Boring Prerequisites

Dear Stu,

Sometimes things get off the rails sooner than expected and despite my intent to concentrate on the fun and frivolous aspects of the journey, this week I was struck by a piece of synchronicity sharply to my noggin that I was moved to write about it. On the selfish writer’s side of this piece, I’m finding the peace that I’m being moved to write by something rather than dragging myself kicking and screaming towards the keyboard with no subject in mind and doubting whether it’d get read regardless. Luckily, my assigned weekly email to you acts as a covenant.

As part of my path, I read. I read a lot. Historically I’ve been drawn economics and enjoy learning and seeing the ebb and flow of markets, money, and information. My bookshelves and mind are cluttered with concepts of behavior economics, utility theory, and the technical analysis of charts. I read the current thought exercises on crypto currencies a’la Michael Saylor and the classics like David Ricardo. Because of a few economists who crossover well into philosophy like Adam Smith and David Hume, I dabble there sometimes, nibbling around the edges of purpose and meaning. Those thoughts sent be back in time, at least 2,500 years, to read the “Tao Te Ching” written by Lao Tzu circa 400BC.

While I have some gifts and talents, reading ancient Chinese tapestries is not one of them, so I have to study the translations. As you would expect after a couple centuries of translations into dozens of languages, there are a variety of perspectives and interpretations of each verse, but I’m making a go of it.

While I plumb the depths of things looking for my direction, I was pleasantly surprised to find something pleasantly grabbing me in verse #77:

This verse strongly resonated with me, but I didn’t know why. I thought about it, took a personal inventory of why the words and images seemed to draw my attention more so than the others, but I was coming up empty. After all, I’ve had bows, crossbows, and deficiencies. This must mean something about me. Then I had the strange idea that the idea stuck in my craw wasn’t about me at all, it’s about you.

The way I internalize the above is that we need balance in the universe, the yin to the yang, the pro to the con, the et cetera to the whatnot. And we, as stewards of the land, need to maintain and promote this balance through conscious effort. The surpluses and deficiencies are not good or bad in their own right. They just are. I see this in nature where we get an abundance of snow or rain in certain seasons which then get stored in aquifers or reservoirs which are used in the dry season. When I garden, I might grow an abundance of vegetables in the summer that I need to can or store for the winter. Where we have surpluses, we need to seek out the deficiencies to raise them up. Easy right?

I thought about your boring freshman classes. The ones covering material you already think you know about. But do you really know them completely? Or do you just know enough, enough to get by? There’s a school of thought, I’m certain I used in a few college classes, where you attend these classes sporadically and inattentively and just “mail it in” like a fraudulent ballot because you do know enough to pass the class. I could probably take the final day one, and whistle as walk out the door with a C or B. At my age and experience, I now know that’s not good enough in today’s world. In today’s world if you can’t easily mic drop an A, or tell me you know more about it than the instructor, then we need another plan. My idea was to find a way for you to attack that class like someone clubbing a baby seal on a Japanese whaling ship.

The answer to me seems to be captured in good old #77. You have a surplus! You’ve got a surplus of knowledge or understanding of this class. And what does our buddy Lao Tzu advise us of the best thing to do with a surplus? Look for a deficiency and bring harmony. My suggestion to you is to talk with the instructor, explaining what you feel and think and ask him if there’s someone else in that particular class that they feel you could help/tutor/study with. You’re looking for the deficiency and working towards bringing balance.

Other than missing out on some impromptu hacky sack play in the student plaza, there seems little to be lost on this path and much to gain. First, you’ll likely be making someone’s day/month/semester incredibly better. When you put that kind of positive energy out in the universe it comes back with compound interest. You also likely gain a friend (we all need those). Because your friend is at university, I’d wager that they are not an idiot and just are a little weak in a certain area, I’d guess they’d have strengths or knowledge you can learn from them. The work of helping teach someone instead of only learning it yourself will provide you with a substantial command of the subject matter. There may be only one answer my friend, but know different ways to get there is a valuable life skill. The student/professor relationship at university is less adversarial than previous education levels, building on your interaction with faculty will pay dividends as you explore majors, interests, and activities.

Is this real? Does it work? After the third draft I realized that yes, it is real. When I tweak my perspective, I realize that this is exactly what I’m doing with these weekly notes. While I am not a subject matter expert on most things, when it comes to college, or the school of hard knocks, I have a surplus of experience and hindsight that you haven’t acquired yet and by typing out these weekly missives, I’m doing what #77 suggests. Now, I realize it works.

Dale