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[Joh]

Hi,
It is commonly said and kind of true that Practice makes perfect. Practicing something you will improve and be better at it. But im wondering can you get better without practicing?

Now this is not a "am too lazy to put the effort, want magic trick" thread,
It's a genuine question.

When I was a kid (elementary), I was "the artist" of my grade, people thought I was really good. Meeting people back from there its the thing they remember about me.
I still got plenty of those drawings and they are shit, I can see how they might have seem impressive back then.
I went on with my life eventually forgot about drawing.

If I draw now, it is better than back when I use to draw all the time. Now obviously didn't practice all that time so im no artist, and I guess being better than an elementary school kid isn't that impressive. But I find it odd, to have gotten better without actually practicing for it, its like general life experience had a small effect.

Coding is a bit more muddy, since I do code a lot and that would count for practice. But I remember returning to a project after a long break, and It just looking terrible in efficiency. without having gained any new experience, but maybe that was just "having a different perspective that day".

I'm sure it doesn't happen in everything, I know for sure I lost some skills because I haven't practiced, but is it possible to get better at stuff through just aging/maturing? did I just practice without realizing, is living itself experience?

TLDR; Draw better now than as a kid, didn't practice in between.
See code as dumb/inefficient after a long break
Anyone experienced something like this? Can you become better at stuff through just aging/maturing?
(Obviously practice has MUCH better effects)

[Canned Turkey]

Perfect practice makes perfect.
You can get slightly better at anything with very minimal effort, as you've experienced with drawing, but if you want to truly be good at something, you have to practice.

I'm not saying your art is bad, but visually, I can tell that you haven't practiced consistently.

Sure certain factors like getting older will help with certain sub-skills like patience, but when it comes down to it, you can't get better without practicing.

[Joh]

Obviously I know you need to practice to get better.

I was thinking more about just general improvement since most of the time not practicing causes deterioration.

Didn't want to make it about my art though. As a clarification I was talking on drawings (with pencil) digital art is all new to me, and well i'm practicing and improving. It was actually when drawing by hand (since I knew how) to help with my digital art that I realized I was better than I used to be.
But since that's not what I want this to be about ill look for other examples.

I haven't played violin in forever. I don't even remember anything.
I haven't played hockey in forever. I will for sure be worse at it.
I never had much cardio. Never worked on it but im pretty sure I have more now.
This one is probably a classic:
Haven't played a game (was stuck too hard) come back years later, clear it. It could be argued you became better "at games" in general, but im not sure. It feels like just being "smarter" than you used to be.
Chess well I always sucked but im sure I suck less.

Looking at those I see that what I was bad at (in a can't get much worse) seems to improve. What was hard eared talent, just goes away. I also feel like things that require thinking improve naturally, but I guess we all practice thinking on a daily basis.
Well, not sure maybe i'm reading into something that's not there or I underestimate my past self.

[valrus]

If I draw now, it is better than back when I use to draw all the time. Now obviously didn't practice all that time so im no artist, and I guess being better than an elementary school kid isn't that impressive. But I find it odd, to have gotten better without actually practicing for it, its like general life experience had a small effect.

I think part of that, for me, is judgment.  My art/writing/ideas from when I was younger weren't bad just because I lacked practice, but also because I lacked judgment.  Both judgment that comes from having seen orders of magnitude more of whatever medium it is, and judgment in the sense of self-assessment.

I actually had better technical ability, for a lot of stuff, when I was younger and practicing, but as an adult there's some kinds of judgment that transcend the particular medium -- knowing when less is more, trying for an effect rather than trying to impress, better ability to keep both big and small picture in mind, etc.  (Also I'm now better at finding tasks that play to my strengths rather than weaknesses, which is hard when you don't yet know what these are!)

But of course, these don't make me good so much as less bad.