How to Help Others Learn from Experience
Experience isn’t the best teacher. My friend melted his siding by grilling close to his house. He won’t do that again. Only fools melt their siding two times.
“I won’t do that again” experiences are expensive. They reflect painful wisdom. Wisdom gained because you disadvantaged yourself and/or harmed others.
Two people learned not to melt their siding the day my friend melted his. He called me and said, “I did a dumb thing.” Then explained the melted siding issue. I hadn’t thought about grills and siding until that day. My friend won’t melt his siding again and I’ll never melt mine either. I learned at his expense.
I know how to repair siding. I have a handy zip tool that unlocks siding so you can replace a piece or two if you happen to melt some. His melted siding was good as new in a zip or two.
Wisdom from experience:
- Takes time. Old people have more hard knocks than young. But there’s no guarantee they’re wise because of it. Some people ”never” learn or learn slowly.
- Requires emotional stamina. You feel stupid when you melt your siding. Maybe you should forgive yourself, but usually you kick yourself awhile before you do.
- Strains relationships. It takes people a long time to learn habitual anger only works in the short-term, if at all. The trouble with anger and aggression is they work sometimes.
- Costs money. Years ago, I had a well-pump issue that was more expensive than necessary because I was a novice.
- Provides limited perspective. Although profound, your experiences are infinitesimal compared to all available learning opportunities.
How we learn from experience:
Help novices learn from experience by asking…
- What did you do?
- What did you learn?
- What will you do differently next time?
What has experience taught you?
Still curious:
How Fools and Novices Gain Wisdom
Saturday Sage: Experience Can Derail Your Life
“The Vagrant,” teaches people how to engage in structured self-reflection. I encourage you to get your copy today. The story is compelling and the exercises at the end set readers on a life-changing journey. Click here to purchase, The Vagrant, on Amazon.
Everything changes when we change the way we think about ourselves.
Dan
On a personal level, learned to change HVAC filters vs. a new motor
On the business side learned to be very careful who you tell something negative to about a peer or you may be apologizing.
Have a great and healthy 2024!
Brad
Thanks, Brad. Indiscretions of the mouth are painful and sometimes embarrassing. Been there done that. After a while you learn to only say things that could be published without embarrassment. But, I have to keep learning that one.
Have a great 2024 yourself!
Our former pastor used to talk about the ‘dumb tax’ that you pay when you make mistakes. He always said, the great thing about the dumb tax is that you can let other people pay it for you! You get to learn from their mistakes.
That’s brilliant, Glen. Love “dumb tax” and let others pay it for you.
Funny you should mention a well pump problem as one of your examples! Just last week, I kept losing water pressure in the house. When I *FINALLY* checked the water tank, it was after 5pm (of course!) and the holding tank was empty (of course, of course!) The following day, the pump folks were out to fix a breaker problem, and I had a load of water delivered to fill my holding tank.
You can bet… at the first sign of losing water pressure in the house, I will be checking the holding tank level and insure the breaker is ON! Ahhhh, life in the country, and country living wisdom!!!
Thanks, Cheryl. Yup… I love country life. I would enjoy city water. 🙂 One thing is true. You learn more when you manage your own water system. I wish you well.
PS We dropped a new well-pump in the well this summer. Not long ago we put in a new water tank. I’m crossing my fingers we are good to go for a few years.
For many years I had this taped to my wall. “Learn from the mistakes of others because you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” That’s when I learned to start asking before doing something new that I didn’t know anything about.
That’s awesome! Love it.