Cook. Baker. Chef
The analogy served me well in my learning and teaching experiences.
Let me explain.
A cook is not so particular about the recipe, ratio or proportion. They make do with what is available. A little high here and low there is ok. Whereas a baker is very particular about the sequence, ingredients, quantity, time, temperature and everything. They follow rules to the T. Chef on the other hand is someone who understands the whole shebang but works with first principles to bring extraordinary impact. There are no recipes for a chef. There are no rules. They know how to break every rule out there because their foundational principle is super strong. The output is tasteful in every sense.
I strive to be a chef in my circle of competence (and in circle of life). When I am learning something seriously I am baker. When I trying things out in my circle of curiosity I am a cook.
As a coach/mentor/teacher, I study my class first and depending on the type of hunger I see I adjust my strategies to teach them how to be a chef or a baker or a cook.
Some want to bakers and most want to be cooks. I haven’t seen much chefs all along. Rightfully so. It takes volume of practice to get to a chef. We start with rules. Then bend them and finally get comfortable breaking them.
Irrespective of the input, the output is great for a chef. For example: it could be a simple wireframe with not so perfect components and structures but still the output is exemplary with the right grid, typeface, characteristics of the component/widget and more. In other words, even the grey scale looks extraordinary. That is a chef way of doing things.
H/T to Dr Andy Kalpin for sharing this analogy in his book Unplugged.
