I’ve been doing it wrong all along

This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge.

When we get better at something, it is preceded by a moment of incompetence. In that moment, we’re not exactly sure how to do it better, but we realize that the way we’d been doing it wasn’t nearly as useful.

It can be something prosaic–I learned last week that I’d been preheating my dosa pan for too long, and that’s why (paradoxically) they weren’t becoming crispy. Years of consistent behavior overturned in one moment. Or it can be something more profound, changing our perceptions of others and ourselves.

If you need to be proven right, learning is a challenge. If you’re eager to be proven wrong, learning is delightful.

September 16, 2023