750 milliliters. That’s just a bottle of wine.

Thousands of grapes. That’s just Italy…

Already, the math doesn’t add up: more grapes than milliliters, more details than any one mind could hold. Welcome to my weird world of wine study. Sommelier, the keeper of the grapes. Or so they say…

So what does it mean to learn a thing so broad no one could ever master it?

I’ve spent most of my professional career trying to master the intricacies of Chateauneuf du Pape and Pinot Grigio. Every year, there is a new vintage, there is no way that one could even know all the wines in Tuscany perfectly, let alone the world. 

So what does it mean to know a thing undefined and undefinable?

The ways I’ve found to square this circle:

There is an element of capability that is developed as you wrestle with the details. Yes, you may not know the oak aging of wine XYZ, but you know the facts behind oak aging and you know what it does to the base materials, even if the winemaker and vineyard may be novel to you. 

It’s a similar feeling I began to cultivate when learning about programming…

You may not yet know how to handle HTTP requests, or how to work the logic out of how to make your text based game work, but you know how variables work, and you know how to find the information if you go looking. 

You gain mastery over a system, rather than the details. You become familiar with the process. 

There are two major philosophies when it comes to learning: mastering the ideas and mastering the minutiae. Some of the latter is necessary. You can’t really master reading until you have a firm grasp on the letters. But we’re here for the words. We master the minutiae not to drown in it, but to render it an unnecessary burden from our quest for knowledge.

Vineyards, grapes, regions, history.

Commands, Variables, Logic, Loops and Functions.

I think that’s why I’ve had so much fun playing around with programming after being so into wine for so long. Wine is all about the system…so is programming. Put enough ideas together and they evolve. Small rules lead to complex systems. But enough rules together and you get Bordeaux, or Windows. 

So, in conclusion, 

I don’t know anything and have mastered nothing. But now I have my feet in two infinitely impossible situations. How’s your Tuesday going?