Triads such as those that show up in medieval poetry were, as I understand, a memory device. And, of course, three is a magic number in a lot of places--literature, religion, what-have-you.
The trinity upon which I sort of bumbled now--prompted by a passage from the somewhat fluffy and unconvincing first novel of The Dresden Files--has to do with one's life as a craftsperson. Even in a mostly intangible craft like mine.
Student - We have to start somewhere. But we need to step into other levels as quickly as possible, or it's all just academic. Worse, we never gain any meaningful confidence. That only comes from stepping beyond the pre-fabricated exercises, failing, figuring out why, and (hopefully) fixing. And while it is a dangerous thing to expect to be in this mode indefinitely, it is more dangerous still to think that everything is still ahead and that you have nothing to share with anyone behind you in the journey.
Practitioner - Now we've learned to do something...probably many related somethings. If we don't know exactly how just yet, we can look it up...or piece it together from StackOverflow, tutorials, YouTube, whatever applies. Often, we can get by on understanding the "how" more so than the "why." It is a dangerous thing now to think that we are forever past the Student phase. It makes us afraid of mistakes which makes us afraid of experimenting, and too attached to what we already know.
Teacher - Stepping into this role should be profoundly humbling. Humbling by dint of sheer panic and frantic research when we realise that our understanding is not nearly so fleshed-out as we imagined. Because teaching is ultimately an exercise in creating context in which knowledge can be transferred from experience to inexperience. This forces us to verify things that we took for granted as Practitioner--taking us full circle back to Student and probably Practitioner besides. Or should, anyway. Because if it doesn't, that's the most dangerous state to remain for any extended length of time.
And so the healthiest head-space for any craftsperson to live at any given time is all three. Learn. Do. Teach. Repeat.
