Movement over Stillness

or, how we trip ourselves by standing still

elephant and eating utensils

narau yori narero

Yesterday a friend sent me a quote and I woke up still thinking about it:

習うより慣れろ

narau yori narero

~ Often translated as "practice makes perfect", more literally it's like "It's better to get into it than be taught."

The thing that appeals to me most about this concept of having to live inside something to truly understand it is that it speaks directly to two things I think are vital in life: trust in your abilities and preferring movement over stasis.

You Can Learn

One of the things I’m proudest of with Squirt is his confidence in his abilities to learn and understand. I think it’s fundamental to a world that is rapidly shifting on its axis in a way that is different from what came before. Learning is easy for him, not because of his ferocious intellect, but because he trusts himself to be able to learn. I’ve written before about Dune but this quote is perhaps my favorite, even over the Litany of Fear, because it is fundamental to the way I view life and the way Squirt has begun to view life as well:

Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.

~ Frank Herbert, Dune

This basic trust is something that escapes a very many people, and I believe it leads to some insidious problems in humanity. We all have that anxiety and fear in us, that says we’re in the wrong or making a mistake. But allowing that fear to drive us creates a stagnation that breaks connections down.

There are those who make it obvious and weaponize their incompetence or ignorance. This is evasion.

There are those who establish rock-hard beliefs and refuse to entertain being wrong. This is dogmatism.

There are those who farm out their learning to their tribe, simply “knowing” what their chosen media and leaders tell them. This is conformity.

They are, all of them, rooted in cowardice and anxiety and a lack of trust in one’s self. They are also, all of them, things that everyone is guilty of. We all evade, we all dogmatically hold on to things, and we certainly are all desperate to just believe what we’re told to believe.

But all of them are static. All of them close us away from learning.

I believe everyone should trust that they can learn and adapt and synthesize. It is what separates us from the animals and the machines. I think there’s a push and a pull of confidence and humility with a proper learning mindset. Confidence that you can learn with humility that you don’t know what you need to.

And an acceptance that learning will mean failure.

You Have to Bleed

This time last year I had a complete ten fingers. As I type this I’m aware that now I have nine complete fingers and most of a tenth with nerves figuring out where they live on what’s left of the tenth finger. There was blood and antibiotics and watching a doctor burn what was left of the fingertip because it wouldn’t stop bleeding. And beyond the pain and the profanity there was something else buried in there — there was a lesson: don’t do stupid shit. Also: anger makes you stupid.

Learning starts with failure.

~ Josiah Bancroft, Senlin Ascends

I hate failing. I despise being wrong. It’s not fun bleeding all over the place. For the past six months every time I pass a particular place on my fence I see where my blood has permanently stained it. Every time I look down at my hand I get a little poke in the brain because it doesn’t look or feel “right” anymore. Fucking sucks.

But that’s what learning is. It’s about making mistakes and collecting scars. It’s about fucking up and doing better the next time. It’s about bleeding all over the place.

If you want to learn then you have to bleed. You have to fail. This shows up over and over in the world. If the first axiom is trusting yourself to learn, the corollary is that it’s going to suck sometimes while you learn.

If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

~ Carl von Clausewitz, On War: Volume 1

And with trust and acceptance that you’ll need to embrace some suck so the final piece falls into place: you need to fucking move.

You Should Move

It’s better to get into it. Step into the river. Take the shot. Fortune favors the bold. Motion creates emotion. Make a decision even if it’s wrong. Just fucking do something.

Evasion, dogmatism, and conformity all have one thing in common: they are static. That is, they remain unchanged and immutable. They are anathema to movement.

What did you learn yesterday? What have you learned in the past year? What has moved within you? How have you changed? What did you get wrong? Where are the bloodstains and scars?

If the answer to any of these is “nothing” then I think that’s pretty sad. But I also think that it’s become incredibly easy, and unnoticeable, for the answer to actually be nothing.

The “nothing” is comfortable. The nothing doesn’t get you hurt. The nothing carries with it no risk. The nothing means you won’t bleed all over the place. The nothing is safe. The nothing also means there’s no rewards, because you didn’t take any risk. And without risk there is not any growth. Without discomfort, well, you’re just exactly the same person you were a year ago.

In theory it should be impossible to live in such a complicated and dynamic world as ours and still be exactly the same person you were a year ago. In reality, most humans in the world are aspiring to be exactly this — the same year to year. Static and unchanging. Because it’s easy and comfortable and familiar and overcoming inertia is hard.

You Will Build Momentum

Working in large and complex systems one thing I’ve learned is that folks can frequently feel overwhelmed at the complexity. Not knowing what’s in all the dark corners makes you feel like you just need to keep on researching before you make a move. Otherwise known as analysis paralysis. That’s a really incredible entry that’s worth reading all on its own. It illustrates how this paralysis manifests with anxiety and systems design both along with all sorts of other examples.

But the secret is that movement creates opportunities. And imperfect action is still better than paralysis any day of the week. Because any action at all compounds and shakes out next steps. Even incorrect steps are better than no movement at all. Because without the movement there’s no happiness or improvement.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

— Lao Tzu

Or my personal favorite, because it involves food:

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

— African proverb

Even ChatGPT can’t really find it for me but something I was taught long ago is that the first step is the most difficult. But once there’s movement of any kind it grows easier. File away some emails, scratch out something on your list, or read the first page of that new book. And the next page is easier.

Get inside it. Get the ball rolling. Realize you’ll bleed, but realize too that you can learn. Be someone better than who you were a year ago.

Squirt Says…

Movement. Time marches forth. Always. Unswaying. Move with It.