Education

“Our whole theory of education is based on the absurd notion that we must learn to swim on land before tackling the water.” — Henry Miller

If you are attempting to learn something, you should spend a lot of time doing the actual thing. I spent a lot of time in college finding ways to jump in the water, and I was always annoyed at how many of my classmates were content to go through the motions on land. My personal manifesto is that the goal of anyone's trip through formal education- whether that education stops at high school or with a Ph.D- should be to learn how to learn. The second part to that manifesto is that you should never stop learning.

How do you teach yourself to learn? You can start by trying. Try anything. Do it wrong. Find out why you did it wrong. Try it again. Let yourself be curious. When a small curious thought runs through your head, follow it up. Follow your curiosity wherever it leads you.

See a complicated recipe online? Go for it! Use your Google Fu to find out how to make a macaron! Want to rock climb? Find a climbing group- actually, find any group you want to start a new hobby. Passionate people will never be annoyed at a beginner, they will be overjoyed to find someone who wants to share their passion. Try anything you like, and just know that if you didn't like the results, you only have to learn a little more and try again. Or not. If you hated something, you never have to do that again. I think that should be on my family's crest: "Well, we never have to do that again." It sounds like a negative, closed-minded sentiment, but it is the opposite. It means that we tried. And we learned something.