EXPERIENCE
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein
Many people act like the guy in the story who went to the movies with his friend.
The guy says to his friend: “I bet the cowboy falls off his horse at the end of the movie and dies.”
His friend takes the bet.
The cowboy indeed falls off his horse and dies.
The guy says to his friend: “I don’t understand why you bet me. We saw the movie last week!”
The friend says: “Well, I didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to do it again.”
It’s a funny story -- and it seems ridiculous. Many people ignore clear lessons from their experience or the experience of others.
But is there any solution? hopefully Yes...
Be curious. Kids naturally are curious and they can learn and progress at very rapid rates.
Read widely. There’s so much wisdom written down and it's easier (not to mention less painful) to learn from others’ mistakes. No one domain or field has a lock on wisdom.
Find mentors. If you can identify people who have more experience than you and who excel at what they do, it's incredible to have the opportunity to learn from them. People love to teach others. If your highly motivated hand don't ask for anything other than wisdom you can learn a great deal.
Observe. A good friend of mine says people have two eyes, two ears, and only one mouth for a reason. There’s certainly a lot to be gained from watching and listening.
Mark Twain has said: History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. In other words, just because something happened once doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen again in the same way. Otherwise, historians would be among the wealthiest people on earth.
Be curious. Kids naturally are curious and they can learn and progress at very rapid rates.
Read widely. There’s so much wisdom written down and it's easier (not to mention less painful) to learn from others’ mistakes. No one domain or field has a lock on wisdom.
Find mentors. If you can identify people who have more experience than you and who excel at what they do, it's incredible to have the opportunity to learn from them. People love to teach others. If your highly motivated hand don't ask for anything other than wisdom you can learn a great deal.
Observe. A good friend of mine says people have two eyes, two ears, and only one mouth for a reason. There’s certainly a lot to be gained from watching and listening.
Mark Twain has said: History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. In other words, just because something happened once doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen again in the same way. Otherwise, historians would be among the wealthiest people on earth.
Even if you make wise decisions throughout your life, you’ll inevitably make mistakes. In part, this is because life is not like a math problem with one perfect solution. A lot of decisions are inherently probabilistic and the best you can do much of the time is to make a decision that’s likely to turn out in your favour. In fact, the harder and more innovative things you try to accomplish, the more likely you are to fail. That's just the reality.
So when decisions, ideas or new projects don’t work out, try to learn, and be open-minded. Also, see whether you can sort out whether the idea was flawed, or whether it was solid but the outcome suffered from bad luck.
It’s tempting to ascribe things to poor luck that were the result of your dumb decisions. The opposite is also true: sometimes you can get wonderful outcomes from terrible decisions. Although it’s incredibly hard to do, it’s also useful to see if you can identify mistakes you’ve made even when things work out as well as, or better than, you expect.
To learn from your experience and the experience of others it’s important to try to be dispassionate in looking at the world and analyzing it. You need to be willing to try things you think make sense, and then to admit your mistakes, to throw away your beloved theories, and to learn from other people. This process requires a degree of humility that’s frequently lacking in the world, particularly among successful people.
As the 19th-century humorist, Josh Billings noted: It ain’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that just ain’t so.
Thanks for Reading, As Always,
ANKURJIT KALITA
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