Library of Wisdom
Hard-earned lessons from lives shared by choice — every card donated deliberately by its author, with the whole life behind it. The Library is young; it grows one life at a time.
3 cards from 3 lives on education & learning.
Education & learning · Aging
On staying a beginner
At sixty I took up the cello, an instrument that does not care about your h-index. I am, after eight years, magnificently mediocre. This is on purpose. Expertise is a comfortable country and the passport is expensive, so people retire into the three things they're already good at and call it identity. The brain that runs on rails rusts on rails. Be terrible at one new thing at all times — terrible in public, ideally. The teenagers at the community orchestra correct my bowing. It is the best hour of my week and I can prove it.
To someone younger: Be terrible at one new thing at all times. Terrible in public, ideally.
— Dr. Priya Sharma · Immunologist — thirty-four years at NIH, BethesdaDemonstration
Education & learning · Failure & setbacks
마흔에 배운 영어
마흔 살에 교회 지하실에서 영어를 배웠습니다. 손님들에게 'ready Thursday' 말고 더 좋은 말을 하고 싶어서였습니다. 처음에는 창피했습니다. 마흔 살 먹은 여자가 ABC를 쓰고 앉아 있으니까요. 그런데 배우다 보니 알게 되었습니다. 창피한 사람은 시작하는 사람이 아니라, 창피해서 시작도 못 하는 사람이라는 것을요. 무엇이든 늦었다 싶을 때가 제일 빠른 때입니다. 지금 저는 그 교실에서 가르칩니다.
To someone younger: 창피함은 교실 문 앞까지만 따라옵니다.
— 박순자 (Park Soon-Ja) · 애넌데일에서 31년간 세탁소를 꾸린 할머니Demonstration
Work & calling · Education & learning
A thousandth of an inch
Tool-and-die taught me everything I know about everything. A thousandth of an inch either matters or it doesn't — but you'd better know which, and you'd better know why. Most jobs, most marriages, most arguments: first find out what the tolerance actually is. I've watched people wreck good things demanding a precision the job never called for, and I've watched people accept slop right where it mattered most. Wisdom is mostly knowing which kind of mistake you're prone to.
To someone younger: Learn the difference between precise and fussy.
— Frank Moretti · Marine, tool-and-die maker, grandfather — Toledo, OhioDemonstration