ABCs
“If I can only teach you what I can do, I put limits on what you can accomplish.” That’s the gist of what The Grasshopper offered on yesterday’s walk.
If I can only teach you A, B and C. like most schooling, I will keep you in a “Parrot Prison.”
Reminds me of a story I may have told before . . .
I have an old acquaintance who is quite successful at what he does but I have trouble finding “him” there. That’s because he constantly references others while engaging you in conversation. He is a quote machine. He’s forever telling you what someone else said. I have no idea what he thinks. If I wanted to know what Benjamin Franklin thought, I would read his writings. This person is successful but not original. He’s formulaic, which is a fancy term for cookie cutter.
You can easily learn his formulas, which are quite helpful, but they will only take you so far. At some point, you have to realize that the alphabet is just the beginning. Even after you get to “Z,” there is an infinite world of possibility.
I have never been a big fan of the phrase “Outside the Box.” I certainly believe in the concept, but generally what I find is that people who espouse that maxim have not learned what’s inside the box yet. That’s where formulas are helpful, like “Measure twice; cut once.”
Once you have the basics down to second nature, it’s time to explore past what the formulas get you.
At some point, it’s useful to encourage others to learn on their own. I’m not sure that curiosity can be taught, but anything you can do to move another in curiosity’s direction is more helpful than giving them another lesson of what you already know.
Curiosity will take you to the edge where all new learning takes place. I’m not suggesting that you live on the edge, just to visit it more often. That’s where you learn to accomplish things past what you can already do.
Curiosity will stretch you out of your rigidness and give you the flexibility to learn something new.
There is no new Latin to learn, but learning Latin may stretch you. “sedit qui timuit ne non succederet.” He who feared he would not succeed sat still.
People can learn much more than you can teach them if you encourage them to expand on that knowledge and get curious how to create new boxes that they can eventually teach themselves and others to think outside of.
All the best,
John
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