Any fool can

[GrowingPains]

"I know the passage struck me because when I went to type it up for this epilogue, I found in my original copy; pages in my own handwriting, written years before, detailing detailing my reaction right before I had set out into the world.

Clearly I had understood Scholberg's words intellectually - even emotionally - but I had made the wrong choices anyway. I had swept once and thought it was enough. 10 years after first reading it and writing down my thoughts, I was ready once more. Those lessons came home to me in exactly the way I needed them to.

There's a quote from Bismark that says, in effect, any fool can learn from experience. The trick is to learn from other people's experience.

...it may be that you need to experience some of that on your own, too. Perhaps it is like Plutarch's reflection that we don't so much gain the knowledge of things by the words as words by the experience we have with things."

Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

 

[Mike32ct]

It is certainly preferable to learn from the mistakes of others (before you make such mistakes yourself).

But unless you’ve made such mistakes yourself and got burned, you might not fully appreciate their advice.