For some reason unknown to my consciousness, I was thinking about my neighbor teaching math to 8th graders (14-year-olds). Math should be taught as a way of thinking, not just memorizing how to manipulate numbers, letters, and symbols (or even cymbals).

Then I thought about the challenges of teaching 14-year-old boys how to think. Or even 17-year-olds. I guess the brain doesn’t even get on par with testosterone until maybe 25 some psychologists have told me. Some women tell me that 35 is a more likely age for male adulthood and ability to think. 

How is your thinking going these days? Can you quiet yourself to think about a problem long enough to maybe even solve it? Given my audience of engineers and managers, I certainly hope so. But there is no guarantee. I could tell stories…

My current book for thinking is from Nassim Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

On our trip this past week, we stopped in at the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, OK. He stated the principle almost 100 years before Taleb (without the math).

Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead.

Will Rogers

You can order your finances that way. And the risks you take at work. And your career.

Something to think about.

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