The hardest part
of a changing world
isn't learning new things.
It's being a beginner again
after you'd gotten good.
You spend years
becoming competent.
It feels safe.
People come to you.
You know what you're doing.
Then the ground shifts,
and the thing you mastered
matters a little less,
and you have to start over
at something you're bad at.
Most people hate that feeling
so much
they avoid it —
and slowly become experts
in a shrinking world.
The people who thrive
learn to be comfortable
being new.
They've been a beginner
enough times
that the discomfort
doesn't scare them anymore.
They know it passes.
They know it's the price
of staying relevant.
So practice it on purpose.
Pick up something
you're bad at.
Sit in the awkwardness
of not knowing.
Not because you need that skill.
Because you need the muscle
of starting over
without fear.
In a world that keeps changing,
being good at being new
is the skill
underneath all the others.
– Asael Shinder
