BEGINNERS: The Joys of Being an Amateur

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2021

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A few years ago, as he watched his young daughter try out one hobby after another, a thought crossed Tom Vanderbilt’s mind: Why do we work so hard to get our kids to learn new skills when most of us adults stopped trying new things ages ago? For Tom, that contradiction became a call to arms. In defiance of the usual objections — it’s too late! you’re too old! — he took up chess, surfing, singing, juggling, and drawing. His goal wasn’t to gain mastery. He just wanted to prove to himself (and the eventual readers of his wonderful new book) that no matter how old you are or untalented you feel, being a beginner is a great way to stimulate your brain, meet new people, and bring a little adventure into your life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	To be willing to learn something, you have to be open to the idea of learning something
0:09.8	with this intellectual humility, which not everyone has, and that, you know, that sort
0:13.8	of the process of friendship itself is the sense of, of give and take, of opening and
0:18.7	sharing.
0:19.7	I'm Rufus Griskum, and this is the next big idea.
0:23.5	Today, while you're never too old to learn something new.
0:46.7	For most of my life, I've been sternly advised not to sing.
0:51.4	My brother and sister issued the first edicts.
0:53.8	Then as I got older, my friends and colleagues joined the chorus.
0:56.5	My almost perfect wife informed me early in our marriage that my tendency to belt out.
1:01.0	Rub-duckie, you're the one.
1:04.0	In the shower was impinging on our almost perfect life.
1:07.5	And these days, my kids preface car rides with the somber pronouncement under no circumstances,
1:13.1	dad, are you allowed to initiate a sing-along?
1:15.9	Well, Amanda, Bronson and Alisa, Declan, Ryan, Gray, I'd like to let you in.
1:21.4	On a little secret.
1:22.4	Doremi Fosolotido!
1:27.2	In the finance of your edicts, I've been taking singing lessons with an extraordinary
1:31.5	Belgian woman named Eleanor.
1:34.1	Let the record show I'm only two classes in.
1:36.1	And to quote the great James Brown, I feel good.
1:39.4	I knew that I would now.
	...

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