We often invest a considerable amount of time learning about a new skill or way of thinking. We might read a book, for instance.
But then we tend to fail to go that little bit further that would bring us a real return on our investment of time and effort: We don’t take the trouble to commit the practical details to memory so that we can actually deploy them. We don’t learn our lines.
Instead…
We could summarise the essentials of the new source of expertise and then take the trouble to memorise them. Then we would know them as well as know about them.
It makes all the difference…
Firstly, because we can use the insights effectively in practice…
And, secondly, because other people are impressed by the trouble we’ve taken.
That’s odd, really, because the extra effort to learn something isn’t so much really—more a change of mode of study.
But, as they say, “it’s never crowded when you go the extra mile.”
For example, often when I give a talk, people remark on the quotes I know and refer to. They ask, “How do you know these quotes?” The answer is quite simple: I learn them.
What lines could you do with learning?