Doing Is Learning

The unexamined life is not worth living.
~Socrates

How often do you try new things? I can be pretty bad about falling into habits and routines, so I do my best to keep testing these systems out. I try new things, make mistakes, and learn as I go.

Experiments

You’ve seen some of the things I try out. The Minimalist Experiment and the 100 Thing Challenge. I ride a motorcycle as my main transportation.

See what works

My experiments aren’t always on such a grand scale. Sometimes they’re simple tests to compare different things. I’ve been working on my glove situation now that the weather’s turned cold.

What I have:

  • leather gloves, unlined
  • leather gloves, cotton lining
  • cotton liner
  • neoprene gloves

I have been wearing the neoprene gloves, but while they keep my hands warm, they tend to have problems drying out once they get damp. Thus my fingers get cold. Not good. So I switched to the leather gloves with the cotton liner inserted, and they’re not quite as warm, but don’t seem to have the drying problems (more-so because I have two liners and can switch them out). The next step is to switch out the leather gloves for the lined ones.

If none of these work, I’ll keep on testing till I find something that does. Even then I’ll keep trying things as I find new options, because there might be a still better option.

the Unexamined Life

I’m not saying that you have to test everything out. But I’m going to, because I’m quite curious, no matter what happened to the cat. I’ve heard many times from entrepreneurs that they learned more in 2 months of running their business than they did in 2 years earning their MBA. Learning happens at a much faster pace when you’re actively testing, instead of passively reading. I can read and research to discover which glove combo works best, but after about 10 minutes, on the bike I’ll have all of the definitive proof that I need.

Are you improving your life, or just going through the motions?

3 thoughts on “Doing Is Learning

  1. Park Nelson says:

    Are you improving your life, or just going through the motions?

    The above is a question you posed above. I plan in 2011 to improve the joy in my life by pointing others to the source of joy…the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are interested, please contact me by e-mail at parklikenbeth@yahoo.com. I am on Facebook under the name “Park Nelson.”

    I hope you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year, Matthew!

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