Tag Archives: learning

PROMPT: Skills or Lessons

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Daily writing prompt
What skills or lessons have you learned recently?
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Shopping for crazy. I’ve become aware that – during some time periods, it’s mandated that there be one bat-shit insane person per subway car — and that, if there are more than that, they need to spread out evenly and give the stage to one among them — a Car Crazy Champion, if you will. After riding in a car with a urine-drenched crack addict who paced the length of the car eating (and sloshing) some pungent food from a Styrofoam container, I realized I should have been in the next car with the very nicely dressed and clean-cut man in what seemed to be a self-created and self-imposed uniform reading aloud from the Bible. I no longer concern myself with what car gets me closest to the appropriate exit, rather I shop around for the least objectionable crazy.

PROMPT: Everyone Should Know

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What’s something you believe everyone should know.
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While any individual’s ability to substantially change the world is minimal, one’s ability to change how one experiences the world is vast. Cultivate the dispassionate witness. #Sakshi Bhava

Also, how to swim, change a tire, and juggle while riding a unicycle.

PROMPT: Trait

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What’s the trait you value most about yourself?

The capacity to be perpetually perplexed.

PROMPT: Advice

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What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
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“Never argue with a stupid person. In the end, they’ll still be stupid, and you’ll just be frustrated.”

PROMPT: Excited

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Daily writing prompt
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
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Being able to read Chinese, even if is dumbed-down stories for beginners and I still have to look words up every few sentences. But it feels like I’ve stumbled upon a door to a whole new universe.

PROMPT: Positive Emotion

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What positive emotion do you feel most often?
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Curiosity. I exist in a state of perpetual perplexity. For example, is curiosity an emotion? If so, is it a positive one? I know it includes a feeling that drives me to make a decision or take an action, which would be an emotion by definition. But I don’t see it on a list of emotions. I consider it positive, but I also try to avoid putting value judgements on all things. Maybe it’s neutral. Can an emotion be neutral?…

PROMPT: Sell

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If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
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Experiences and lessons.

PROMPT: Curious

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What are you curious about?
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Everything… except mid-18th century Dunwich Haberdashery.

PROMPT: Authority

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On what subject(s) are you an authority?
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Absolutely nothing. I’m more of a mile-wide-inch-deep type than a mile-deep-inch-wide type, which is to say a generalist rather than a specialist. So, I do have some insight into how to think about thinking about matters diverse and sundry.

PROMPT: Teacher

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What makes a teacher great?

If students choose the teacher, that is an excellent first indicator. In the typical top-down selection of teachers, it is easy to produce an abundance of shitty teachers. Of course, there is still the danger of charismatic bullshitters and easy people-pleasers, problems ever-present. But among students (as opposed to followers) they usually reveal themselves in time.