Harvesting Feedback
Greetings,
There is a big thrust towards learning, working and building in public. I can see exactly why. It is for people like me. Working from inside a cave obviously does not count towards being in public.
The benefits of allowing everyone to offer their input is immense. Valuable feedback leads to rapid iterations, which in turn make for swifter progress.
That is one of the reasons I started writing this newsletter. To all who have written back and interacted with me over the last six months, I am immensely grateful for your input. Every small comment has helped.
But that is not how I used to be. Previously, I would wait till the very end to ask for input and feedback. No prizes for guessing, quite often it stung. An apt metaphor would be - I found myself digging a grave where there was no cemetery. But if I had made it public well in advance, I have no doubt someone would have pointed out my folly.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, please thank them on my behalf! Welcome to Newsletter # 28.
Thoughts that crossed my mind, while I was reading…
How Anthony Bourdain lives in my head by Robbie Crabtree
Listen to people and their stories. Everyone has different views. They could all be right or they could all be wrong. The aim isn't about seeing who is right or wrong. It is to seek the truth about why people hold those views. Whether you agree with them or not, respect people.
Nothing is a certainty. There is a chance, no matter how slim, that our strongly held belief is not true. So always embrace the possibility of being wrong. Be open to your views being reshaped.
There is a reason to be glad even when proven wrong. It helps us re-adjust our thinking and not go astray for longer.
Master of Many Trades by Robert Twigger
There are good reasons to have varied interests and being a polymath certainly has its benefits. To have knowledge of varied fields helps carry the knowledge from one to another.
The basic principles and fundamentals of any discipline remain the same. Tools from varied skills can be used for other functions thereby reducing the number of tools needed.
But we, the general public, prefer to consult specialists. If you want to get brain surgery done, you would want a specialist. That seems reasonable.
The really successful specialists - are they really specialists? Or are they highly skilled in a particular discipline because of their varied interests in others? Rarely do we know what other activities a brain surgeon engages in. So then, perhaps, the term specialist is misconstrued.
Being a polymath doesn't have to involve only academics or professions. It could involve Sports, Languages, Hobbies. Come to think of it, the specialist brain surgeon may not really be a specialist, but simply a very highly skilled polymath.
Aviation is a common thread of discussion between Hiroyuki and me. It eventually leads to other topics. But it just felt very strange that the closest I have been to an airplane since the pandemic was this one made from flowers. An Airbus380 made from flowers!
It is an attraction at 'Miracle Garden' where an unbelievably vast variety of flowers bloom in the middle of the desert.
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Stay well and see you next week.
Evian
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