Keep learning*

*is always the sign-off on these notes, and I should explain why.

If we trained our NLP pattern recognition algorithms on business biography books, the expression ‘’I learned from my mistakes’’ would show up a lot. Words to that effect are usually said by already successful people.

I guess it just sounds better than “I screwed up sometimes but still crushed it.’’

I just kept learning.

That seems deeper and more real. I learn from someone who says that genuinely. As an undergraduate student, I was skiing and beer unmotivated. I’m like Churchill, I told myself (modestly), I love to learn but hate being taught.

I learned how to learn later in life. 

Yes, it was probably after I got my career teeth kicked in a few times. But I realized that emphasizing negatives was searing in emotional rules and stifling my decision-making.

So I keep asking myself:

• What can I learn that prepares me for constant uncertainty? Great starting point.
•  What can I unlearn? Equally important.

Keep learning when things are going well. Because that won’t last, you’ll soon need a reminder with an extra shot, as in, keep bloody learning.

Learning is cumulative if you want it to be. 

Fluid intelligence – the ability to learn new new things – is a neurological blessing wasted on youth. Crystallized intelligence—the ability to recall and recalibrate knowledge already there—is the ultimate seniors prize for showing up every day and being committed to learning.

I’m not losing that.

Keep learning,

McQ

* I thought about referring to this axe (not axiom) as Rip’s Rule, but I didn’t want to share credit with fictional ranch boss Rip Wheeler in the series Yellowstone. From season 4, episode 4:

There’s two roads in life. One is you’re winning or learning. The other is you’re losing. All the way to the f*cking grave.

What he said.