Book 104 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title – Don’t Fail Fast…Learn Fast!

Book –  Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Make To Make Giant Leaps in Your Work and Life by Ozan Varol

Book Description: A former rocket scientist reveals the habits, ideas, and strategies that will empower you to turn the seemingly impossible into the possible. In this accessible and practical book, Ozan Varol reveals nine simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life -- whether it's landing your dream job, accelerating your business, learning a new skill, or creating the next breakthrough product. Today, thinking like a rocket scientist is a necessity. We all encounter complex and unfamiliar problems in our lives. Those who can tackle these problems -- without clear guidelines and with the clock ticking -- enjoy an extraordinary advantage.

Reflection:

This book was one of my first “giant leaps” forward of this year of magical learning journey if you will. I read this book in May of 2020, about 2-3 weeks after my daughter had passed away. My entire life had changed, and I was changing with it.

Think Like a Rocket Scientist was a giant leap for me as a book to choose for a number of reasons. I had never heard of this author. I don’t care about rocket science. I wasn’t recommended to me. It wasn’t an international #1 best seller that everyone was talking about. This book was chosen at totally random as I was scrolling through audible books and trying to find my next read. I wasn’t on the Year of Magical Learning Adventure at this point in my life. I was literally just trying to survive each day, do my best to channel my daughter’s strength, and keep my life from collapsing all around me.

So why did I choose this book? Looking back on it, it is obvious to me now, but there is no way I could have known it at this time of my life. I choose this book because I wanted to learn something new about something I knew nothing about, plain and simple. There was no objective. I wasn’t reading this for a project I was doing. I wasn’t reading this book because it had been recommended by a mentor. I wasn’t reading this to improve my job performance. I wasn’t reading this to improve my personal skills. I was reading for the pure joy of learning.

The consumption of this book marked a dramatic departure from all the previous reading and learning I had done in my life up to this point (pre the passing of Emilia). Everything I consumed and did prior to my daughter’s passing was in pursuit of performing better in my chosen line of work, solving a specific problem, or learning about a new project. I never learned just to learn.

It was during this time in my life after we lost Emilia that I was truly open to find what mattered to me the most at my core. Everything had been taken from me, and I was a blank slate. I was unknowingly beginning my core values quest and this year of magical learning adventure. Powered by my daughter’s incredible strength and courage, I was determined to live a life for 2 that she didn’t get to live. I was discovering who I was, who I could be, and how I was going to go about living for 2 to honor Emilia.

During this period of my life is when I discovered my core value of learn something new every single day!

In my past life, I used to say fail fast all the time. I work in the tech community and this saying is all the rage in that world. I used to say that myself all the time as a philosophy I tried to follow at work. “Move fast and break things”, as Mark Zuckerberg would say. The truth is, that wasn’t me talking. That was me parroting those around me. That was me lost with no identity. That was me without any guiding principles that I truly felt passionate about at my core.

Failure sucks! I don’t get excited about failure. I don’t wake up every day trying to fail at something. I know failure is a part of life, but I don’t want to walk around desiring to project the value of failure in all that I do. Who the hell would want to spend 50+ hours a month on some platform “failing” like I do on Audible, kindle, or in a print book? That sounds miserable. “Hey everyone, I failed for 2 hours every day this month…how cool?”

That is why I don’t want to fail fast…I want to learn fast. Learning is something I can get behind. Learning is something that feeds my soul. Learning is something that is a never-ending journey. Learning will never get old for me. Learning is fascinating. Learning opens up your creativity and imagination. Learning is a core value I cherish. Learning is Chris Sears, not failure.

Question: How are you challenging the philosophies you live by to see if they are really who you want to be?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Think Like a Rocket Scientist

YOML Bookstore - Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Make To Make Giant Leaps in Your Work and Life by Ozan Varol