Kōan

There are ideas that shout. Kōan is not one of them. It waits quietly until the day you need it.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Think of the tuition teacher who says, 'First learn the formula, then forget where it came from — and then, one day, remember it properly.' That three-step journey is how all real learning travels.

Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.