The opposite of genius

Haven’t posted anything in almost a year. I get a lot of inspiration for blog posts, but haven’t actually taken the time to flesh many of them out. Sorry about that. ๐Ÿ™‚

I was at a local cafe this morning with my laptop. A 60-something year old man sat down at a nearby table with a pair of teenagers – a 15 or 16 young man, and a 2-3 year older young woman. The young man had red hair. I couldn’t help but overhear the lecture.

It wasn’t a stern lecture – the gentleman just wanted to share some helpful advice about doing well at school. Take notes, review notes, ask questions.

This is a great strategy, if you care about the subject. But it’s exceedingly difficult to care too much in a standardized school environment. Even if the ‘kid’ tried to implement the advice, I’d be stunned if the effort continued past the first week of school.

That’s how it always was for me, anyways: “this year I’ll have good habits”, but it’d never last. I spent 16.5 years getting formally educated. Most of that time was spent coasting, doing the bare minimum for most of the classes I took…

Anyone can learn just about anything, if they care about the topic. There’s a quote about how it only takes is an hour of concentrated study a day to become an expert on just about any topic in a year.

If I’d been the one offering a possibly troubled young man advice, I would have started by asking what he’s interested in. What’s exciting, what does he look forward to?

At least that way the money spent on coffee wouldn’t be wasted.


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