“You say ‘amateur’ as if it was a dirty word. ‘Amateur’ comes from the Latin word ‘amare’, which means to love. To do things for the love of it.” | Mozart in the Jungle
I loved this quote from James Clear’s newsletter. Always fascinating to learn about the roots of words like this – they do such a great job painting the meaning.
Amare indeed.
A good friend shared a thank you note with someone who’d taught her a lot on a topic. She was now teaching the topic to a few others.
So, she wrote – “Thank you for teaching me so much that I have things to teach.”
It is such a beautiful sentiment. One that every aspiring teacher hopes to consistently emulate…
One way to take small steps to improve how we feel is to give to others what we’re lacking.
If you’re feeling a lack of appreciation, give some to a few people around you.
If it is a hug or some love, give some away.
If it is structure or clarity, make sure you’re doing your bit to provide it for people who might be looking to you for it.
Small steps don’t solve the underlying problem.
But they help us chip away at it.
And chipping away at problems over time can have a tremendous compounding effect.
“In his podcast, Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman points out that after about age twenty-five, the only ways to trigger neuroplasticity – changes in the brain’s wiring that shift our thought patterns – are when something really surprises us, when something very bad happens to us, or when we make mistakes. Errors prompt our brain to sit up and pay attention: Something new is happening here.” | The Performance Paradox by Eduardo Briceno’s
Learning happens when we’re surprised. If you’re trying to create a learning environment bereft of surprises/chaos or people making mistakes, it is not a learning environment.
Learning = behavior change.
My biggest observation post COVID for booking international flights is that it is now a minimum requirement to book 6 months in advance.
While I could get away with looking for a flight 3-4 months prior to booking a trip back to India pre-2020, the within-6-months penalty at the moment is wild* – especially during school holidays of any kind.
My guess is that it will take a year or two before the backlog is cleared. It is understandable – families are making up for 2 years apart. But, until (and if) that happens, if you know when and where you’re headed, book early. It is likely going to save you a lot of money.
*I had to book us on a bizarre 3 stop journey for our next trip with many hours of transit – while still paying a ludicrous price. Good luck to us. I’m focused on fixing forward for 2024…
Not everything that needs to be said needs to be said right now.
“Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.” | William Martin
This struck a chord.
Writing about Michelin stars the other day reminded me of the story of the Michelin guide. It is a goodie.
It started in a small French town in Clermont-Ferrand in 1889, when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin founded their world-famous tire company, fueled by a grand vision for France’s automobile industry at a time when there were fewer than 3,000 cars in the country.
To help motorists develop their trips – thereby boosting car and tire sales and in turn – the Michelin brothers produced a small red guide filled with handy information for travelers, such as maps, information on how to change a tire, where to fill up with fuel, and for the traveler in search of respite from the adventures of the day.
For two decades, all that information came at no cost. Until a fateful encounter when Andre Michelin arrived at a tire shop to see his beloved guides being used to prop up a workbench. Based on the principle that “man only truly respects what he pays for”, a brand new Michelin Guide was launched in 1920 and sold for seven francs.
For the first time in the 1920s, it included a list of hotels in Paris, lists of restaurants according to specific categories, as well as the abandonment of paid-for advertisements in the guide.
Acknowledging the growing influence of the guide’s restaurant section, the Michelin brothers also recruited a team of mystery diners – or restaurant inspectors, as we better know them today – to visit and review restaurants anonymously.
In 1926, the guide began to award stars to fine dining establishments, initially marking them only with a single star. Five years later, a hierarchy of zero, one, two, and three stars was introduced, and in 1936, the criteria for the starred rankings were published.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
“Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs; they’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.”
“Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.”
I’ve been aggregating advice in themes from Kevin Kelly’s book – “Excellent Advice for Living.” These two notes were beautiful and linked in my mind.
The moment we try new things, we are sure to make mistakes. The challenge is gracefully recovering from them and realizing that failure is not the falling down, it is the staying down.
This is where unfailing enthusiasm becomes our biggest ally. Our ability to stick with things opens more doors full of learning opportunity simply because everyone else along for the ride gave up.
Every personal finance book I’ve read has a predictable set of recommendations in order of priority –
(1) Pay down debts
(2) Keep an emergency fund in your bank account – typically around 3-6 months of living expenses
(3) Save
(4) Invest said savings in index funds
In his book “Mindful Investing,” Jonathan shared a minor modification to this. He suggested changing our emergency fund buffer based on the stage of our life –
(1) Young adults (18-35 years) – 3-6 months of expenses
(2) Middle years (36-55) – 6-12 months of expenses
(3) Nearing retirement + in retirement – ~24 months of expenses
This minor modification resonated with me as the middle years are likely to bring with them kids/dependents and career pivots/changes/layoffs – all of which may require more of a financial buffer than we had prior.
At the end of the day, emergency funds are all about creating peace of mind. Everyone has a different threshold for this. Best to start with guidelines like this and modify as you see fit.
A Learning a Day 