over learning

I like resolutions and I think its corny to mock them. My love for them is built on a simple two-part understanding: its hard to change, and I’ll take any opportunity to practice it.

If you are anything like me though, this is where the resolutions you dreamed up are starting to hit their first stiff winds. You wanted to learn french, you are going to learn bjj, you are going to read more, whatever virtue you are trying to create starts to wobble in late January.

Discipline is crucial, but to me, the other enemy of change isn’t just laziness.

Its information overload.

We as modern people love courses. We love the concept that we can sit in a room long enough, move our way through a course and then walk out irrevacably changed and clear eyed. This is a fantasy.

To this end, we aim to consume large amounts of info and do it as fast as we can. Guilty as charged.

Last year, I wanted to learn everything I could about Air B&B. I am already skilled at it, but there are huge opportunities to hosts in that industry so I wanted to sharpen the saw.

I started buying courses, watching 5-10 youtube videos a day, making notes…and over time I realized I had made myself miserable.

If you have ever worked in a coffee shop or kitchen you know what its like to get more tickets than you have time. Knowledge is those tickets. They call them orders, you are compelled to finish them. That compulsion leads to stress and the most common thing in the world is to do a half ass job to to quit all together.

In short, you need to develop a new respect for information. Knowledge has often been characterized in art as a flame. I think that is helpful. A flame is at the heart of some of the best experiences a man can have. It can also destroy a forest. To me, the way to fight over learning is simple, with practice.

Practice is the hearth you build around knowledge. It gives it form, it gives it purpose, and it gives it limits. Knowledge without action leads to anxiety. Action without knowledge however, even though a bad idea, can you get you further than the opposite. Whatever you are trying to do different or better this year, try this ratio:

1 part “hmmm thats interesting : 1 part “well here goes..”

As I’m writing this, I am taking a break from reading a book. Its a book about writing short. I came to NYC to get funnier, and one talent all funny new york comics seem to have is they get to the point fast. I’m trash at that. So here I am reading. But as I felt my face tighten from reading beyond my level of practice, I knew I needed to come write, and practice writing short, and keep the 1 to 1 ratio for myself.

Too much knowledge isn’t the enemy, not enough practice is.

Good luck y’all, theres magic in the year for you and me.