Comparing Skill

Comparing skill is something that comes up frequently enough to note. People make comparisons between what I create and share with their own abilities, and these comparisons result in the belief that they are not as good, and that reaching such level of ability is not possible for themselves to achieve. I feel the same to many things I see, so I've been on both sides. It's a chain and no doubt those people I look up to can also feel the same way.

My perspective is that it's easy to make it look like you know more than you actually know. A proper comparison can't really be done unless you be more specific on what is being compared or better understand the circumstances that resulted in this difference in ability.

I'm aware I appear to have a lot of knowledge in many subjects. 3D graphics for example is one of them, seen in my projects such as The Mast and Factory Building. However, you have to consider that this is only in a specific subset of skills where I have been able to capitalise on them being combined. In my case it's a bit more of the artistic side - I've spent years (started in 2016) making 3D environments and models in Blender, and even then I haven't touched a lot of the software at all... rigging, grease pencil, sculpting, real-time rendering, etc.

I too see what everyone else is doing with 3D and "feel dumb", I do not have the same knowledge they do, and I have not put in all the time to learn it. Despite my aforementioned 3D projects using textured triangles, I could not say much about how they are implemented, less so being able to make my own. Same as the image scanning technique I employed in The Mast. I'm merely a user of those things and the creators of them to me appear more knowledgeable just based on the fact that they know something I don't, even though they don't necessarily know the same things I do. This is what I mean by being more specific about what is being compared. Knowing how to make a textured triangle filler and knowing how to make a scene in Blender could both be classed as "good at 3D" but a closer look shows they are far from being the same thing.

One must consider circumstantial factors in the comparison. Time especially comes to mind. How many thousands of hours have I put into Scratch and Blender? Should it really be a surprise I have skills in them given the huge time investment? Also consider that available time is dependent on a person's age. I am far older than the core Scratch audience and I still am on the older end of the people involved in 3D graphics on Scratch.

The things I've expressed here tie into why my I've left my old projects shared on my main account even though they are vastly worse compared to recent ones. I like the transparency it provides. It shows that I've spent so much time on the site and this has brought me to a point that has attracted such comparisons.