Word #68. Do.

I boarded the airplane returning home from culinary school carrying two gigantic three-ring binders filled with my meticulous notes on  the methods, recipes and processes we’d studied. I gripped them like gold.

My assigned seat was serendipitously next to the master chef who had taught us for one day. I squeezed in next to him and he said, “The only way you’ll learn how to be a great cook is to toss the notes and just go cook.” He then fell asleep.

This is true of everything. Go and do. And you will learn.

Of the 55 rules in Clark Aldrich’s “Unschooling Rules,” these three are my favorites:

#9: Sitting through a classroom lecture is not just unnatural for most people, it is painful.
#10. Animals are better than books about animals.
#12. Internships, apprenticeships, and interesting jobs beat term papers, textbooks, and tests.

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius