behind the scenes. To show you the truth. ### 4. Learning along with with me I always believed that I needed to know more than anyone else. That I needed to know it *before* anyone else. Like it was some sort of… competition. As if all the knowledge in the world was a piece of pie and teaching something to someone else took away *my* slice of the knowledge. That I needed to keep everything to myself.^[I guess this links to the feeling of shame, inadequacy and perfectionism?] What a load of bullcrap! To quote Austin Kleon: > “Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know So the minute I learn something, I am going to turn around and teach it to you. And I’m hoping in doing so it will not only be intimate *and* public but weird and welcoming too.