I have many thoughts on how thinking like a child can lead to easier learning, less stress, and overall a simpler life. However, this short extract made me think that I’ve been using the wrong word. Maybe the quality I’ve been thinking of is foolishness, or more precisely, to be willing to have yourself portrayed as a fool, albeit temporarily.
Or you might take the case of an eighteen-month-old infant learning to talk. Imagine the father leaning over the crib in which his baby son is engaging in what the behaviorist B. F. Skinner calls the free operant; that is, he’s simply babbling various nonsense sounds. Out of this babble comes the syllable da. What happens? Father smiles broadly, jumps up and down with joy, and shouts, “Did you hear that? My son said ‘daddy.’” Of course, he didn’t say “daddy.” Still, nothing is much more rewarding to an eighteen-month-old infant than to see an adult smiling broadly and jumping up and down. So, the behaviorists confirm our common sense by telling us that the probability of the infant uttering the syllable da has now increased slightly.
The father continues to be delighted by da, but after a while his enthusiasm begins to wane. Finally, the infant happens to say, not da, but dada. Once again, father goes slightly crazy with joy, thus increasing the probability that his son will repeat the sound dada. Through such reinforcements and approximations, the toddler finally learns to say daddy quite well. To do so, remember, he not only has been allowed but has been encouraged to babble, to make “mistakes,” to engage in approximations—in short, to be a fool.
The idea is that this “foolish” behaviour and the freedom to make mistakes were the reason behind the learning.
I may be stretching the snippet that I’ve quoted here, but I think the concept of being able to make mistakes goes further than just learning new skills. It’s a fundamental part of any form of evolution.
This book basically boils down to learning how to remove yourself from the typical 9-5 workday, equip yourself with the skills and mindset needed to relocate anywhere in the world, and also to optimise everything in your life.
Tim talks a lot about the tools needed, and the procedures that you can try, in order to move to working more remotely. This sets in motion the rest of the book, in that it is designed for enhancing your work-life balance, and being stuck in an office for a set about of time, is a big part of that.
Once you’ve grasped the idea on how beneficial it is to be able to work anywhere, and anytime, you’re introduced to a whole load of wisdom. There’s a huge section on automation, which spans from having a business working in the background, to having real-life, virtual assistants working for you around the clock.
What I Took From the Book
What I appreciated most in this book was the general ideas around moving to a more remote job, basic knowledge on starting a business, and having it work for you, and also the section on liberation.
If I could read just one section, it would be Liberation. It is where Tim explains methods on how to transition out of an office job, embracing the traveller lifestyle, and how to enjoy “mini-retirements”.
There’s so much knowledge that I have found in this book, and too much for me even to put in to words, because I’m sure a lot of it will go unnoticed, until I’m in a certain situation in the future.
But in general, I learned that your job does now need to be static, your life doesn’t encompass just your career, and there are more important things in life than making just that extra bit of profit.
Travelling is a major key in life, and with it, you can learn a whole lot of skills, experience new ways of thinking, and at the very end, your life will be more rich than if you simply worked in an office all of your life. There is no point in living, just to work.
This is book that I think can be skimmed over in some parts, but there is something in this book for everyone.
Notable Quotes
Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner.
“I’m not the president of the U.S. No one should need me at 8 P.M. at night. OK, you didn’t get a hold of me. But what bad happened?” The answer? Nothing.
This article is part of my book review series. I aim to read at least one book per month in 2018, and where possible (basically if it’s non-fiction), I’ll write something here about it.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Available for Pre-Order #
Since the first seven Harry Potter books, and the 8 films, we’ve all been dying to sink our teeth into something Potter. Thankfully there’s another film on the way, but there’s also this play – “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”.
The play will receive it’s world premiere in London’s West End on the 30th July, and the book, which is in fact a “Script Book” will be available digitally and physically in print the next day.
This release isn’t the final version, as the definitive version will be released later this year. However, this is the “Special Rehearsal Edition”, and will be whatever the play script it at the time of the play’s preview performances.
If you want to know more about the story, then here is a small description of what you can look forward to:
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.
