Thoughts about…

The What and the Why

In my continued efforts to create space in my life and to get motivated for the upcoming winter, I recently read through all of my back issues of Cross Country Skier magazine. Mind you, this was no small task. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m a slow reader. I also happen to be terrible at keeping up to date with subscriptions whether they’re for magazines, comic books, or even just email newsletters. But I like to support Cross Country Skier because it’s the last physical magazine published in English that focuses on cross-country skiing. And you know me, all I talk about every winter is cross-country skiing.

So I had seven years’ worth of magazines to read through this past month. Fortunately, Cross Country Skier only publishes three issues per year. But 20 magazines is still a lot for me, especially since I did want to read them cover to cover.

Hunter Creek Trail near Reno, NV, on November 1, 2023. © Jared Manninen

Honestly, I don’t know why I do this. That is, I hoard certain things to the point where they become physical obstacles that I eventually have to deal with because they’re just taking up too much space. Then, again, I’ve been as guilty as the next person of believing that by owning certain things and surrounding myself with certain stuff that it all somehow increases my status in the eyes of others. So, perhaps I’ve just been channeling my inner Ron Burgundy by trying to feel important by owning many leather-bound books so to speak.

Regardless, I finished reading through them all so I’m happy to report that I’m now thoroughly inspired to cross-country ski! Not that I actually wasn’t before, but it’s always nice to see and read about other people having their own winter adventures.

Thankfully, it wasn’t just a grind session to get through the magazines. In fact, I found many bits of wisdom in all those pages. One such passage came from Pete Vordenberg’s article titled Unsolicited Advice for the Youth. In it he quoted the famous coach of the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club, Pepa Miloucheva, who said, “Always try to learn and understand what you are doing and why.” Admittedly, I have absolutely no recollection of what the actual article was about but her words stuck with me.

This is because her clear and straightforward statement mirrored my own belief about learning and teaching. Often when I’m trying to pick up new skills, for example, I end up breaking apart the thing in which I’m learning just so that I can put it back together in my own way. Essentially, this is how I assimilate new information. I need to know everything about the thing that I’m trying to learn and that includes its hidden mechanics and backend coding.

Donner Camp Trail at Alder Creek near Truckee, CA, on November 2, 2023. © Jared Manninen

I’m not going to say that I have verifiable proof that everyone learns more effectively if they know the what and the why, but I’m saying that I definitely learn more effectively in this manner. And I know I’m not the only one.

No matter the sport or art, I’ve always wanted to know the underlying mechanics of a movement or a technique otherwise it’s just rote memorization. And rote memorization ultimately leads to automation. Movement without meaning or intention. On its surface it may look fine, but in reality it’s just scripted movement. And, I would argue that more often than not, successes are incidental as a result.

Again, knowing those elements doesn’t guarantee that you’ll learn the skill immediately. You still have to put in the work, the repetition. But knowing what you’re doing and why you’re doing it should enable you to put the proper intention into your practice earlier in your process of learning. This means that you’ll be carrying with you throughout your practice a greater understanding of the cause and effect of your movements. Eventually, this will pay dividends in the form of increased improvisational skills and a higher athletic IQ.

Upper Angora Lake on November 4, 2023. © Jared Manninen

In spite of the profound lesson that Mr. Miyagi taught the Karate Kid about waxing on and off, I can’t help but wonder if Daniel wouldn’t have had a better learning experience if he simply knew how the waxing motion applied to Karate training. It’s not that he would’ve stopped performing those motions. He had all those cars to wax, after all. But with that behind-the-scenes knowledge, he could’ve been visualizing the whole time blocking a strike rather than just waxing a car (and then lamenting the fact that he had so many more cars to wax!).

I realize, though, that many instructors and coaches like to maintain some sort of mystique behind their teachings. There’s a long-held tradition of this in the military, martial arts, and sports, all of which I’ve had many years of experience.

Guarding programs, playbooks, training methods, tactics, and techniques is often based on the need for survival or success. For example, if clans of swordsmen in feudal Japan had openly shared their style of fighting with outsiders they would’ve be at a big disadvantage during combat. The same could be said of an athletic team competing for a trophy or podium finish today.

And if knowledge is power and the instructor gives away all of their knowledge, wouldn’t they also be giving away all of their power? What if a coach did share everything they knew, would there be any more need for them? And then there’s the belief that students will just become overwhelmed if they’re given too much information at any given time.

Lake Tahoe on November 10, 2023. © Jared Manninen

I can understand, to one degree or another, all of those reasons to spoonfeed people information, as well as to keep hidden from them certain details of their given endeavor. However, all of those reasons ultimately seem to me like they’re just based on fear. The fear of losing. The fear of losing control. The fear of becoming irrelevant or being left behind. The fear of being called a fraud because your information and methods don’t measure up once they leave that closed circuit, for example.

