Work Vs Study

I've got a week's worth of training classes that I get to do, which of course means I don't have to do my job in the interim.

It's a refreshing change, but like most novelties I don't think I'd want this to be my de facto mode. Learning is hard work if done properly. Most days you don't have to put in hours of unbroken concentration that learning requires. Oh sure, some of our jobs require thinking, but most of it probably doesn't require intense concentration on every little bit.

That's what makes learning so tiring. But for a week or so, it beats working.

Pre-School Envy

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod all came home from school recently with interim report cards. Overall, they did very well. There are some obvious differences among their various ages and natural talents. That's all to the good.

The downside is that they are very intelligent.

"What?! that's a downside?" Well, it is if you've inherited your father's lazy gene. Intelligent people can be very, very lazy when it comes to education, because they can get by on their native intelligence without trying especially hard.

That works for a while ... until you hit something that doesn't come naturally. That's when you have to rely on hard work. If you never develop the habit of intellectual discipline, you won't be able to cut it when the subject matter catches up to you.

The one thing that Wynken, Blynken, and Nod all have in common right now is that they wish they were still in preschool along with Nub. They think: "those preschool kids, man, they got it easy; when I was their age..."

Sound familiar?