The fertility of the older mind
As a child I was obsessively aware of other people's opinions of me, so I was afraid to make mistakes. Today, I am much better at putting myself in the learning mindset because I have learned a basic truth: <i>learning is essentially the same as temporarily making a fool of myself, but in a safe place</i>. That's how we all learned to walk, talk, and read, after all. If we can learn such complex skills as those then we can surely pick up a lot more skills, with effort.<p>I wish I had understood that as a child. I tried to learn to dance and act, but I mostly failed because I didn't really put myself out there. I did learn to sing thanks to choirs. I got into computers partly because all my mistakes were completely private.<p>There's no reason I can't continue to learn new skills. I just need to shed my ego and try things without reservation.