But I’ve always leaned toward the open source approach to information. Make it available to everyone and watch the most passionate people run with it. Sure, you’re going to have some problems along the way but you’re going to have problems no matter what path you choose. The reality is that the art simply won’t evolve unless it’s out there and being put to the test. What this means is that everyone is going to ultimately benefit from the shared information. And if you are passionate about a thing, why wouldn’t you send it out into the world for all see?

Upper Truckee River in Washoe Meadows State Park on November 13, 2023. © Jared Manninen

An example of this kind of evolution where a rising tide raises all ships actually took place in the realm of fantasy. Dungeons and Dragons, to be specific. Years ago, the property holders of D&D published what they call an Open Gaming License. This license made available to the public the core mechanics of their game system, as well as many of the monsters (and their stats) that inhabit the world of D&D. The result was that numerous independent publishers created an entire cottage industry of supplemental gaming resources for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. During the next decade, every aspect of D&D was put under a microscope and made all the better thanks to the community input. Not surprising, D&D and the rest of the role playing game ecosystem absolutely thrived during this time.

Now, I’m not going to get into the fact that just this year D&D attempted to revoke that gaming license in an attempt to crush its competition out of existence. That’s a story for another day. But it’s an interesting footnote illustrating the fact that you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.

I understand that we all have our own unique ways in which we best learn, but I do believe that we all seek to better understand the what and the why of that which we love the most. I believe that this curiosity is simply born out of a passion for a thing, and the belief that if we can learn it better we can make it better. I think this is a noble pursuit because the only constant in this life is the fact that everything changes. And if we’re not actively a part of that change, again, our successes will always be incidental.

Big Meadow on November 19, 2023. © Jared Manninen

One other note that I wanted to mention about reading all of those Cross Country Skier magazines is that they’ve inspired me to start writing Tahoe Trail Guide articles again. I’ve taken too long of a break from consistently writing articles for the site because during the first three years of building it, I published between 2-4 articles each month. I was also writing these monthly essays for JaredManninen.com. So I just got burned out from writing so much. That, and I started publishing videos in an effort to build my YouTube channel around that same time.

So, here’s the deal. I’m going to put an indefinite pause on these monthly essays so that I can focus my efforts on continuing to build Tahoe Trail Guide, as well as to produce more artwork. I know one essay per month doesn’t sound like a lot, especially since I’m not even working at the moment. However, for the past six months I’ve been struggling to publish them in a timely fashion. And, after having performed some self-evaluation, I realized that my procrastination has been an indication of my lack of inspiration.

The bottom line is that right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’m going to start writing articles about life on the trail, the Donner Party, where to hike and cross-country ski at Lake Tahoe, and various how-to articles for Tahoe Trail Guide. I’ll still publish this monthly newsletter, but I’ll share those Tahoe Trail Guide articles instead of a completely separate essay.

I know many of you have expressed your appreciation for these essays over the years, and I totally appreciate your support. So just know that everything that I continue to produce moving forward will still be in my own voice, it’ll just be with a slightly different focus.

Snow at Carson Pass on November 25, 2023. © Jared Manninen

I got behind on sharing work that I would’ve included in the November newsletter (but my sites were down for maintenance). So here’s a batch of YouTube videos that I made over the past two months 🙂

Since I didn’t get a chance to share my November newsletter (due to website maintenance), here’s the link to the Tahoe Trail Guide article that I published last month. I’m often asked when doing Tahoe Big Years about the reference books and sites that I use to help me identify birds, critters, and plants. So I decided to consolidate all of those resources in one location, and then direct all questions to that page.

Thanks for being a part of my life. Until next time…

-Jared Manninen

Tahoe Trail Guide is an online resource for hiking, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing in the Lake Tahoe region. In addition to trail data, I offer backcountry “how-to” articles and information about the local and natural history of Tahoe. Tahoe Swag is a collection of art and design products I create based on my love of the outdoors and appreciation for Lake Tahoe and the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains.

If you like any of the images I post in these newsletters, please contact me. I’d be more than happy to upload them to my RedBubble account so that you can order prints and other merchandise featuring the images.

A Note about Patreon and PayPal…

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Last Month’s Newsletter (aka Recap in Video Format!)

To broaden my audience and get more mileage out of these newsletters, I’ve begun to adapt them into short videos for YouTube. I’ll incorporate short video clips into these recaps whenever possible as I do often capture nature videos when I’m outdoors (but don’t use the footage anywhere else). Essentially, I want to make two different presentations with a minimal amount of extra work rather than just creating a 1-to-1 adaptation of these text and photo versions of my newsletters.