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James Clear Quote on Learning and How Reading and Reflecting Hold the Keys To Knowledge

    “Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.”

    James Clear

    Beyond the Quote (318/365)

    And if you’re not doing either, where is it that everything you know is coming from? From social media? From click-bait websites? From news conglomerates? Or maybe from friends and family members? But, where then are they getting their knowledge from? From those same sources? The question you have to ask yourself is, how does the quality of this information compare to the quality of the information that might be obtained from reading and reflecting? I suspect that it may not only be substantially below in quality, but of little to no quality at all. I suspect that it’s a no comparison.

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    John C. Maxwell Quote on Experience and How It Isn’t The Best Teacher

      “What I had been taught all my life was not true: experience is not the best teacher! Some people learn and grow as a result of their experience; some people don’t. Everybody has some kind of experience. It’s what you do with that experience that matters.”

      John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

      Beyond the Quote (305/365)

      “Experience is the best teacher” works when you’re talking about touching a hot stove. I can describe to you the feeling of getting burned with conviction, give you examples, and use sound logic until I’m blue in the face—it still won’t compare to what you come to understand when you touch the hot stove. The same is true when we’re talking about swimming. I can teach you all of the best strokes, floating strategies, and swimming techniques in the field—it still won’t compare to what you learn by actually being in the water.

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        “Go to what will teach you the most, not what will pay the most. It’s about choosing opportunities that you’ll learn the most from. That’s the rubric. That’s how you get better. People sometimes try to sweeten speaking offers by mentioning how glamorous the location is or how much fun it will be. I’d be more impressed if they told me I was going to have a conversation that was going to blow my mind.”

        Ryan Holiday, Medium

          “If the primary purpose of school was education, the Internet should obsolete it. But school is mainly about credentialing.”

          Naval Ravikant, Medium

          Naval Ravikant Quote on Education and Why The Desire To Learn Is So Scarce

            “Even today, what to study and how to study it are more important than where to study it and for how long. The best teachers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best peers are on the Internet. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

            Naval Ravikant, Medium

            Beyond the Quote (231/365)

            This is (arguably) one of the main reasons why so many people subject themselves to expensive educations—because they don’t have a strong enough desire to learn on their own. Assuming higher education isn’t a necessary prerequisite for the career they desire (doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc.), as Naval points out above, all of the best information is already available. With a strong enough desire to learn, a way can almost always be found.

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              “Success is the enemy of learning. It can deprive you of the time and the incentive to start over. Beginner’s mind also needs beginner’s time.”

              Naval Ravikant, Medium

                “I was curious. I wanted to improve, learn, and fill my head with the history of the game. No matter who I was with—a coach, hall of famer, teammate—and no matter the situation—game, practice, vacation—I would fire away with question after question. A lot of people appreciated my curiosity and passion. They appreciated that I wasn’t just asking to ask, I was genuinely thirsty to hear their answers and glean new info. Some people, meanwhile, were less understanding and gracious. That was fine with me. My approach always was that I’d rather risk embarrassment now than be embarrassed later, when I’ve won zero titles.”

                Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 40)

                  “Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.

                  Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page xiii)

                    “Most students, whether it’s in archery or yoga or chemistry, go into a subject with a strong intention.  They are outcome-focused.  They want to get the best grade or the highest score.  They bring their previous ‘expertise’ with them.  They want to skip the unnecessary steps and get right to the sexy stuff.  As a result, they are difficult to teach and easily discouraged when the journey proves harder than expected.  They are not present.  They are not open to experience and cannot learn.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 78)

                    Robert Kiyosaki Quote on The Importance Of Learning In Today’s Fast-Changing World

                      “In today’s fast-changing world, it’s not so much what you know anymore that counts, because often what you know is old. It is how fast you learn. That skill is priceless.”

                      Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad (Page 212)

                      Beyond the Quote (57/365)

                      And to that point, even more important than the speed in which you learn is whether or not you are actually still learning. The world is changing at an incredible pace and as Kiyosaki points out, more often than not, what you know from what you’ve been taught is likely outdated and old.  Thankfully, with the internet and Google, we don’t have to worry about memorizing new material or about having access the latest ideas—they are readily available to us with a couple of quick thumb taps.  But with that access and organization still comes responsibility on our part. 

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                      W. B. Yeats Quote on Looking At Education Like Lighting A Fire (Not Filling A Bucket)

                        “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”

                        W. B. Yeats

                        Beyond the Quote (26/365)

                        The mind does not have confines like the walls of a bucket nor does it have a maximum limit like that of a bucket—it is unbounded and is of unlimited potential.  The mind needs to be thought of like a fire. Not only is a fire wall-less, topless, and without a maximum limit, but it has an insatiable appetite that will continue consuming for as long as you continue to feed it—like that of the mind.  This is an important distinction because when we change the way we view our minds, we change the way we treat our minds (and the minds of those we’re treating).

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                          “Reading is like a software update for your brain. Whenever you learn a new concept or idea, the “software” improves. You download new features and fix old bugs.  In this way, reading a good book can give you a new way to view your life experiences. Your past is fixed, but your interpretation of it can change depending on the software you use to analyze it.” ~ James Clear, Blog

                            “Order is not enough.  You can’t just be stable, and secure, and unchanging, because there are still vital and important new things to be learned.  Nonetheless, chaos can be too much.  You can’t long tolerate being swamped and overwhelmed beyond your capacity to cope while you are learning what you still need to know.  Thus, you need to place one foot in what you have mastered and understood and the other in what you are currently exploring and mastering.  Then you have positioned yourself where the terror of existence is under control and you are secure, but where you are also alert and engaged.  That is where there is something new to master and some way that you can be improved.  That is where meaning is to be found.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 44)

                              “Uncertainty is the root of all progress and all growth.  As the old adage goes, the man who believes he knows everything learns nothing.  We cannot learn anything without first not knowing something.  The more we admit we do not know, the more opportunities we gain to learn.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                                “It is sometimes said that when the student is ready the teacher appears.  It seems more likely that we are always in the presence of teachers, and at different stages in our development we become open to their teachings.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude

                                  “Most learning, especially most organizational learning, occurs through trial and error.  Error occurs whether you want it to or not.  Error is difficult to avoid.  It’s not clear that research or preparation have an enormous impact on error, especially marketing error.  Error is clearly not in short supply.  Trial, on the other hand, is quite scarce, especially in some organizations.  People mistakenly believe that one way to successfully avoid error is to avoid trial.  We need more trial.”

                                  Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?