Adults spend so much time in environments where they're trying to control the outcome that play as a practice becomes about not knowing, not having an attachment to what the outcome is. Side quests release us from worrying about the outcome. Learning begins with inquiry. In fact, the word quest comes from the root question or inquiry.
We've reduced play to be this cherry on top of an already good life. But from a scientific perspective, it is much more fundamental than that. Play is what happens anytime we choose to do something without knowing exactly where it's going to end up.
For many of us, forgetting a name or losing your keys feels like a small failure. But what if forgetting is actually one of the most important things your brain does?
I've always thought of myself as a learning machine. The moment I think I know everything or I've seen everything or I've experienced everything, I become a worse investor. The best investors I know are voraciously curious and are always trying to update their models and their thinking.
I can't teach you if I don't have your attention. But if I can get your attention with something remarkable, well, now I suddenly have something to attach the learning to.
Old math isn't going to work for the new equations coming to work. You're going to have to start over a bit, redefine yourself, learn again, push yourself, get uncomfortable.
It's a move really from the education a lot of us were familiar with, which was everyone sitting on the mat learning together, progressing as one, to actually adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of an individual student.
I'm just offering a glimpse of some of the things that people may not see, of sweaty hands, of anxiety, insecurity, of trying to be someone I'm not, of making mistakes, learning from those mistakes.
4mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
