The Thursday Thesis - 14/7/2016 The Thursday Thesis is based on my experience as a musical instrument retailer, guitar teacher, player, and guitar technician.
A Blunted Pencil... Everyone should keep a notebook of their lessons – especially teachers like me – I’ve done it for years. But I don’t write about the lessons I teach - I write about the lessons I have learned whilst teaching, studying, reading, researching and thinking deeply about what I do. And I also like to keep a note of my questions - just writing them down seems to set my unconscious mind working toward a solution. I’ve just started the fifth A4 volume of my notebook – it’s a hard-backed, black, Leuchturm1917 with 233 numbered pages of creamy-smooth paper that loves the Deep Magenta and Mediterranean Blue inks from my fountain pens. It’s very revealing to have over 900 pages of notes and ideas that you can refer back to, update, challenge and refresh, because we forget so much in ordinary life. Actually, it turns out that our brains are brilliant at deleting things, compressing data and information down into manageable chunks. The problem is that it’s a semi-random process, so insights get lost, cool stuff is squeezed out, and trivia is retained. That’s great for a pub quiz, but not so great for developing better ways of doing what you love. The Chinese proverb says “The bluntest pencil is superior to the sharpest memory”. That’s so good, I think you should write it down... Use a blunt pencil if you have to. I did. Just writing an idea or question down gives it form, permanence, and lets you re-examine it later from a new perspective. Because, when you flip open your notebook, you are not the same person who wrote the entry. You’ll have learned new things, forgotten stuff, and your perspective will have shifted. What seemed peculiar, odd, or difficult a month ago can snap into hard focus today: what was impenetrable back then can be easy-peasey today. What will you learn today, that your OCD tidy-minded brain will brush into the dustpan of forgetting? Grab your pencil...
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