Live While You're Young
What if you never hated learning? What if you only hated being told what, when, and how to learn?
It's Labor Day weekend, everyone is heading back to school, and I've been thinking about the difference between school and learning.
I was never meant for school. Both of my parents were teachers. My dad taught teaching at Middlebury College. I played by the rules and did the best I could—but I kept asking one question:
Why?
Why do I need to know this?
Where will I use it?
What problem does it solve?
Why does it matter?
Years later, I realized that kid asking "why" never hated learning. He fucking loved it.
For those of us in irrigation, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, and the service trades, the field can become our university. The truck is the classroom. The job site is the laboratory. And when something doesn't work?
Figure it out.
You get to choose your curriculum now.
This is your chance to unfuck what school may have taught you about learning. Take back your curiosity. Ask questions. Get things wrong. Go down rabbit holes. Become the world's best learner.
You're not taking orders anymore.
You're taking over.
You are the captain of your learning ship.
Sail well.